I felt like we were privy to a practice game. I can't remember us playing so deep into the bench so early - I'm guessing every non-injured player got at least 5 minutes of playing time. A little hard to judge this game as a result. Overall, I felt like our shooting from outside was not great, while our inside game continues to seem to develop well. We were able to get inside pretty easily vs. the 1-1-3 matchup zone, and even when the shots weren't falling, we were getting the o boards and getting second chance points.
Dodson looked really good. She seems to be improving practically game to game, and her moves under the basket are already the best I've seen from any Stanford player since the Ogwumikes - her footwork is excellent and she's so fluid and lengthy that unless she's double-teamed, she almost always finds a way around her defender.
Oddly quiet performance by Williams - she was the only player not to score on our entire team.
Too many silly fouls from Smith (even more than normal, IMHO), but solid offensive performance.
Good to see Lacie hit some jump shots, and she apparently had a +/- 31 while she was on the court. I feel like she's really improved a lot since the start of the season; the paradox of Lexie being out with the injury is the gap between them has probably closed a bit.
I like a lot of what Jerome was doing around the basket - boxing out so others court get the rebound, or finding holes in the defense to make a pass.
I continue to worry about Brown's refusal to try to shoot from beyond the arc - she seemed to decline to take advantage of the open looks and instead plow inside and throw something desperate up and hope for a foul. I want to see her taking at least 2 jump shots per game, because otherwise she's going to develop the same reputation that Sniezek has - you can sag on her for miles and not worry about it, which closes down the lanes inside. I don't really understand it, because she was the National High School Coaches Association Senior Girls' Basketball Athlete of the Year. How does that player suddenly lose her ability to shoot? I have to think it's mental, and I hope the coaches will work with her in practice to get her confident in her jump shots.
Carrington was her usual do-everything, glue self. Relatively quiet offensive performance, but the usual dazzling mix of steals, rebounds, and fast break plays.
Overall, I'll take it. But we definitely need to shake off the Christmas cobwebs and get ready for the SoCal schools next weekend...
Dodson looked really good. She seems to be improving practically game to game, and her moves under the basket are already the best I've seen from any Stanford player since the Ogwumikes - her footwork is excellent and she's so fluid and lengthy that unless she's double-teamed, she almost always finds a way around her defender.
Oddly quiet performance by Williams - she was the only player not to score on our entire team.
Too many silly fouls from Smith (even more than normal, IMHO), but solid offensive performance.
Good to see Lacie hit some jump shots, and she apparently had a +/- 31 while she was on the court. I feel like she's really improved a lot since the start of the season; the paradox of Lexie being out with the injury is the gap between them has probably closed a bit.
I like a lot of what Jerome was doing around the basket - boxing out so others court get the rebound, or finding holes in the defense to make a pass.
I continue to worry about Brown's refusal to try to shoot from beyond the arc - she seemed to decline to take advantage of the open looks and instead plow inside and throw something desperate up and hope for a foul. I want to see her taking at least 2 jump shots per game, because otherwise she's going to develop the same reputation that Sniezek has - you can sag on her for miles and not worry about it, which closes down the lanes inside. I don't really understand it, because she was the National High School Coaches Association Senior Girls' Basketball Athlete of the Year. How does that player suddenly lose her ability to shoot? I have to think it's mental, and I hope the coaches will work with her in practice to get her confident in her jump shots.
Carrington was her usual do-everything, glue self. Relatively quiet offensive performance, but the usual dazzling mix of steals, rebounds, and fast break plays.
Overall, I'll take it. But we definitely need to shake off the Christmas cobwebs and get ready for the SoCal schools next weekend...