[2006alum]

Well, of course, it was all Johnny Dawkins' fault...or, at least, it would have been if this had been the men's team, right?

Well, for me the difference is that the team's weaknesses are less about coaching than about player instincts - while you can teach players to avoid the above-mentioned mistakes, in the moment, the player either has the instinct for what to do, or they don't.

Here's why I give Tara a lot of credit:
-Our ranking over the last two years (somewhere around 10-15) has met or exceeded our average class recruiting rankings  (sub-top-20 in 2015, 10 in 2014, 6 in 2013, and sub-top-20 in 2013), especially considering the medical retirement of one top recruit (Beebe), another very good player (Kokenis) and the transfer of another top recruit who was inexplicably unable to transfer her game to Stanford (Rooks).
-We regularly play better in the second half, once the coaches can make half-time adjustments. And our first quarter is often our worst, where it's too early for Tara to adjust to the other team's schemes.
-We play better the first game of the weekend, when there's been more time for scouting and preparation.
-Even years where we're besides ourselves with frustration (like this year), we're still safely in the Top 25. We haven't missed the big dance ONCE in Tara's entire tenure at Stanford.

By comparison, Dawkins has had multiple NBA draft players but little to show for it. He regularly lets his teams decay over the conference season and fizzle out where good coaching would have them peaking, and he has gotten us to ONE tournament in 8 years. Whereas between 1994 and 2008, we MISSED the tournament only ONCE.

So as far as I'm concerned, there's no comparison. When I was an undergrad in the early aughts, I was a die-hard men's fan and a very, very casual women's fan. Over the last decade, I've reversed, because rooting for our men's team just leads to a lot of heartache and frustration in February and March, with one fluke year exempted. Even in our mediocre years, watching Tara try to unlock her team's jigsaw puzzle is a lot of fun. I've arguably been more engaged the past two years than the prior Ogwumike years where we were kind of on coaching autopilot.

[2006alum]

Well, of course, it was all Johnny Dawkins' fault...or, at least, it would have been if this had been the men's team, right?

Well, for me the difference is that the team's weaknesses are less about coaching than about player instincts - while you can teach players to avoid the above-mentioned mistakes, in the moment, the player either has the instinct for what to do, or they don't.

Here's why I give Tara a lot of credit:
-Our ranking over the last two years (somewhere around 10-15) has met or exceeded our average class recruiting rankings  (sub-top-20 in 2015, 10 in 2014, 6 in 2013, and sub-top-20 in 2013), especially considering the medical retirement of one top recruit (Beebe), another very good player (Kokenis) and the transfer of another top recruit who was inexplicably unable to transfer her game to Stanford (Rooks).
-We regularly play better in the second half, once the coaches can make half-time adjustments. And our first quarter is often our worst, where it's too early for Tara to adjust to the other team's schemes.
-We play better the first game of the weekend, when there's been more time for scouting and preparation.
-Even years where we're besides ourselves with frustration (like this year), we're still safely in the Top 25. We haven't missed the big dance ONCE in Tara's entire tenure at Stanford.

By comparison, Dawkins has had multiple NBA draft players but little to show for it. He regularly lets his teams decay over the conference season and fizzle out where good coaching would have them peaking, and he has gotten us to ONE tournament in 8 years. Whereas between 1994 and 2008, we MISSED the tournament only ONCE.

So as far as I'm concerned, there's no comparison. When I was an undergrad in the early aughts, I was a die-hard men's fan and a very, very casual women's fan. Over the last decade, I've reversed, because rooting for our men's team just leads to a lot of heartache and frustration in February and March, with one fluke year exempted. Even in our mediocre years, watching Tara try to unlock her team's jigsaw puzzle is a lot of fun. I've arguably been more engaged the past two years than the prior Ogwumike years where we were kind of on coaching autopilot.