WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm

WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Printable Version

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WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - 81alum - 03-02-2023

Preview:

We play UCLA in the semifinals of the Pac 12 tourney, hoping to advance to Sunday's title game.

UCLA is 24/8, ranked 19/16, 15 by Massey, and with a net of 25. Bracketology has them as a 5 seed. If UCLA should find a way to beat us and do well in the finals, they might move up to a 4 seed and host, so they have strong motivation.

We have defeated UCLA twice earlier this year, but neither win was especially convincing. Here are the prior threads and box scores:

https://thecardboard.org/board/showthread.php?tid=23955&pid=378693&highlight=WBB%3A+Stanford+72#pid378693
https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2022-23/ucla/boxscore/37997

https://thecardboard.org/board/showthread.php?tid=24052&pid=382607&highlight=wbb%3A+Stanford+71#pid382607
https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2022-23/ucla/boxscore/38007

In the first game, in LA, the game was essentially even through three quarters. In the 4th the unlikely offensive heroes were Lepolo and Emma-Nnopu who helped us break it open for a 21-10 fourth quarter. Still, those first three quarters were uncomfortably like the game at Cal or the next (losing) game we would play at SC, and UCLA got balanced scoring with 4 in double digits.

In the second game, at Maples, we were actually behind by 1 after three quarters, before we hit 13 free throws and a few field goals in the fourth quarter to win by 5. It was certainly not a comfortable win. In both games, UCLA had Osborne, Rice, and Jones in double digit points, and in the last game Sontag joined them and 4 other players also scored. In short, UCLA is guard-oriented and balanced.

In today's UCLA triumph over Arizona, UCLA's forward Bessoir had 18 points and 13 rebounds. She is a highly effective three point shooter. We held her to 6 points at Maples, but her shooting has heated up since that time. If Brink has to come out to the perimeter to defend her, then Brink will not be as effective a shot blocker when the bevy of speedy guards drive on the basket. So Bessoir's threat is a major help to UCLA in spacing out their offense.

In our last game with UCLA we gave up 17 offensive rebounds to them, giving them 17 second chance points compared with only 2 second chance points for us. Defensive rebounding will be a point of emphasis, surly. I would not be surprised to see more of Belibi than we did earlier in the season. She had 6 minutes in that last game.

In UCLA's game today they were fairly ordinary in three point shooting. Osborne was 0/2 even though she led the team with 18 points. But UCLA was 22/24 from the free throw line. Officiating could certainly play a role. They were doing a lot of slashing against Arizona and I wonder if it will be as effective against Brink. Maybe we need someone else on the perimeter to defend Bessoir--Belibi?--to allow Brink to guard the rim.

In that game at Maples, Lepolo had 11 points and shot 3/5 from three point range. Today against Oregon she had 10 points and was 2/5. We could use continued offensive productivity from her. Both Jones and Brink had very good games against UCLA last time out, but Close will certainly throw in new wrinkles and try to limit them and force us to score in different ways.

But the top priority has to be improving our defensive rebounding, while not degrading any other facet of the game.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Grad Fan - 03-02-2023

Somewhat reminiscent of our final against them in 2021, we should have a significant freshness advantage against UCLA. This will be their 3rd game in 3 days and the first went to OT.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - akiddoc - 03-03-2023

Utah lost to WSU. No excuse for losing this tournament. UCLA is going to be tough though.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - BosCard - 03-03-2023

I think we are going to see more of the Brink, Belibi and Jones lineup against UCLA and for the rest of the season. Defensively it’s strong because all of those players can defend the rim against speedy guards or get out to the 3-point line against bigs that shoot 3’s. Offensively it’s a quite an anti-spacing lineup because none of them shoot 3’s effectively. But that’s not really the point. The point here is to punish the opponent with offensive rebounds. Yes defenses can clog the paint and make it hard for Brink to catch a post entry but that’s ok because we’ll have Jones initiate the offense with a mid-range jumper and if she misses, we’ll have Brink and Belibi crashing the boards.

Spike - Spike - 03-03-2023

Fran is our Draymond

RE: Spike - 2006alum - 03-03-2023

(03-03-2023, 11:02 AM)Spike Wrote: Fran is our Draymond

Love that. She is not quite in his league as a defender, but she's grown into an exceptionally savvy post player and much more than just a dunking pogo stick.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - 81alum - 03-03-2023

This was Cori Close's presser after UCLA defeated Arizona. There is very little about Stanford--only the last question touches on us, partly because we had not played at the time this press conference was held and so UCLA did not know whether they would be playing Oregon or Stanford.

Close, however, is much more willing to share the details of strategy than Tara is. Close's discussion of how they defended Loville, for example, saying she is a "lateral glide" player and "sticking a hand in her face accomplishes nothing," that instead you have to "crowd her space." I just found it interesting that she would reveal key details about the scouting report. Maybe because they expect never to play Loville again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohz6Ifh9rDc

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Spiny_Norman - 03-03-2023

"crowd her space" describes how we can expect UCLA to play, especially pressuring the guards. UCLA will also contest/crowd dribble handoffs, looking for deflections that can turn into turnovers and quick points. They will overplay passing lanes and try to inhibit cuts. Crowd until (or unless) you get called for a foul and then crowd some more.

In general this has worked in the first 2 games this season. Jones and Lepolo had a combined 14 TOs in the 2 games (8 by Jones, 6 by Lepolo). Osborne had 9 (!) steals in the 2 games. Stanford's guards have to be sharp and play smart tonight.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - treetop11 - 03-03-2023

I found a comment by the woman who does pre and post game commentary with Ashley Adams and the black woman to be really interesting. She said that in talking with opposing coaches, their first priority on the scouting report is how to stop Hannah Jump - not Brink, not Jones. She said that opposing coaches know that if Jump is given room and goes off, she can put up 15 or more points in a hurry and then the opposing team essentially has to start with that deficit which doesn't include the contributions by Brink, Jones, and others. I was surprised to hear that, but actually it makes total sense to me. Jump is a potential microwave on O if she ahas space. Makes me wonder if Tara soemtimes uses her as a decoy.

Ucla will not have the same legs as they did in the first two games and it will negatively affect their outside and mid range shots. Not saying that we shouldn't still play strong D in those areas of the court, but being extra strong and maximizing our post depth will be important. Keep the Ucla bigs under control and force Ucla to be more one dimensional in terms of mostly jump shots and swat their attempts at lay ups and it will go a long way to us winning.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - BobK - 03-03-2023

Treetop. Angela Taylor played at Stanford on both championship teams in the early 90s. I think that’s who you are referring to
:)
Interesting on the Jump comments

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Spiny_Norman - 03-03-2023

(03-03-2023, 04:43 PM)BobK Wrote: Treetop. Angela Taylor played at Stanford on both championship teams in the early 90s. I think that’s who you are referring to
:)
Interesting on the Jump comments

Bob, I think that Treetop might be referring to the 3rd person on the panel with Ashley Adamson and Angela Taylor - Elise Woodward (former Husky player).

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - 81alum - 03-03-2023

Speaking of whom, I like Angela Taylor. She is not as smooth as experienced professional broadcasters but she knows her stuff. She not only played for us and won two natties, she also was a longtime WNBA executive for multiple pro teams. Plus she comes from my home state of Idaho, which sets her off as a rare bird right there.

I know she was an assistant coach for us in the mid 1990s. Does anyone know very much about her relationship with Tara and the other coaches? I often hear bits of praise for former players and coaches who go on to broadcasting (Ros, for example) but haven't heard much about Angela. (And what happened to Ros, by the way? She went off my radar screen some time ago.)

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - qwerty49 - 03-03-2023

(03-03-2023, 05:05 PM)81alum Wrote: Speaking of whom, I like Angela Taylor. She is not as smooth as experienced professional broadcasters but she knows her stuff. She not only played for us and won two natties, she also was a longtime WNBA executive for multiple pro teams. Plus she comes from my home state of Idaho, which sets her off as a rare bird right there.

I know she was an assistant coach for us in the mid 1990s. Does anyone know very much about her relationship with Tara and the other coaches? I often hear bits of praise for former players and coaches who go on to broadcasting (Ros, for example) but haven't heard much about Angela. (And what happened to Ros, by the way? She went off my radar screen some time ago.)

Ros is doing NBA games on ESPN. She’s in Denver today I think. Paired with Dave Pasich and Richard Jefferson. Last week she was with Beth Mowins and Mark Jackson. She does a lot of the court side stuff similar to Holly Rowe.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - martyup - 03-03-2023

Funny to see Tara praising the Pac-12 network staff, including the camerman, while she is out of focus for the entire interview.

Lepolo should shoot the 3 every time they give it to her.

I guess it's okay to throw Brink to the ground in this game. Sheesshhh.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - mbdude - 03-03-2023

I think Betts walked a little

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - martyup - 03-03-2023

Betts travelled on that basket.

UCLA is daring us to shoot 3s and even mid-range. We should just shoot.

We lead 17-8 after 1.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - martyup - 03-03-2023

We lead at the half 35-22.

The last time we played UCLA we led 39-26 at the half. Then we let UCLA outscore us 25-11 in the 3rd. I sure hope Tara is reminding the team of that and we come out firing in the 3rd Q.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - TonyLima - 03-03-2023

I like the Brink - Belibi connection. They seem to have developed a bit of understanding of each other. That wonderful amazing in the paint pass from Brink to Belibi was absolutely marvelous.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - martyup - 03-03-2023

Before the game the commentators said that Jump has scored zero points in 5 of 6 games she has played against UCLA. At the half of this game she has zero points. Weird.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - 81alum - 03-03-2023

After the first half we lead 35-22.

We are shooting 48%, UCLA 27%

Rebounding: Tied.

Points in the paint: Stanford 12 UCLA 2

Turnovers: Stanford 4 UCLA 9. That is a doozy.

Brink's shooting is awesome, especially her jump shots from the elbow. Clearly we came prepared to punish the 4-Bruins-in-the-paint strategy that Close has implemented.

Tara has put Iriafen, Demetre, and Belibi on Bessoir and it is working, holding her to 1/3 three pointers.

Osborne is 1/6.

Jones is defending Rice who is 3/8 and leading UCLA.

I hope we can keep this going for another half, and that UCLA begins to run down after 3 games in 3 days. No come backs!