[BillBradley]

Personally, I was quite happy with our offensive output earlier in the season. So many differences back then to where we ended up. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall after that USC game where everything changed.

I think you are right, BB.  However, everything changed a bit earlier--after the game at Cal--the one that Tara called the "root canal" game.  The fact that we barely won it I think concealed to many fans the seriousness of the issues.  We scored 90 points against Cal in December, but barely got to 60 in January, and Cal led with 3 minutes left in the game.  One week later USC took Cal's strategy and put it into the hands of more capable players, and we were held to a miserable 46 points.

But the best evidence that our offensive stats for the year were meaningless is Tara herself, in the final press conference, who acknowledged that offense was the problem.  Corroborating her view is Massey which computes us as the 3rd best defense in the nation.  My goodness, we held Ole Miss to 54 points, which should have been enough not only to win, but to win big.

Yep, you're right 81. It did start with the Cal game, and the USC loss probably reinforced some deep dark fears that the offense wasn't good enough. That was where the fate of the season was determined. From that point, whatever changes were put in didn't really work. Instead of sticking with the same lineup and tweaking things, she probably should have gone with a lineup that wasn't so ultra-reliant on Cam/Haley/Hannah. That seemed to be the downfall in the end - just no help from anyone else. I thought more of Demetre would have helped a lot, others have asked for Bosgana, more of Nivar, less of Lepolo, etc. I wonder if she could go back in time if she would have tried different personnel or not.

Just for fun, I went back and looked at some of the posts from that time. Here are a few snippets of what posters were seeing back then (yes, 2 months ago):

"Our team needs to figure out a more effective way to counter it than just tossing the ball in to a double-teamed Brink, or Jones taking off balance mid range shots.  In a way, Cal did us a favor by teaching our coaches and players that our offense needs some important adjustments."

"this game felt like the old tara: put the ball in the hands of your best player and forgot about every other play else. think nneka. today it was put the ball in the hands of your 2 best players: haley and cam. order the others (except hannah, who was tightly guarded) not to shoot."

"But the problem, as I saw it, was our offense wasn't working.  Jump didn't get many shots.  Jones didn't get too many decent drives.  The only thing that was working was to get the ball to Brink in the paint or on the block."

"It would be good for our offense to have actions to get open midrange looks when the D packs the paint to that extent and the 3s aren't falling"....<another poster> "IMO the rest of the season depends on Stanford implementing this suggestion."


"Right now our 1Q offense is dump the ball into the post while the post player Brink/Iriafen is double teamed with the secondary defender sagging off Jones, Lepolo or Brink/Iriafen or all of those defenders sagging off.  While Iriafen is clearly the better player, starting Demetre may put our All-Americans Brink and Jones in a better position to score."

"Tara will need to find a way to jumpstart our offense and adjust when facing this defensive scheme. When teams are denying your All-Americans with double or triple teams, that should leave others with the space they need to attack and we haven't done that."

"Our weakness had been exposed. Double team brink inside, blanket jump, funny allow Jones to drive, and or offense is in turmoil. Tara needs to figure out the antidote to this ailment to have a chance at the championship."

"...is it realistic to think that Tara and her staff will put some tweaks in our offensive game that might make a positive difference, or do you believe we're going to see more of the same and hoping the team will play with some grit?"

"After a pathetic game against USC, it's time for Tara to step up and make some serious changes in the O. Just tinkering with the status quo is not acceptable if she wants to make a run for the Championship....Let's see if there are personnel shifts, new strategies, and a significant improvement in caliber of play..."

[BillBradley]

Personally, I was quite happy with our offensive output earlier in the season. So many differences back then to where we ended up. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall after that USC game where everything changed.

I think you are right, BB.  However, everything changed a bit earlier--after the game at Cal--the one that Tara called the "root canal" game.  The fact that we barely won it I think concealed to many fans the seriousness of the issues.  We scored 90 points against Cal in December, but barely got to 60 in January, and Cal led with 3 minutes left in the game.  One week later USC took Cal's strategy and put it into the hands of more capable players, and we were held to a miserable 46 points.

But the best evidence that our offensive stats for the year were meaningless is Tara herself, in the final press conference, who acknowledged that offense was the problem.  Corroborating her view is Massey which computes us as the 3rd best defense in the nation.  My goodness, we held Ole Miss to 54 points, which should have been enough not only to win, but to win big.

Yep, you're right 81. It did start with the Cal game, and the USC loss probably reinforced some deep dark fears that the offense wasn't good enough. That was where the fate of the season was determined. From that point, whatever changes were put in didn't really work. Instead of sticking with the same lineup and tweaking things, she probably should have gone with a lineup that wasn't so ultra-reliant on Cam/Haley/Hannah. That seemed to be the downfall in the end - just no help from anyone else. I thought more of Demetre would have helped a lot, others have asked for Bosgana, more of Nivar, less of Lepolo, etc. I wonder if she could go back in time if she would have tried different personnel or not.

Just for fun, I went back and looked at some of the posts from that time. Here are a few snippets of what posters were seeing back then (yes, 2 months ago):

"Our team needs to figure out a more effective way to counter it than just tossing the ball in to a double-teamed Brink, or Jones taking off balance mid range shots.  In a way, Cal did us a favor by teaching our coaches and players that our offense needs some important adjustments."

"this game felt like the old tara: put the ball in the hands of your best player and forgot about every other play else. think nneka. today it was put the ball in the hands of your 2 best players: haley and cam. order the others (except hannah, who was tightly guarded) not to shoot."

"But the problem, as I saw it, was our offense wasn't working.  Jump didn't get many shots.  Jones didn't get too many decent drives.  The only thing that was working was to get the ball to Brink in the paint or on the block."

"It would be good for our offense to have actions to get open midrange looks when the D packs the paint to that extent and the 3s aren't falling"....<another poster> "IMO the rest of the season depends on Stanford implementing this suggestion."


"Right now our 1Q offense is dump the ball into the post while the post player Brink/Iriafen is double teamed with the secondary defender sagging off Jones, Lepolo or Brink/Iriafen or all of those defenders sagging off.  While Iriafen is clearly the better player, starting Demetre may put our All-Americans Brink and Jones in a better position to score."

"Tara will need to find a way to jumpstart our offense and adjust when facing this defensive scheme. When teams are denying your All-Americans with double or triple teams, that should leave others with the space they need to attack and we haven't done that."

"Our weakness had been exposed. Double team brink inside, blanket jump, funny allow Jones to drive, and or offense is in turmoil. Tara needs to figure out the antidote to this ailment to have a chance at the championship."

"...is it realistic to think that Tara and her staff will put some tweaks in our offensive game that might make a positive difference, or do you believe we're going to see more of the same and hoping the team will play with some grit?"

"After a pathetic game against USC, it's time for Tara to step up and make some serious changes in the O. Just tinkering with the status quo is not acceptable if she wants to make a run for the Championship....Let's see if there are personnel shifts, new strategies, and a significant improvement in caliber of play..."