[2006alum]

Martyup, I'm shamelessly borrowing from your playbook here, but:

what exactly is the difference between Sylvia Hatchell and Tara?  Aside from the fact that Hatchell has a more recent national championship that is.

I'm just saying

Here are a few differences:

Sylvia Hatchell ran a program with players who were part of an academic cheating scandal in which players got credit for  "directed reading" courses in which they did no work.

Sylvia Hatchell was fired for making racially insensitive remarks, and forcing players to play when injured.

Sylvia Hatchell made it to the final four 3 times, winning the championship once.  (Tara has been 12 times and won twice.)

Sylvia Hatchell did not have to contend with Stanford's sky-high admission standards.

I'm sure I could come up with a few more....

Agreed Hatchel has won a chip more recently than Tara.  So you have a smoking gun on Hatchel making kids play injured and data on Tara not doing the same thing (and maybe even worse)?  You may want to verify that before you cast aspersions.  Tara may be a more politically correct dinosaur than Hatchel, but I am struggling to elevate Tara over Hatchel.  Let's also factor in the positives about Stanford and the fact that most sane human beings would never transfer from Stanford (as opposed to UNC) because of the lifel0ng opportunities it will bring.

I think if you step back you will say "1992 was a LONG time ago"  Chips are chips and 30 years is 30 years.

---

Caught most of the game and mostly loved what I saw. I feel like Lexie and Wilson were pushing the pace, and when neither was on the court our ball passing got somewhat lazy. I felt like we handled their half-court press defense really well, but then eased up on we got the ball to the key and weren't executing properly. Some of that is two weeks off, some almost felt a bit like "well, we have this game in hand, I can ease up." I'm still waiting for us to play the 4th quarter of not-close games like it's UConn for a championship. To me, the difference between the Baylors and South Carolinas of the world in recent years is that when those teams are good (like both are this year), they play 4 complete quarters. I feel like we eased up on the gas and got sloppy for chunks of the end. 

All that said, 7 steals from Lexie in the first half has to be a program record. She's like a cross between gumby (with the long, flexible limbs), the energy bunny (relentlessness), and quicksilver (somehow seemingly everywhere at once). Haley Jones is funny because she almost seems better at executing impressive trick plays than really basic bounce passes. It almost feels like she loses focus when it seems easy. 

I agree that Williams has seemed a little off all season. It's hard to tell, though, because she usually plays her best in second halves of close games, and honestly, we've had very few so far this season. And I feel like she really feeds off of Carrington's energy, and her absence has probably affected that. 

Speaking of which... it really does seem like we have more chronic injuries than any other team in women's college basketball. I'd like to know if we changed shoe brands, stretching and warmup routines, or some other major common aspect to our gear or practices/warmups. It just seems too coincidental to have had so many players in boots over the past few seasons...

[2006alum]

Martyup, I'm shamelessly borrowing from your playbook here, but:

what exactly is the difference between Sylvia Hatchell and Tara?  Aside from the fact that Hatchell has a more recent national championship that is.

I'm just saying

Here are a few differences:

Sylvia Hatchell ran a program with players who were part of an academic cheating scandal in which players got credit for  "directed reading" courses in which they did no work.

Sylvia Hatchell was fired for making racially insensitive remarks, and forcing players to play when injured.

Sylvia Hatchell made it to the final four 3 times, winning the championship once.  (Tara has been 12 times and won twice.)

Sylvia Hatchell did not have to contend with Stanford's sky-high admission standards.

I'm sure I could come up with a few more....

Agreed Hatchel has won a chip more recently than Tara.  So you have a smoking gun on Hatchel making kids play injured and data on Tara not doing the same thing (and maybe even worse)?  You may want to verify that before you cast aspersions.  Tara may be a more politically correct dinosaur than Hatchel, but I am struggling to elevate Tara over Hatchel.  Let's also factor in the positives about Stanford and the fact that most sane human beings would never transfer from Stanford (as opposed to UNC) because of the lifel0ng opportunities it will bring.

I think if you step back you will say "1992 was a LONG time ago"  Chips are chips and 30 years is 30 years.

---

Caught most of the game and mostly loved what I saw. I feel like Lexie and Wilson were pushing the pace, and when neither was on the court our ball passing got somewhat lazy. I felt like we handled their half-court press defense really well, but then eased up on we got the ball to the key and weren't executing properly. Some of that is two weeks off, some almost felt a bit like "well, we have this game in hand, I can ease up." I'm still waiting for us to play the 4th quarter of not-close games like it's UConn for a championship. To me, the difference between the Baylors and South Carolinas of the world in recent years is that when those teams are good (like both are this year), they play 4 complete quarters. I feel like we eased up on the gas and got sloppy for chunks of the end. 

All that said, 7 steals from Lexie in the first half has to be a program record. She's like a cross between gumby (with the long, flexible limbs), the energy bunny (relentlessness), and quicksilver (somehow seemingly everywhere at once). Haley Jones is funny because she almost seems better at executing impressive trick plays than really basic bounce passes. It almost feels like she loses focus when it seems easy. 

I agree that Williams has seemed a little off all season. It's hard to tell, though, because she usually plays her best in second halves of close games, and honestly, we've had very few so far this season. And I feel like she really feeds off of Carrington's energy, and her absence has probably affected that. 

Speaking of which... it really does seem like we have more chronic injuries than any other team in women's college basketball. I'd like to know if we changed shoe brands, stretching and warmup routines, or some other major common aspect to our gear or practices/warmups. It just seems too coincidental to have had so many players in boots over the past few seasons...