It is important to remember that the opposing defense has a lot to do with who on our team has good scoring days and who has poor ones. Colorado clearly decided to prevent Brink and Jones from getting too close to the basket, even if that meant they would be giving up some jump shots. Jump had a good day in large part because Colorado was willing to guard her 1 on 1 while doubling up in the paint. That one was usually Sherrod, by the way, so even though we haven't solved the "clog the paint" problem that so many opponents are throwing at us, we did solve the "put the best perimeter player on Jump" problem. Scoring 21 while being hounded by Sherrod all over the court is a singular accomplishment.
Something interesting we learned at the chalk talk, and that Tara repeated in the press conference. Jones was moved to the 4. This explains, of course, why Iriafen has fewer minutes. But it is pretty clear that Tara thought Jones was not at her best elsewhere and that the team needed to go small to defend some of the teams we are playing.
Colorado has always been an effective (if ugly) defensive team. They held our shooting to 34% and nearly equaled our rebounding. But they chose not to emphasize perimeter defense, and as a result we had 7/17 treys at 41%. Jump shot 5/10 treys, and it was excellent to see her back on track. She also was 2/2 on free throws after some uncharacteristic misses against Utah. Her slumplet (never a full fledged slump) is clearly over.
However much you may dislike the referees, these three are actually the good ones--which may say something about the quality of officiating in WBB. But thank goodness we had these three and not Missy or Benny. These three punished Colorado for its pushing, shoving, hacking style of play, and on a night we made only 19 field goals we made 17 free throws. Colorado made 6. 17 over 6 tells you what the officials thought of Colorado's style of defense. My nightmare is we will play them in Boulder, at elevation, on the last weekend of the regular season, and Missy will greet us and the hackathon will begin. But not today, fortunately.
Brink and Jones were not very efficient, going into the teeth of the defense, and each of them lost 4 turnovers. In a game like this, against a defense like that, you have to make free throws, and they were 9/12. I think even in the first quarter Jones was trying a bit too hard, taking some wild shots that occasionally went in, but it took a bit for the team to figure out Colorado's defense.
The game, obviously, was won by our own defense. Colorado may have a good defense, but ours was better. We held them to 29% shooting, and nearly shut their vaunted three point shooter down to 5 points on 2/13 shooting. Sherrod, Vonleh, and Miller all got about their averages, but no one else contributed much. And consider this: Colorado made a total of 19 field goals in the game, and had 16 shots blocked! That is an astounding ratio. They kept trying to take it to the basket and got rejected more times than not in close. CTT commented that Colorado should have adjusted at the half and start kicking the ball out rather than running into blocks, but was surprised they did not adjust.
Concerns always abound. I worry about an apparent regression by Iriafen, who was so confident, poised, and accurate early in the season. What is going on there? Prechtel's three point shot doesn't seem to fall that often lately. Betts showed us a deft shooter's touch earlier, but not lately. (Her 5 rebounds and 2 blocks, however, were awesome. A couple of those rebounds she got simply because Colorado's 6'3" players couldn't reach what she could reach.) Our 16 turnovers were not good, especially since so many of them came from our stars.
Tara summed it up well when she praised our defense. I think our defense had an advantage since Colorado ran the same plays we did in last year's Princeton offense, which allowed our more experienced players to recognize what Colorado was doing. But Tara acknowledged that she would like to have scored more (that 3rd quarter was awful) and had better movement. Who are we to argue with the g.o.a.t.?
Various Pac 12 highlights, analysis, Jump interview. I think CTT's analysis is spot-on. She is a tremendous addition to Pac 12 Networks. She is not glib, but her insights always help me:
Analysis: No. 4 Stanford used defensive effort to down No. 24 Colorado | Pac-12
Jump after game interview. It was Jump's defense that took out Forman one on one. Impressive.
Hannah Jump: Transition game key in No. 4 Stanford’s victory over No. 24 Colorado | Pac-12
And a montage of highlights.
No. 4 Stanford sets program block record in win over No. 24 Colorado | Pac-12
The press conference. Tara brings Harriel and Jump
Stanford Women's Basketball: Colorado Postgame Press Conference - YouTube
Something interesting we learned at the chalk talk, and that Tara repeated in the press conference. Jones was moved to the 4. This explains, of course, why Iriafen has fewer minutes. But it is pretty clear that Tara thought Jones was not at her best elsewhere and that the team needed to go small to defend some of the teams we are playing.
Colorado has always been an effective (if ugly) defensive team. They held our shooting to 34% and nearly equaled our rebounding. But they chose not to emphasize perimeter defense, and as a result we had 7/17 treys at 41%. Jump shot 5/10 treys, and it was excellent to see her back on track. She also was 2/2 on free throws after some uncharacteristic misses against Utah. Her slumplet (never a full fledged slump) is clearly over.
However much you may dislike the referees, these three are actually the good ones--which may say something about the quality of officiating in WBB. But thank goodness we had these three and not Missy or Benny. These three punished Colorado for its pushing, shoving, hacking style of play, and on a night we made only 19 field goals we made 17 free throws. Colorado made 6. 17 over 6 tells you what the officials thought of Colorado's style of defense. My nightmare is we will play them in Boulder, at elevation, on the last weekend of the regular season, and Missy will greet us and the hackathon will begin. But not today, fortunately.
Brink and Jones were not very efficient, going into the teeth of the defense, and each of them lost 4 turnovers. In a game like this, against a defense like that, you have to make free throws, and they were 9/12. I think even in the first quarter Jones was trying a bit too hard, taking some wild shots that occasionally went in, but it took a bit for the team to figure out Colorado's defense.
The game, obviously, was won by our own defense. Colorado may have a good defense, but ours was better. We held them to 29% shooting, and nearly shut their vaunted three point shooter down to 5 points on 2/13 shooting. Sherrod, Vonleh, and Miller all got about their averages, but no one else contributed much. And consider this: Colorado made a total of 19 field goals in the game, and had 16 shots blocked! That is an astounding ratio. They kept trying to take it to the basket and got rejected more times than not in close. CTT commented that Colorado should have adjusted at the half and start kicking the ball out rather than running into blocks, but was surprised they did not adjust.
Concerns always abound. I worry about an apparent regression by Iriafen, who was so confident, poised, and accurate early in the season. What is going on there? Prechtel's three point shot doesn't seem to fall that often lately. Betts showed us a deft shooter's touch earlier, but not lately. (Her 5 rebounds and 2 blocks, however, were awesome. A couple of those rebounds she got simply because Colorado's 6'3" players couldn't reach what she could reach.) Our 16 turnovers were not good, especially since so many of them came from our stars.
Tara summed it up well when she praised our defense. I think our defense had an advantage since Colorado ran the same plays we did in last year's Princeton offense, which allowed our more experienced players to recognize what Colorado was doing. But Tara acknowledged that she would like to have scored more (that 3rd quarter was awful) and had better movement. Who are we to argue with the g.o.a.t.?
Various Pac 12 highlights, analysis, Jump interview. I think CTT's analysis is spot-on. She is a tremendous addition to Pac 12 Networks. She is not glib, but her insights always help me:
Analysis: No. 4 Stanford used defensive effort to down No. 24 Colorado | Pac-12
Jump after game interview. It was Jump's defense that took out Forman one on one. Impressive.
Hannah Jump: Transition game key in No. 4 Stanford’s victory over No. 24 Colorado | Pac-12
And a montage of highlights.
No. 4 Stanford sets program block record in win over No. 24 Colorado | Pac-12
The press conference. Tara brings Harriel and Jump
Stanford Women's Basketball: Colorado Postgame Press Conference - YouTube