[old spanish trail]

One possibility that no one has mentioned is just that Cal is very good this year, and LSU may not be as good as their reputation predicts.  That is, at least, part of the story.

One major problem for us is that we no longer have the forwards who can defend inside against larger, taller, equally talented players.  Kate seemed to feel compelled to double in the paint, as was noted by johnnyss, despite the fact that Cal started the game with 3 42% three point shooters on the floor--and that was not even counting their forward Marta Suarez going 4/6 from three point range.  Agara is an undersized post, Demetre is great on offense and sound enough on defense but does not have the athleticism to handle someone like Oniyeh one on one.  We now are coming up against teams that can exploit this defensive weakness. 

I agree that Umeh needs to get more minutes, although we have seen her defense and she also makes mistakes and is learning.  Hopefully as the season progresses she will too and we will see a lot more of her.

Here is the presser:

https://storage.googleapis.com/stanford-...djYMxs.m4a

Kate:  "I think they wanted it more.  We were out coached.  We were out played....Credit to them."

"A very painful experience but hopefully one we can learn from."  "Talana is working to get healthy and we hope she gets healthy soon."

"There are two great motivators.  One is love, the other is pain.  There is a lot of love and pain in our locker room right now."

Quite a lot was said about the level of experience on the Cal team vs. the youth of our team.  And I agree that should be considered a factor.  Demetre is perhaps our most experienced player and she kept her poise and performed well on offense.  Agara is still in the first half of her sophomore season.  Even an oldster like Harriel doesn't have that much game experience.  And Cal had several grad students starting.

Agree totally with this whole post, 81.  I also would like to see Umeh and Agara together with Demetre possibly the 3, and I hope we do soon.

[old spanish trail]

One possibility that no one has mentioned is just that Cal is very good this year, and LSU may not be as good as their reputation predicts.  That is, at least, part of the story.

One major problem for us is that we no longer have the forwards who can defend inside against larger, taller, equally talented players.  Kate seemed to feel compelled to double in the paint, as was noted by johnnyss, despite the fact that Cal started the game with 3 42% three point shooters on the floor--and that was not even counting their forward Marta Suarez going 4/6 from three point range.  Agara is an undersized post, Demetre is great on offense and sound enough on defense but does not have the athleticism to handle someone like Oniyeh one on one.  We now are coming up against teams that can exploit this defensive weakness. 

I agree that Umeh needs to get more minutes, although we have seen her defense and she also makes mistakes and is learning.  Hopefully as the season progresses she will too and we will see a lot more of her.

Here is the presser:

https://storage.googleapis.com/stanford-...djYMxs.m4a

Kate:  "I think they wanted it more.  We were out coached.  We were out played....Credit to them."

"A very painful experience but hopefully one we can learn from."  "Talana is working to get healthy and we hope she gets healthy soon."

"There are two great motivators.  One is love, the other is pain.  There is a lot of love and pain in our locker room right now."

Quite a lot was said about the level of experience on the Cal team vs. the youth of our team.  And I agree that should be considered a factor.  Demetre is perhaps our most experienced player and she kept her poise and performed well on offense.  Agara is still in the first half of her sophomore season.  Even an oldster like Harriel doesn't have that much game experience.  And Cal had several grad students starting.

Agree totally with this whole post, 81.  I also would like to see Umeh and Agara together with Demetre possibly the 3, and I hope we do soon.