02-17-2020, 01:37 PM
I was watching the second half of this game yesterday at the airport while waiting for a flight and I was onboard the plane when the last few seconds happened. Coverage was spotty on the plane and the video literally froze when Kiana took her shot to tie the game. Refusing to wait 2+ hours to know the result, I quickly switched to ESPN to find out the result (knowing that the video was already lagging), hoping for the best (which in my mind was a game going into overtime) and preparing for the worst (Kiana missing the 3-pointer and Colorado icing the game on a couple of FTs). Instead I saw 69-66 Stanford and I was shocked and very happy and clicked the play-by-play for what happened. Not until I landed did I actually see the final sequence of events and it was one long continuous sequence, as I didn't know Colorado didn't have any timeouts left as I had assumed Kiana stole the inbound pass and had more time to set up the game winner.
I am very happy that we gritted it out and won. I am surprised that Tara tasked Lexie as the one who should drive to the basket. I've always seen her offensive strength as her jumpshots (whether 3-pointers or midrange) and yes, she can make layups, but those seems to be more predicated on backdoor cuts and outfoxing the defense rather than muscling through defenders. With Haley and DiJonai out, we do have limited options with that type of strategy though. We already ask Kiana to do so much otherwise and I am not sure Fran has the finishing touches yet at the basket to take the ball at the top of the key and turn around and head to the basket on a consistent basis yet.
We get Oregon State on Friday evening next, who still has to contend with UCLA first tonight, so they will be on a shortened week. Hopefully they will help us. Then an interesting matchup with Oregon next Monday. I'll be interested to see if we have made up any ground since last time. We have Dodson back in this meeting, but we no longer have Haley, but I'm not sure how that would make much of a difference and as the Ducks showed last season, homecourt advantage means little to them as they demolished us at Maples. Having Carrington back would be nice.
We also jumped 4 spots to #4 in the AP poll today as well.
I am very happy that we gritted it out and won. I am surprised that Tara tasked Lexie as the one who should drive to the basket. I've always seen her offensive strength as her jumpshots (whether 3-pointers or midrange) and yes, she can make layups, but those seems to be more predicated on backdoor cuts and outfoxing the defense rather than muscling through defenders. With Haley and DiJonai out, we do have limited options with that type of strategy though. We already ask Kiana to do so much otherwise and I am not sure Fran has the finishing touches yet at the basket to take the ball at the top of the key and turn around and head to the basket on a consistent basis yet.
We get Oregon State on Friday evening next, who still has to contend with UCLA first tonight, so they will be on a shortened week. Hopefully they will help us. Then an interesting matchup with Oregon next Monday. I'll be interested to see if we have made up any ground since last time. We have Dodson back in this meeting, but we no longer have Haley, but I'm not sure how that would make much of a difference and as the Ducks showed last season, homecourt advantage means little to them as they demolished us at Maples. Having Carrington back would be nice.
We also jumped 4 spots to #4 in the AP poll today as well.