[TheFarm07]

Charlie Creme believes that our non-conference schedule is not as strong as it should be:

"The nonconference schedule doesn't meet the program standard this year. South Carolina and Tennessee are the only top-10 caliber teams Stanford will play all season, and the Cardinal don't play a single nonconference game after Dec. 20."

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-bask...ers-losers

I agree that this season's schedule is not as strong as it was last year, but given our uncertainty at PG and in the backcourt, that might not be a completely bad thing.

I'll also take this opportunity to point out that there are some top-tier programs that we never seem to schedule during the regular season (at least as long as I've been a fan): Notre Dame, Maryland, Kentucky, Louisville, among others.

Yea, we've met them a few times in the NCAA Tournament recently, but it's interesting that we haven't had them in our non-conference schedule.

 

Stanford played Maryland, then ranked #2, last year on Nov 27 (a W)  -- also played Indiana, then ranked #4, on Nov 25 -- both in the Bahamas tournament.  But the others you mention, no we haven't played them.  It could be that they don't want to play us, or that we don't want to play them. Scheduling takes both schools to agree to a game.

Yes, but did we enter the tournament to specifically play Maryland or did it happen that they were also entered? I guess my point from my previous post is purposely scheduling certain teams rather than coincidentally have them in the same field at one of these pre-season tournaments.

On a related note, I am always curious about the process on how schools choose which of these tropical-ish (for the most part) November/early December tournaments to participate in. For those tournaments, do teams sign up knowing precisely which schools they are going to play? Or are they just signing up hoping for a good field?

For example, this year we are by far the best team playing FGCU, Grambling State and Hawaii at the Rainbow Wahine Showdown, which is a much weaker field than last year where we faced Indiana, South Florida and Maryland in the Bahamas, a significantly tougher task.

Do coaches try to rotate locations so that players get to go to different locales every season?

[TheFarm07]

Charlie Creme believes that our non-conference schedule is not as strong as it should be:

"The nonconference schedule doesn't meet the program standard this year. South Carolina and Tennessee are the only top-10 caliber teams Stanford will play all season, and the Cardinal don't play a single nonconference game after Dec. 20."

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-bask...ers-losers

I agree that this season's schedule is not as strong as it was last year, but given our uncertainty at PG and in the backcourt, that might not be a completely bad thing.

I'll also take this opportunity to point out that there are some top-tier programs that we never seem to schedule during the regular season (at least as long as I've been a fan): Notre Dame, Maryland, Kentucky, Louisville, among others.

Yea, we've met them a few times in the NCAA Tournament recently, but it's interesting that we haven't had them in our non-conference schedule.

 

Stanford played Maryland, then ranked #2, last year on Nov 27 (a W)  -- also played Indiana, then ranked #4, on Nov 25 -- both in the Bahamas tournament.  But the others you mention, no we haven't played them.  It could be that they don't want to play us, or that we don't want to play them. Scheduling takes both schools to agree to a game.

Yes, but did we enter the tournament to specifically play Maryland or did it happen that they were also entered? I guess my point from my previous post is purposely scheduling certain teams rather than coincidentally have them in the same field at one of these pre-season tournaments.

On a related note, I am always curious about the process on how schools choose which of these tropical-ish (for the most part) November/early December tournaments to participate in. For those tournaments, do teams sign up knowing precisely which schools they are going to play? Or are they just signing up hoping for a good field?

For example, this year we are by far the best team playing FGCU, Grambling State and Hawaii at the Rainbow Wahine Showdown, which is a much weaker field than last year where we faced Indiana, South Florida and Maryland in the Bahamas, a significantly tougher task.

Do coaches try to rotate locations so that players get to go to different locales every season?