[81alum]

Duke and Stanford seem statistically very close in many categories.  In addition, while there has been much press about how thin Duke has become given that they have lost 3 players for the season--their rotation looks very similar to Stanford's rotation at this point.  Each team plays  7-8 players--so that is another category that now looks similar to me.  We've lost three players too.

Duke seems to turn the ball over more than we do. 

Duke shoots the three with much higher accuracy than we do--but they shoot it less often.

Duke favors the match-up zone while we tend to favor man defense.

My guess is that Duke will absolutely pack it in and do everything possible to prevent Nneka and Chiney from getting the ball inside, daring us to shoot threes and jumpers.  We will have to solve this with good three point shooting and possibly a West Virginia caliber performance from Amber, penetrating, pulling up, and dishing.  Given how Nneka played last night and given that Chiney seems banged up, I would expect they might copy the first Ca.l game and double team Nneka and dare Chiney to do her thing.  I really hope that Chiney is ready for a big game.

I'm worried about our defense.  Elizabeth Williams and Haley Peters will hold their own against Nneka and Chiney and get her share of points.  By comparison, Peters is more accurate and Williams is much more creative than the Ca.l posts.    Guarding Chelsea Gray might well be Toni's job, since Toni often gets the best perimeter player.  Chelsea Gray has a similar assist/turnover ratio as Toni but is a better shooter this year at 39% (Toni 28%) from three and 45% (Toni 37%) overall.  Also worrisome is that the least productive of their starters--Shay Selby--had an awesome game last night and is turning them into a 5-headed monster.

I think Jake Curtis has this one pegged:

Ogwumike's supporting cast will need to play better in Monday's game against No. 2 seed Duke, or else the Cardinal will not get a chance to play Baylor and Griner in the national semifinals next Sunday, April 1, in Denver.

(Of course, he assumes that Baylor will get past Tennessee, which played them close earlier this year.)

http://www.examiner.com/stanford-cardina...ts_article

[81alum]

Duke and Stanford seem statistically very close in many categories.  In addition, while there has been much press about how thin Duke has become given that they have lost 3 players for the season--their rotation looks very similar to Stanford's rotation at this point.  Each team plays  7-8 players--so that is another category that now looks similar to me.  We've lost three players too.

Duke seems to turn the ball over more than we do. 

Duke shoots the three with much higher accuracy than we do--but they shoot it less often.

Duke favors the match-up zone while we tend to favor man defense.

My guess is that Duke will absolutely pack it in and do everything possible to prevent Nneka and Chiney from getting the ball inside, daring us to shoot threes and jumpers.  We will have to solve this with good three point shooting and possibly a West Virginia caliber performance from Amber, penetrating, pulling up, and dishing.  Given how Nneka played last night and given that Chiney seems banged up, I would expect they might copy the first Ca.l game and double team Nneka and dare Chiney to do her thing.  I really hope that Chiney is ready for a big game.

I'm worried about our defense.  Elizabeth Williams and Haley Peters will hold their own against Nneka and Chiney and get her share of points.  By comparison, Peters is more accurate and Williams is much more creative than the Ca.l posts.    Guarding Chelsea Gray might well be Toni's job, since Toni often gets the best perimeter player.  Chelsea Gray has a similar assist/turnover ratio as Toni but is a better shooter this year at 39% (Toni 28%) from three and 45% (Toni 37%) overall.  Also worrisome is that the least productive of their starters--Shay Selby--had an awesome game last night and is turning them into a 5-headed monster.

I think Jake Curtis has this one pegged:

Ogwumike's supporting cast will need to play better in Monday's game against No. 2 seed Duke, or else the Cardinal will not get a chance to play Baylor and Griner in the national semifinals next Sunday, April 1, in Denver.

(Of course, he assumes that Baylor will get past Tennessee, which played them close earlier this year.)

http://www.examiner.com/stanford-cardina...ts_article