12-14-2024, 04:38 PM
I was one of the relatively few tried-and-true Cardinal fans who braved the elements (and commuter traffic from Palo Alto) Friday night to attend the Cal game. Generally, I tend to be optimistic, but I left my expectations at home, knowing that the Bears had beaten 19th ranked Alabama at the SEC/ACC WOMEN’S Challenge last week. Plus, my reading of 81Alum’s critique of our opponent’s team and season, served as a dire warning that we were about to play a much-improved Cal team.
As for Stanford’s team, the excitement followed by the letdown at LSU caused me to wonder how the team morale might hold up under the gut-punch of the overtime loss. It didn’t take long after the opening jump-ball to get an answer to my question about the cardinal status — their play was abysmal. There was a lot of bob-and-weave, but no punch! A real butt-kicking for three quarters!
It wasn’t until after the third quarter, in which Cal had gone on a thirty-point terror, that our team finally seemed to get their wakeup call! They came back out after the third-quarter break and started taking (and making) shots. They scrambled and began to play some team ball! The Cards outscored Cal in the fourth quarter with a 23 point performance, not by the Cal players taking their collective feet off the throttle (they seemed to delight at the smell of blood in dominating Stanford and gave their best) or by Coach Charmin Smith letting up (she was standing, urging her team forward, especially at the end). It helped that Kate put in some hungry underclassmen (Shay was undaunted by her last performance), and Demeter and others started creating their shots …and hitting!
Hopefully, the team and the coaches will be able to take the many lessons learned from this game and turn them into more deliberation and force in the tough season that lies ahead. They will have to take some losses this year and be ready to stay on their game despite difficulties and disappointments.
Congratulations go to Coach Carmine! She has built a hell of a team this year. She hasn’t been disrupted by distractions and defections or by coaching changes, however. Imagine, if, as with prior decades, we had had the incremental growth and maturity that would have come in building this year’s team from the five players that left our team prematurely over the last three years.
Still, the players and coaches that walked off the court together after the game last night is the team we have — they are our team! Our best step forward is to understand, accept, and support this group of players to become whatever they are destined to achieve.
A young team that is growing and developing, despite their record, is a team that is worth watching, supporting, and celebrating!! And, yes, sometimes one needs the perspective of a good night’s sleep to rally the necessary enthusiasm to realize all of this!
As for Stanford’s team, the excitement followed by the letdown at LSU caused me to wonder how the team morale might hold up under the gut-punch of the overtime loss. It didn’t take long after the opening jump-ball to get an answer to my question about the cardinal status — their play was abysmal. There was a lot of bob-and-weave, but no punch! A real butt-kicking for three quarters!
It wasn’t until after the third quarter, in which Cal had gone on a thirty-point terror, that our team finally seemed to get their wakeup call! They came back out after the third-quarter break and started taking (and making) shots. They scrambled and began to play some team ball! The Cards outscored Cal in the fourth quarter with a 23 point performance, not by the Cal players taking their collective feet off the throttle (they seemed to delight at the smell of blood in dominating Stanford and gave their best) or by Coach Charmin Smith letting up (she was standing, urging her team forward, especially at the end). It helped that Kate put in some hungry underclassmen (Shay was undaunted by her last performance), and Demeter and others started creating their shots …and hitting!
Hopefully, the team and the coaches will be able to take the many lessons learned from this game and turn them into more deliberation and force in the tough season that lies ahead. They will have to take some losses this year and be ready to stay on their game despite difficulties and disappointments.
Congratulations go to Coach Carmine! She has built a hell of a team this year. She hasn’t been disrupted by distractions and defections or by coaching changes, however. Imagine, if, as with prior decades, we had had the incremental growth and maturity that would have come in building this year’s team from the five players that left our team prematurely over the last three years.
Still, the players and coaches that walked off the court together after the game last night is the team we have — they are our team! Our best step forward is to understand, accept, and support this group of players to become whatever they are destined to achieve.
A young team that is growing and developing, despite their record, is a team that is worth watching, supporting, and celebrating!! And, yes, sometimes one needs the perspective of a good night’s sleep to rally the necessary enthusiasm to realize all of this!