[spike5882]

As others have noted, our problems with guards have come down to failure to sign the top ones.  Page Bueckers (HG #1, PN #1), Azzi Fudd (HG#1, PN #1), Olivia Miles (HG #8, PN #4), Kiki Rice (HG #2, PN #2), and next year, Judea Watkins (HG #1, PN #2), were all elite guards who had Stanford in their top 2-3 but elected to sign elsewhere.  Having any one of them on the team (and healthy, as I note that Bueckers, and Miles are both out of the tournament with injuries, and Fudd has been injured much of the year), probably is the difference between a very good season and an exceptional season.

You can, of course, criticize Vanderveer for failing to close the deal on them; at the end of the recruiting buck ends with her.  But I don't think you can really say that she has neglected recruiting elite guards.  Moreover, it is hard to know if the choices reflect an undercurrent or if they each represent unique circumstances.

A few other miscellaneous observations:
For all the handwringing about our offense, we averaged 76.1 ppg this year, which is one of the better offensive years in recent memory.  Only in 2021 (77.7 ppg) and 2014 (76.7 ppg) have we scored more in the past 10 years.  Going back further, only in 2011 (79.3 ppg), 2006 (78.6 ppg), 2005 (77.8 ppg) and 2002 (80.3 ppg) have we exceeded our scoring output in this century.  This season wasn't a barn buster, but it was clearly above the median in scoring for Stanford.

Our shooting percentage (.455) was also better than most years (excepting 2021 and 2014 in the last 10).

I think where we struggled was in our three point shooting, as we exceeded only 2018 in the last 10 years, which explains why the strategy of packing the paint worked well against us.  I think if we were able to shoot a little bit better from three point range, we might have negated that strategy better.  Hannah Jump went 100/227 for us (44%), which meant that the rest of the team went 140/467, which is just under 30%.  I think if we can get another three point shooter to reliably step up, that should open things up for Brink and Betts inside.  We should be looking for Demetre (32/97, 33%), Talana Lepolo (25/67, 37%), Agnes Emma-Nnopu (20/47, 42%), and Elena Bosgana (17/53, 32%) to step up.  To be an effective second option, they will need to give us 40+ threes with about a three point shooting percentage in the upper 30's.

BC

It goes well beyond those recruits.  It goes to Hannah Hidalgo.  Deja Kelly. Rori Harmon.  Those are only a few that were on the radar and slipped away.  They were PGs that know how to run an offense; how to create an offense.  

There seems to be a common denominator -- Tara doesn't like to let guards run an offense as they see fit.  She wants it her way, and only her way.  It's resulted in negative recruiting efforts that have proved effective, and with reason.  She has no flexibility to let a PG shine. Name the last PG who did.  And Williams did not shine; she just did the best she could as a cog in Tara's machine.

[spike5882]

As others have noted, our problems with guards have come down to failure to sign the top ones.  Page Bueckers (HG #1, PN #1), Azzi Fudd (HG#1, PN #1), Olivia Miles (HG #8, PN #4), Kiki Rice (HG #2, PN #2), and next year, Judea Watkins (HG #1, PN #2), were all elite guards who had Stanford in their top 2-3 but elected to sign elsewhere.  Having any one of them on the team (and healthy, as I note that Bueckers, and Miles are both out of the tournament with injuries, and Fudd has been injured much of the year), probably is the difference between a very good season and an exceptional season.

You can, of course, criticize Vanderveer for failing to close the deal on them; at the end of the recruiting buck ends with her.  But I don't think you can really say that she has neglected recruiting elite guards.  Moreover, it is hard to know if the choices reflect an undercurrent or if they each represent unique circumstances.

A few other miscellaneous observations:
For all the handwringing about our offense, we averaged 76.1 ppg this year, which is one of the better offensive years in recent memory.  Only in 2021 (77.7 ppg) and 2014 (76.7 ppg) have we scored more in the past 10 years.  Going back further, only in 2011 (79.3 ppg), 2006 (78.6 ppg), 2005 (77.8 ppg) and 2002 (80.3 ppg) have we exceeded our scoring output in this century.  This season wasn't a barn buster, but it was clearly above the median in scoring for Stanford.

Our shooting percentage (.455) was also better than most years (excepting 2021 and 2014 in the last 10).

I think where we struggled was in our three point shooting, as we exceeded only 2018 in the last 10 years, which explains why the strategy of packing the paint worked well against us.  I think if we were able to shoot a little bit better from three point range, we might have negated that strategy better.  Hannah Jump went 100/227 for us (44%), which meant that the rest of the team went 140/467, which is just under 30%.  I think if we can get another three point shooter to reliably step up, that should open things up for Brink and Betts inside.  We should be looking for Demetre (32/97, 33%), Talana Lepolo (25/67, 37%), Agnes Emma-Nnopu (20/47, 42%), and Elena Bosgana (17/53, 32%) to step up.  To be an effective second option, they will need to give us 40+ threes with about a three point shooting percentage in the upper 30's.

BC

It goes well beyond those recruits.  It goes to Hannah Hidalgo.  Deja Kelly. Rori Harmon.  Those are only a few that were on the radar and slipped away.  They were PGs that know how to run an offense; how to create an offense.  

There seems to be a common denominator -- Tara doesn't like to let guards run an offense as they see fit.  She wants it her way, and only her way.  It's resulted in negative recruiting efforts that have proved effective, and with reason.  She has no flexibility to let a PG shine. Name the last PG who did.  And Williams did not shine; she just did the best she could as a cog in Tara's machine.