[cardfan1996]

Lol. 

We had players playing major mins with 0 production all season who were also a defensive liability so not sure what you mean and she definitely only didn’t look good against weaker teams.  

Anyway reap what you sow, be ready for next season.  

As for more playing time for a player that didn’t look good on the court,

I’m glad we aren’t talking about Brink transferring.  Yeah, put Betts in during mop up time, against weaker teams and she did ok. To hear some here, it seems they wanted less time for Brink so Betts would make her mistakes in more challenging games. 



I’ll also point out that entering the portal doesn’t mean the player has to choose to leave. But, if they do leave, I say good riddance.

I assume you are the family member. Betts wasn’t bashed all season. Most people on this board were actually advocating for more playing time for Betts but you know that. There will always be a few exceptions and people who might not see the same potential. This board has been far more critical of Tara and coaching staff. And yet this board is no reflection of the larger Stanford fanbase. It’s literally maybe less than 1%, and skews older (like elderly). Hopefully you are not basing life decisions off the insignificant opinions of fans because you will literally get opinionated fans everywhere.

When I searched for Stanfanforever's posts, I found fewer than half a dozen total, and every single won was about Betts's lack of playing time.  This person is entitled to opinions about Betts, and might be right in some of those opinions.  But this person has not expressed a single opinion about any other aspect of Stanford sports or even much of anything about the rest of the WBB team.  When I see a "single issue poster" like this, I do think it is likely a family member or someone else close to the player who posts here out of frustration for their loved one.  That may put the remarks in some perspective.  It doesn't mean I am not (and everyone cannot) be sympathetic.

I, for one, will be sorry to see Betts go, and also sorry to see Emma-Nnopu go.  (I really hope that Emma-Nnopu gets her degree.)  As for Betts, I think two things can both be true.  First, she is enormously talented and it would have been best for Tara to figure out a way to use her more than she did.  Second, she is still learning and has some weaknesses that improved over the year but which the coaches believed made her a defensive liability in certain situations. I remember Tara's response at a presser to a question about Betts--I think it came about mid year.  "She is instant offense."  Notable for what it did not say.  And I remember what assistant coaches said at chalk-talks when fans asked over and over about Betts's playing time.  "Different players develop at different rates." 

The problem, as I saw it, is that Betts played good defense against other players who were similar to her, and certainly would be likely to get better defensively with more playing time.  So I don't subscribe to the view that she would have played badly against Boston or Cardoza.  Instead, she had a hard time playing defense against smaller, quicker teams that had no one for her to guard one-on-one.  I think of teams like UCLA, whose only "big" (6'4" Emily Bessoir) shoots 36% from three point range and doesn't even need to go under the basket.  

My guess is that Tara would privately admit that this was one of her weaker years coaching--not just the final results, but the lack of steady improvement from November to March that has, in the past, been the hallmark of her success and has put her ahead of so many other top coaches, who win primarily through recruiting rather than through team development.  But this year, Tara was never able to get the puzzle pieces to fit together.  The team on-the-floor (not necessarily in the locker room) did not jell.  There was never a settled rotation.  There was never a "precise" offense that worked like a machine.  There were too many worthy players for too few minutes--but most of the players were "worthy" in niche ways when we needed glue players and not niche players.  The total was therefore less than the sum of the parts. 

This situation struck me as temporary, however, and I was looking forward to more of a return to the "normal" Tara teams next year.  Jones was a unique and wonderful player, but her talents did not mesh with the players around her this year, and her graduation might actually make fitting the puzzle together a lot easier.  Cam needs to develop her outside shooting for the pros, and I expect she will do so for next year.  So I think Betts was set up for a breakout sophomore year at the 5, Brink at the 4.  Iriafen would get a lot of minutes spelling both of them, given the departure of Prechtel and Belibi.  Naturally, I have no knowledge of what Tara did or did not say to her players, but I've watched Tara for long enough to know she doesn't make promises about playing time to anyone.  Regardless, I felt that Betts was going to be a featured player and a dominant force on offense for us, and so it is very surprising to see her go. 

The silver lining is: we will see just how good a player Iriafen is capable of being.  All the complaints about playing time could have been made by her and her advocates, too.  Will she improve with her expanded role?  That becomes a central question for next year's team.

What we do know from Michelle Betts is:

In response to Marisa Ingemi from the SFChronicle saying Betts was projected to get a big bump in playing time next season:

“With all due respect, your projections or anyone’s projections don’t really don’t mean anything. The coaches make the decisions and none of you have any idea what they might have planned or not planned for Lauren. I won’t respond again but I felt I had to say that.”

In response to Michelle Smith saying Betts minutes would dramatically increase and increase next to Brink next season:

“Respectfully, I think your last two tweets about Lauren have been short sided.  You do not know.  You are guessing and projecting. I will not respond again but just wanted to let you know.”

Which seems to align with “non-family” poster. 

Bottomline, Tara is probably a poor communicator and it seems Betts and her parents didn’t want to leave but felt they had to given whatever they were told by Tara would or would not happen next season.

[cardfan1996]

Lol. 

We had players playing major mins with 0 production all season who were also a defensive liability so not sure what you mean and she definitely only didn’t look good against weaker teams.  

Anyway reap what you sow, be ready for next season.  

As for more playing time for a player that didn’t look good on the court,

I’m glad we aren’t talking about Brink transferring.  Yeah, put Betts in during mop up time, against weaker teams and she did ok. To hear some here, it seems they wanted less time for Brink so Betts would make her mistakes in more challenging games. 



I’ll also point out that entering the portal doesn’t mean the player has to choose to leave. But, if they do leave, I say good riddance.

I assume you are the family member. Betts wasn’t bashed all season. Most people on this board were actually advocating for more playing time for Betts but you know that. There will always be a few exceptions and people who might not see the same potential. This board has been far more critical of Tara and coaching staff. And yet this board is no reflection of the larger Stanford fanbase. It’s literally maybe less than 1%, and skews older (like elderly). Hopefully you are not basing life decisions off the insignificant opinions of fans because you will literally get opinionated fans everywhere.

When I searched for Stanfanforever's posts, I found fewer than half a dozen total, and every single won was about Betts's lack of playing time.  This person is entitled to opinions about Betts, and might be right in some of those opinions.  But this person has not expressed a single opinion about any other aspect of Stanford sports or even much of anything about the rest of the WBB team.  When I see a "single issue poster" like this, I do think it is likely a family member or someone else close to the player who posts here out of frustration for their loved one.  That may put the remarks in some perspective.  It doesn't mean I am not (and everyone cannot) be sympathetic.

I, for one, will be sorry to see Betts go, and also sorry to see Emma-Nnopu go.  (I really hope that Emma-Nnopu gets her degree.)  As for Betts, I think two things can both be true.  First, she is enormously talented and it would have been best for Tara to figure out a way to use her more than she did.  Second, she is still learning and has some weaknesses that improved over the year but which the coaches believed made her a defensive liability in certain situations. I remember Tara's response at a presser to a question about Betts--I think it came about mid year.  "She is instant offense."  Notable for what it did not say.  And I remember what assistant coaches said at chalk-talks when fans asked over and over about Betts's playing time.  "Different players develop at different rates." 

The problem, as I saw it, is that Betts played good defense against other players who were similar to her, and certainly would be likely to get better defensively with more playing time.  So I don't subscribe to the view that she would have played badly against Boston or Cardoza.  Instead, she had a hard time playing defense against smaller, quicker teams that had no one for her to guard one-on-one.  I think of teams like UCLA, whose only "big" (6'4" Emily Bessoir) shoots 36% from three point range and doesn't even need to go under the basket.  

My guess is that Tara would privately admit that this was one of her weaker years coaching--not just the final results, but the lack of steady improvement from November to March that has, in the past, been the hallmark of her success and has put her ahead of so many other top coaches, who win primarily through recruiting rather than through team development.  But this year, Tara was never able to get the puzzle pieces to fit together.  The team on-the-floor (not necessarily in the locker room) did not jell.  There was never a settled rotation.  There was never a "precise" offense that worked like a machine.  There were too many worthy players for too few minutes--but most of the players were "worthy" in niche ways when we needed glue players and not niche players.  The total was therefore less than the sum of the parts. 

This situation struck me as temporary, however, and I was looking forward to more of a return to the "normal" Tara teams next year.  Jones was a unique and wonderful player, but her talents did not mesh with the players around her this year, and her graduation might actually make fitting the puzzle together a lot easier.  Cam needs to develop her outside shooting for the pros, and I expect she will do so for next year.  So I think Betts was set up for a breakout sophomore year at the 5, Brink at the 4.  Iriafen would get a lot of minutes spelling both of them, given the departure of Prechtel and Belibi.  Naturally, I have no knowledge of what Tara did or did not say to her players, but I've watched Tara for long enough to know she doesn't make promises about playing time to anyone.  Regardless, I felt that Betts was going to be a featured player and a dominant force on offense for us, and so it is very surprising to see her go. 

The silver lining is: we will see just how good a player Iriafen is capable of being.  All the complaints about playing time could have been made by her and her advocates, too.  Will she improve with her expanded role?  That becomes a central question for next year's team.

What we do know from Michelle Betts is:

In response to Marisa Ingemi from the SFChronicle saying Betts was projected to get a big bump in playing time next season:

“With all due respect, your projections or anyone’s projections don’t really don’t mean anything. The coaches make the decisions and none of you have any idea what they might have planned or not planned for Lauren. I won’t respond again but I felt I had to say that.”

In response to Michelle Smith saying Betts minutes would dramatically increase and increase next to Brink next season:

“Respectfully, I think your last two tweets about Lauren have been short sided.  You do not know.  You are guessing and projecting. I will not respond again but just wanted to let you know.”

Which seems to align with “non-family” poster. 

Bottomline, Tara is probably a poor communicator and it seems Betts and her parents didn’t want to leave but felt they had to given whatever they were told by Tara would or would not happen next season.