[old spanish trail]

With all the focus on talent, playing time, etc. I have often wondered why more attention is not paid to experience.  Tara always noticed when another team was full of seniors and thought it was an advantage for them.  This should be even more true for our own team, given that we have generally cerebral young women who are eager to learn the finer points of the game and who absorb complex schemes over time.   For many years, Stanford has attempted schemes that are usually beyond the capacity of our opponents.  When the Princeton was first installed in 2019 we had serious growing pains, but of course it led to a national championship later.  We have often debated whether this was a wise approach or not, but our teams often "out-sophisticated" our opponents.  One might expect this to come with a learning curve, however, and Tara did have a strong preference for playing the most experienced of her players, with some notable exceptions.

So I thought I would look at the relative levels of experience of Stanford teams.  I simply added up to total career Stanford starts for the five starters we finished the season with.  For this year, total starts are through our most recent game.  Keep in mind that if these five stay on the floor for the whole season we would add about 100 more starts to their total.

I did not have the patience to do this for all teams, but I thought I would take this year's, last year's, and the best and the worst of recent memory.  Interesting that both the best and the worst teams had about the same amount of experience.  But our team this year is shockingly inexperienced compared with both of them.

One thing that might make us look better would be counting Tess Heal's Santa Clara starts.  I can see reasons to do so and reasons not to.  If you count them, it would add 66 to the total.

If anyone has a hankering to know about some other particular year, just say so.

2024-25 (Agara, Demetre, Bosgana, Harriel, Heal) 90

2023-24 (Iriafen, Brink, Jump, Bosgana, Lepolo) 370 (last year)

2020-21 (Williams, Jones, Lexie Hull, Brink, Wilson) 299 (Covid championship year)

2017-18 (McPhee, Smith, Williams, Sniezek, Johnson) 295 (Worst year since 2000: 24-11)

That is great analysis, 81alum...the team's relative inexperience is important - particularly if players need to learn a complex offense such as the Princeton offense. I can sometimes see the players thinking about what to do next - that will get easier as they become more familiar with it. Heal, Stevenson, and the three freshmen have probably never it before this year.

Someone in the main game thread said that they wanted to see a different offense. I understand the frustration, but you can't change offenses during the middle of the year...that really cause problems. What I would like is to have the offense move faster - cut faster and pass faster. There have been times when players hold the ball waiting for someone to make a cut. The whole offense needs to move faster. As the players gain experience, this will happen.

Believe it or not, Lepolo could help here.

[old spanish trail]

With all the focus on talent, playing time, etc. I have often wondered why more attention is not paid to experience.  Tara always noticed when another team was full of seniors and thought it was an advantage for them.  This should be even more true for our own team, given that we have generally cerebral young women who are eager to learn the finer points of the game and who absorb complex schemes over time.   For many years, Stanford has attempted schemes that are usually beyond the capacity of our opponents.  When the Princeton was first installed in 2019 we had serious growing pains, but of course it led to a national championship later.  We have often debated whether this was a wise approach or not, but our teams often "out-sophisticated" our opponents.  One might expect this to come with a learning curve, however, and Tara did have a strong preference for playing the most experienced of her players, with some notable exceptions.

So I thought I would look at the relative levels of experience of Stanford teams.  I simply added up to total career Stanford starts for the five starters we finished the season with.  For this year, total starts are through our most recent game.  Keep in mind that if these five stay on the floor for the whole season we would add about 100 more starts to their total.

I did not have the patience to do this for all teams, but I thought I would take this year's, last year's, and the best and the worst of recent memory.  Interesting that both the best and the worst teams had about the same amount of experience.  But our team this year is shockingly inexperienced compared with both of them.

One thing that might make us look better would be counting Tess Heal's Santa Clara starts.  I can see reasons to do so and reasons not to.  If you count them, it would add 66 to the total.

If anyone has a hankering to know about some other particular year, just say so.

2024-25 (Agara, Demetre, Bosgana, Harriel, Heal) 90

2023-24 (Iriafen, Brink, Jump, Bosgana, Lepolo) 370 (last year)

2020-21 (Williams, Jones, Lexie Hull, Brink, Wilson) 299 (Covid championship year)

2017-18 (McPhee, Smith, Williams, Sniezek, Johnson) 295 (Worst year since 2000: 24-11)

That is great analysis, 81alum...the team's relative inexperience is important - particularly if players need to learn a complex offense such as the Princeton offense. I can sometimes see the players thinking about what to do next - that will get easier as they become more familiar with it. Heal, Stevenson, and the three freshmen have probably never it before this year.

Someone in the main game thread said that they wanted to see a different offense. I understand the frustration, but you can't change offenses during the middle of the year...that really cause problems. What I would like is to have the offense move faster - cut faster and pass faster. There have been times when players hold the ball waiting for someone to make a cut. The whole offense needs to move faster. As the players gain experience, this will happen.

Believe it or not, Lepolo could help here.