[TheFarm07]

I think Tara explained it without saying it outright.  The team was just tired, maybe physically but surly emotionally.  Six out of eight of our last games were away, three of those 8 games were on a compressed timeline for TV purposes, and of course the most difficult road trip of the season was saved for last.  And 5/8 of those teams were ranked.  Yet how deflating would it be to run that mega-gauntlet and win 6/8 and then be remembered for the one you lost after sleeping on airport benches?  It had to be a tough mental hill to climb.

In contrast, UCLA had six of eight of its last games at home, and the only game it had "early" was its regular season game against WSU, which it lost.  And its schedule at the end did not compare with our schedule at the end.  It also only had to play Colorado and Utah once, and it lost both those games away.

I know we played almost a whole season "away" during COVID and obviously we dealt with it and flourished.  Somehow this seems different--a unique challenge.  There is a reason Tara is giving the team 3 days off, despite the obvious need to fix significant problems.   I would not be surprised to see a much rejuvenated team back at Maples for the first two rounds.  If they take care of business there, who knows what could happen in Seattle?  I will be there at Maples cheering my head off, trying to inject some fan enthusiasm into our team's spirits.

With all due respect, that sounds more like an excuse than an explanation. I’d be more inclined to credit it if we hadn’t tanked multiple games earlier in the season in similar fashion. We have had a problem with focus and intensity throughout this season. Watching today’s Iowa game, it looked to me like they were playing with much more intensity when they had a 30+ lead than we do when it’s a close game. I’m worried that our team’s mental approach reflects that of our coaching staff… and that our coaching staff has lost intensity as well.

I hope I’m wrong, and I’ll be at Maples cheering as loudly as anyone, but it will take a 20 point lead with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter for me to feel comfortable in any game from here on out.

I agree and I don't think it's a problem isolated to this season. Some years we've been able to minimize it more than other times, but didn't Tara say once something to the effect of no longer wanting to be "the nice team from Stanford," I've might have gotten the exact phrasing wrong, but it illustrates the point that perhaps as a program, we lack the killer edge more than we would like. It might take more than one Brink with the ultra-competitive spirit to get us through it, like when we also had the Hull twins adding to that fire.

One of the commentators were remarking about Tara's comment about splitting the regular season title with Utah that we didn't like sharing, but it seemed like as posters here have commented, that perhaps we didn't mind it as much as we should have.

I know Geno is not especially liked on this forum for a variety of reason, but during their dominant streak in the 2010s, he had a comment about sending a message with the blowouts early on in the tournament and his program has won more championships than any other in women's college basketball, including four in a row in the Stewart era. I didn't see any letdown or lack of motivation from Stewart, Jefferson, etc. during their run after they won a couple.

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One final thought. If we had signed Kiki Rice or Olivia Miles we might be undefeated. They do a lot of things we, as a team, do not do.

I totally agree with this sentiment, especially if we had managed to get Miles on the Farm. She had been having an all-American type of season for N.D. before going down with an injury. She would have added that much needed offensive threat from the guard position, while she's not hitting the three very well (only 22.8%), she is scoring at an overall 46% clip, meaning that she's landing more than half her shots inside the arc (53.8%) plus she's averaging nearly 7 assists a game.

We could have gotten another elite scoring guard with JuJu Watkins next year but that was another big loss there

[TheFarm07]

I think Tara explained it without saying it outright.  The team was just tired, maybe physically but surly emotionally.  Six out of eight of our last games were away, three of those 8 games were on a compressed timeline for TV purposes, and of course the most difficult road trip of the season was saved for last.  And 5/8 of those teams were ranked.  Yet how deflating would it be to run that mega-gauntlet and win 6/8 and then be remembered for the one you lost after sleeping on airport benches?  It had to be a tough mental hill to climb.

In contrast, UCLA had six of eight of its last games at home, and the only game it had "early" was its regular season game against WSU, which it lost.  And its schedule at the end did not compare with our schedule at the end.  It also only had to play Colorado and Utah once, and it lost both those games away.

I know we played almost a whole season "away" during COVID and obviously we dealt with it and flourished.  Somehow this seems different--a unique challenge.  There is a reason Tara is giving the team 3 days off, despite the obvious need to fix significant problems.   I would not be surprised to see a much rejuvenated team back at Maples for the first two rounds.  If they take care of business there, who knows what could happen in Seattle?  I will be there at Maples cheering my head off, trying to inject some fan enthusiasm into our team's spirits.

With all due respect, that sounds more like an excuse than an explanation. I’d be more inclined to credit it if we hadn’t tanked multiple games earlier in the season in similar fashion. We have had a problem with focus and intensity throughout this season. Watching today’s Iowa game, it looked to me like they were playing with much more intensity when they had a 30+ lead than we do when it’s a close game. I’m worried that our team’s mental approach reflects that of our coaching staff… and that our coaching staff has lost intensity as well.

I hope I’m wrong, and I’ll be at Maples cheering as loudly as anyone, but it will take a 20 point lead with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter for me to feel comfortable in any game from here on out.

I agree and I don't think it's a problem isolated to this season. Some years we've been able to minimize it more than other times, but didn't Tara say once something to the effect of no longer wanting to be "the nice team from Stanford," I've might have gotten the exact phrasing wrong, but it illustrates the point that perhaps as a program, we lack the killer edge more than we would like. It might take more than one Brink with the ultra-competitive spirit to get us through it, like when we also had the Hull twins adding to that fire.

One of the commentators were remarking about Tara's comment about splitting the regular season title with Utah that we didn't like sharing, but it seemed like as posters here have commented, that perhaps we didn't mind it as much as we should have.

I know Geno is not especially liked on this forum for a variety of reason, but during their dominant streak in the 2010s, he had a comment about sending a message with the blowouts early on in the tournament and his program has won more championships than any other in women's college basketball, including four in a row in the Stewart era. I didn't see any letdown or lack of motivation from Stewart, Jefferson, etc. during their run after they won a couple.

---

One final thought. If we had signed Kiki Rice or Olivia Miles we might be undefeated. They do a lot of things we, as a team, do not do.

I totally agree with this sentiment, especially if we had managed to get Miles on the Farm. She had been having an all-American type of season for N.D. before going down with an injury. She would have added that much needed offensive threat from the guard position, while she's not hitting the three very well (only 22.8%), she is scoring at an overall 46% clip, meaning that she's landing more than half her shots inside the arc (53.8%) plus she's averaging nearly 7 assists a game.

We could have gotten another elite scoring guard with JuJu Watkins next year but that was another big loss there