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WBB: New Year's Evaluation - 81alum - 12-31-2020

I thought with the season underway and a few games under our belt, we might take stock of where our team is at the moment.


OVERALL POSITIVES:

1) We are playing a season. COVID has not yet infected our team or support staff.
2) There appear to be no additional injuries that we did not know about going in to the season.  We will see if Kiana takes the court tomorrow.
3) We are undefeated and have generally played well so far.

NEGATIVES:
1) Maya Dodson and Jenna Brown are out for the year.  We have only 14 players on scholarship, meaning we have 12 players available--down from our usual 15.

2) The wear and tear of playing 100% of games on the road may begin to take a toll.  The not knowing whether we will be able to play a single additional game at Maples this year, or even returning to a dorm room, has got to be taxing.  Other teams do not share this disadvantage.

3) Turnovers could be better.  We are averaging 12 a game, and while our opponents have been averaging 18--against UCLA we had 16 to their 9.  Good defensive teams could pose a problem.  Lexie has been more turnover prone this year than we are used to seeing.

NEUTRALS:
1) Emma-Nnopu and Van Gytenbeek have high potential but do not seem as if they are likely to get a lot of meaningful minutes during their freshman season.  They do not appear to be likely to enter the rotation when games are on the line.

2) Jerome, Prechtel, and Jump will be used situationally and may be in the rotation against certain teams depending on injuries to others, match ups, etc.  Jump dramatically improved her conditioning and added offensive moves over the break, but has been inconsistent.  Jerome is solid as a rock but it is clear that she is not offensively gifted.  Prechtel may yet have more potential but has not been playing with the confidence we saw at times during her freshman year.  Any of these three might enter the rotation if they continue to improve and the need arises.

3) The standard rotation is shaping up to be these 7: Brink, Williams, Lacie, Lexie, Belibi, Jones, Wilson, with Brink and Lacie being the first big and the first guard off the bench.

POSITIVES:
1) Jones is healthy and exerting her influence over the team in amazing ways, redefining what we mean by a "glue player," providing offense, assists, rebounds, and more.

2) Brink is developing into a potential starter faster than expected, with effective scoring, rebounding, and blocking all leading the team in per-minutes played.

3) We are a balanced team, with 5 players averaging in double digits.  On the inside, Brink is shooting 64% and Belibi 58%.  Jones is shooting 61% from midrange in.  And Williams, Lexie, and Wilson are all shooting 36% or higher from three point range.  Wilson is leading our three point shooting at 44%.

4) We are rebounding well, with a +16 average, one of the best in many years.

5) We are averaging 11 steals and 6 blocks a game.  These averages will go down as we face taller and quicker teams in league, but these are astounding numbers.

6) 63% of our baskets have been assisted, a sign that the offense is working and passes are crisp.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - M T - 12-31-2020

Good summary!  Thanks.

Don't you just love a year where a #10 team is described as "our toughest challenge to date".  But we have a gauntlet to run, both on the court and off the court.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - Card Fan in OR - 12-31-2020

I think--or at least prefer to think--our best games are in the future. Even the UCLA game was pretty sloppy to my eyes. If it all comes together well, I think the team could be unstoppable. Of course, there are lots of reasons for them playing less than perfectly: Early in season; Covid; living on the road. All very tough, yet 7-0 and ranked #1.

Part of my reason for this post is to praise Cameron Brink. I have to say I never recall a freshman in a Stanford uniform that played with fewer freshman mistakes--or even mistakes at all. In the games I have watched, I have not seen her make one. I'm not going to try to define "freshman mistakes," but we saw quite a few last year. Brink just seems so polished in her first year.

Although I watched it, I don't recall Brevin Knight's first year well enough to compare to Brink's. What I do recall was after teams pressing us successfully for years, as soon as the ball was in Brevin's hands, that was the end of the press.

And thanks for the fine summary, 81alum.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - petersalas - 12-31-2020

Great evaluation... I look forward to seeing the team get better, continue winning and hopefully end with a national championship!!! Happy and safe New Year’s to everyone!!!

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - BostonCard - 12-31-2020

In terms of negatives, there was the brief slump that Williams was in until the SC game (and Lexie as well), and the persistent funk that Prechtel appears to be in, and Jump has not been shooting all that well either.  Free throw shooting (69%) could stand some improvement.

Some surprises: Anna Wilson's shooting (her FG% is higher than Lexi's) and her three point shooting percentage is second on the team.  Rebounding has generally been very good; we have captured 75% of our opponents' missed shots and a pretty incredible 44% of our own missed shots.  We are also moving the ball well; 64% of our made field goals were assisted.  We have 79 steals.  We have blocked an impressive 1 in 10 shots attempted by our opponents (41 blocks out of 406 field goal attempts by our opponents).  Some of the stats have been accrued against lesser opponents, but it is nonetheless pretty impressive.

Agree with others that Brink has been impressive, and coupled with Fran's freshman to sophomore improvement, our frontcourt is deeper than I had feared.  If Prechtel can come out of her funk, we will be in a really good position, and have a ton of lineup flexibility.

BC

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - teejers1 - 12-31-2020

(12-31-2020, 03:56 PM)Card Fan in OR Wrote:  I think--or at least prefer to think--our best games are in the future. Even the UCLA game was pretty sloppy to my eyes. If it all comes together well, I think the team could be unstoppable. Of course, there are lots of reasons for them playing less than perfectly: Early in season; Covid; living on the road. All very tough, yet 7-0 and ranked #1.

Part of my reason for this post is to praise Cameron Brink. I have to say I never recall a freshman in a Stanford uniform that played with fewer freshman mistakes--or even mistakes at all. In the games I have watched, I have not seen her make one. I'm not going to try to define "freshman mistakes," but we saw quite a few last year. Brink just seems so polished in her first year.

Although I watched it, I don't recall Brevin Knight's first year well enough to compare to Brink's. What I do recall was after teams pressing us successfully for years, as soon as the ball was in Brevin's hands, that was the end of the press.

And thanks for the fine summary, 81alum.

Brink is very good, particularly for a freshman.
But there is no comparison to Brevin, who had the ball in his hands at all times, and was an on-ball defensive force.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - Card Fan in OR - 12-31-2020

Quote:Brink is very good, particularly for a freshman.
But there is no comparison to Brevin, who had the ball in his hands at all times, and was an on-ball defensive force.

Maybe I wasn't clear, though I believe I was. I was discussing "freshman mistakes," and how few I saw from Brink, if any. I was NOT making any type of overall skill level comparison between her and Brevin Knight. In my opinion, that would be very difficult to do given the difference in positions and Brink's limited career. So far, Brink has better stats than Knight in all offensive categories in his freshman year, despite her playing fewer than half as many minutes as Brevin. Of course, he had way more assists. I am not aware of any ball-handling stats.

If you are going to disagree with my post, as least relate it to what I said, not something else.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - magnus - 12-31-2020

Only thing that Brink seems to be freshman-like in a negative way is getting into foul trouble.  Not sure if it's because she's a frosh and so doesn't have the street cred/ benefit of the doubt from the refs or if she is still learning how not to foul.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - Card Fan in OR - 12-31-2020

(12-31-2020, 09:06 PM)magnus Wrote:  Only thing that Brink seems to be freshman-like in a negative way is getting into foul trouble.  Not sure if it's because she's a frosh and so doesn't have the street cred/ benefit of the doubt from the refs or if she is still learning how not to foul.

Absolutely agree--and I think its a bit of both, though I think a bit more on the learning side.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - martyup - 12-31-2020

Tonight I watched a little bit of the Kentucky vs Arkansas women's game.  Both are ranked (#13 and #10) and both only have 1 loss.  IMO, they were playing at a level far below Stanford.  Sloppy passing, poor shooting, and slow.  We look pretty darn good by comparison.  The Pac-12 is going to have several teams play deep into the NCAA tourney.

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - JTM - 12-31-2020

Nice article on Haley Jones and Stanford by Graham Hays of ESPN

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30627307/stanford-women-basketball-how-haley-jones-gives-cardinal-their-best-shot-win-another-ncaa-title

RE: WBB: New Year's Evaluation - teejers1 - 12-31-2020

(12-31-2020, 07:44 PM)Card Fan in OR Wrote:  
Quote:Brink is very good, particularly for a freshman.
But there is no comparison to Brevin, who had the ball in his hands at all times, and was an on-ball defensive force.

Maybe I wasn't clear, though I believe I was. I was discussing "freshman mistakes," and how few I saw from Brink, if any. I was NOT making any type of overall skill level comparison between her and Brevin Knight. In my opinion, that would be very difficult to do given the difference in positions and Brink's limited career. So far, Brink has better stats than Knight in all offensive categories in his freshman year, despite her playing fewer than half as many minutes as Brevin. Of course, he had way more assists. I am not aware of any ball-handling stats.

If you are going to disagree with my post, as least relate it to what I said, not something else.

I apologize for being indirect - I'll try again.

You cannot compare "freshman mistakes" with one post player who doesn't handle the ball much (other than when readying for a shot) versus a PG who has the ball in his hands all the time, and is the integral player to the entire team.  "Freshman mistakes" typically means (i) turnovers, (ii) lack of situational awareness, (iii) failure to block out, (iv) failure to protect the ball, (v) inability to grasp team concepts and the like.  I just think it's very difficult to make such comparisons between PGs and post players, particularly when the PG is the key player on the court most of the time and the post (for now) is a sub off the bench.


Offensive stats is not even the same category as "freshman mistakes," so I'm not sure why you introduced that topic in your reply.

But let me say that  I agree with you that Brink appears to be a polished player.  She has had a few instances where she had trouble corralling a pass or rebound, perhaps due to strength issues - but those will be remedied over time.  She is very, very good.  Right now.