[JohnR34231]

Here is the full context of Tara's remarks about Smith:

ALANNA SMITH: I would say that, yes, we have experienced shooting trouble. Probably not to the extent that it was like tonight. Usually we'll start off a little not great in the first half and then pick it up in the second, but it persisted the whole game. Honestly, I think the feeling on the team was we weren't worried. We know that we can hit down those shots,and we weren't today, so we had to go to something else.And I think Tara said it, you could just tell that we stayed with things, no matter what our percentage was. No one was freaking out, and I think that was really good on part of everybody on our team because we kept each other accountable, we kept each other in the game.
...
TARA VANDERVEER: That was an absolute root canal. You know, again, I think that there are some real positive things that came out of that. I thought we worked really hard on defense, to hold a team as talented as they are to 46 points, and we've really hung our hat on our defense, and today we actually -- we got on the glass a little bit better. We out-rebounded them, and I have never seen -- I can't ever remember a Stanford team that has struggled so much from the field, not just threes, but lay-ups, you know. And to move on to the Elite 8 with a game like that, I'm so glad that's not our last game because I really believe we're a lot better than that. But it was -- I was not sure what Alanna wasn't worried about. I don't know what game she was at. I mean, wow. We just --we tried a lot of different things. We tried a lot of different people, and we struggled. But it was -- we found a way to win, which is -- this is March, and it's survive and advance.

FWIW, I don't think Tara's remark is unduly harsh. Honestly, if it came out of Geno's mouth, I'd say it was kind of funny, which makes me wonder whether one hears it differently coming from Tara. (And Geno said he had "four and half players" on the floor against UCLA, which many have interpreted as a jab at KLS, who went 1-6 and whom Geno said really, really struggled. "Who'd have thought her play of the game would be on the defensive end?!") I like that Tara is pushing Smith a bit and trying to get under her skin - she should have been worried (and quite frankly, she sure played like she was in the fourth - we actually scored better when Smith was off the floor than on it during the end of the third quarter.)  Now I think Smith is right that we didn't look as absolutely terrified as our Final Four team vs. Texas A&M where I genuinely felt like several of our players were going to have a panic attack on the hardwood, but the last word anyone would use to describe our team last night was "confident."

As our ugly win soaks in, I've been absorbing that really bad announcing.  On the one had, they were obviously rooting for the Cinderella team.   But part of their being bad was not just their bias but also not keeping us well informed about the game.  For example, they did keep us informed about Smith's foul trouble, but I lost track of Carrington's foul trouble which also had an impact.  For some reason I did not realize she had 4 fouls until looking at the box score, and she also had 2 of them in the first half.  So 2 of our big 3 were in foul trouble and the 3rd went 0 for 11.  

And did any of you notice that Andy Landers couldn't pronounce DiJonai's name?  I've kind of like Landers in the past, and certainly prefer him as an announcer to the coach who beat us in the sweet 16 in 2013.  But he was given a script to read and didn't have the foggiest idea how to pronounce the name, which tells me he hadn't watched a single Stanford game this year.  

As for Landers, yeah, he's a bit of a buffoon. He actually has watched a lot of Stanford games (or at least highlights), because in the studio he's mentioned a number of specific plays/moments from our players this year. To be honest, I think his problem is just that he's an old dude who's used to being the coach - why should he have to bother to learn how to properly pronounce players' names? A lot of people rag on PAC-12 Network coverage, but IMHO, it's way better than ESPN's when it comes to any commentators for women's basketball not name Lobo, Lawson, or LaChina. Last night's were terrible - they made essentially no effort to discuss specific plays or review controversial calls. 

I like M T's attitude. To paraphrase Nina Simon, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, let's hope tomorrow our team is feeling good. I don't think we win, but I really, really would like to watch a team I'm proud to have represent LSJU. Last night's game was not that team and was not one to be proud of.

I'm somewhat skeptical about our ability to win this one, but I was skeptical about our ability to beat Oregon the second time, and look what happened.
As Shaw said before the 2012 Oregon football game, it's going to take our best, and perhaps less than their best.

[JohnR34231]

Here is the full context of Tara's remarks about Smith:

ALANNA SMITH: I would say that, yes, we have experienced shooting trouble. Probably not to the extent that it was like tonight. Usually we'll start off a little not great in the first half and then pick it up in the second, but it persisted the whole game. Honestly, I think the feeling on the team was we weren't worried. We know that we can hit down those shots,and we weren't today, so we had to go to something else.And I think Tara said it, you could just tell that we stayed with things, no matter what our percentage was. No one was freaking out, and I think that was really good on part of everybody on our team because we kept each other accountable, we kept each other in the game.
...
TARA VANDERVEER: That was an absolute root canal. You know, again, I think that there are some real positive things that came out of that. I thought we worked really hard on defense, to hold a team as talented as they are to 46 points, and we've really hung our hat on our defense, and today we actually -- we got on the glass a little bit better. We out-rebounded them, and I have never seen -- I can't ever remember a Stanford team that has struggled so much from the field, not just threes, but lay-ups, you know. And to move on to the Elite 8 with a game like that, I'm so glad that's not our last game because I really believe we're a lot better than that. But it was -- I was not sure what Alanna wasn't worried about. I don't know what game she was at. I mean, wow. We just --we tried a lot of different things. We tried a lot of different people, and we struggled. But it was -- we found a way to win, which is -- this is March, and it's survive and advance.

FWIW, I don't think Tara's remark is unduly harsh. Honestly, if it came out of Geno's mouth, I'd say it was kind of funny, which makes me wonder whether one hears it differently coming from Tara. (And Geno said he had "four and half players" on the floor against UCLA, which many have interpreted as a jab at KLS, who went 1-6 and whom Geno said really, really struggled. "Who'd have thought her play of the game would be on the defensive end?!") I like that Tara is pushing Smith a bit and trying to get under her skin - she should have been worried (and quite frankly, she sure played like she was in the fourth - we actually scored better when Smith was off the floor than on it during the end of the third quarter.)  Now I think Smith is right that we didn't look as absolutely terrified as our Final Four team vs. Texas A&M where I genuinely felt like several of our players were going to have a panic attack on the hardwood, but the last word anyone would use to describe our team last night was "confident."

As our ugly win soaks in, I've been absorbing that really bad announcing.  On the one had, they were obviously rooting for the Cinderella team.   But part of their being bad was not just their bias but also not keeping us well informed about the game.  For example, they did keep us informed about Smith's foul trouble, but I lost track of Carrington's foul trouble which also had an impact.  For some reason I did not realize she had 4 fouls until looking at the box score, and she also had 2 of them in the first half.  So 2 of our big 3 were in foul trouble and the 3rd went 0 for 11.  

And did any of you notice that Andy Landers couldn't pronounce DiJonai's name?  I've kind of like Landers in the past, and certainly prefer him as an announcer to the coach who beat us in the sweet 16 in 2013.  But he was given a script to read and didn't have the foggiest idea how to pronounce the name, which tells me he hadn't watched a single Stanford game this year.  

As for Landers, yeah, he's a bit of a buffoon. He actually has watched a lot of Stanford games (or at least highlights), because in the studio he's mentioned a number of specific plays/moments from our players this year. To be honest, I think his problem is just that he's an old dude who's used to being the coach - why should he have to bother to learn how to properly pronounce players' names? A lot of people rag on PAC-12 Network coverage, but IMHO, it's way better than ESPN's when it comes to any commentators for women's basketball not name Lobo, Lawson, or LaChina. Last night's were terrible - they made essentially no effort to discuss specific plays or review controversial calls. 

I like M T's attitude. To paraphrase Nina Simon, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, let's hope tomorrow our team is feeling good. I don't think we win, but I really, really would like to watch a team I'm proud to have represent LSJU. Last night's game was not that team and was not one to be proud of.

I'm somewhat skeptical about our ability to win this one, but I was skeptical about our ability to beat Oregon the second time, and look what happened.
As Shaw said before the 2012 Oregon football game, it's going to take our best, and perhaps less than their best.