[OCcardinal]

Fall practice is a long time from now, but I'm getting excited about next season with our three All-American freshmen along with two other quality players.  With only a few exceptions, freshmen typically have sat on the bench and gradually earned more minutes.  But I would love to see this lineup, early-on.

Point guard-Swain
Shooting guard-Clardy
Small forward-Agara
Power forward-Somfai
Post-Eschmeyer

What I like about this lineup is- size and power along the front line (especially with Nunu and Lara); quickness and athleticism at the guard positions; and scoring threats at every position; something Stanford did not have last season.  Whenever they do play, I hope Kate will not use a short leash and immediately bench any of the freshmen if they make a mistake.  You learn by playing through mistakes.  Alex must get stronger, but she already has good moves on the block and she can also step out and hit from range.

Your thoughts?

Having watched the McDonald's All American, Chipotle National Championship and Nike Hoops Summit games, here are my opinions (with a few stats thrown in):

1) Hailee Swain - She is the best scoring PG on our roster since Kiana Williams.  She was the leading scorer on the McDonald's All American West team, with the 3rd most points (13) of any Cardinal player ever in a McDAA game.  Whether she starts early or not will depend on how well the offense flows with her in there.  That would be hard to happen with 3 frosh on the floor.  Kiana didn't start her first game until 10 games in (and then started every game after that). I expect that the offense will flow better with Talana at point, at least to start.  Defense will also be a factor, but there, Hailee's 3 extra inches over Talana would be a plus for her.  Hailee struggled a bit in Nike Hoops (though still showed flashes of brilliance).  We'll see how consistent she is as a frosh.

2) Lara Somfai - I love her game and her mobility (despite being 6-4).  She looks like she can play anywhere from the 2 to 5 position.  And for that reason I think we'll see her in the starting lineup sooner than later.  It's impressive that she started both for the East in McDAA and the international team in Nike Hoops. She also was #2 in total minutes for the international team.  She can drive to the basket (scoring with either hand), shoot 3's and both post up against and defend bigs (I thought she did pretty well in Nike Hoops when she had to defend against Sienna Betts, who's the real deal).  Somfai looked very comfortable defending guards too.  She did commit a few fouls, but didn't seem overly foul prone.  Unfortunately, Lara did have some cold shooting spells, but hopefully that was just a consequence of offenses being disorganized in those all star games.  Lara already has a ton of experience against really good competition (including winning the Chipotle national championship), so that with her versatility could earn her a place in the starting lineup pretty quickly.  Cameron Brink didn't get her 1st start until 12 games into her Stanford career.  If Lara beats that it will be a very good sign.  As far as lineups with Lara, I honestly think any of these could work:

Small forward-Ogden
Power forward-Agara
Post-Somfai

Small forward-Somfai
Power forward-Agara
Post-Eschmeyer/Umeh

Small forward-Agara
Power forward-Somfai
Post-Eschmeyer/Umeh

And if we end up playing the giants at TCU:

Shooting guard-Somfai
Small forward-Agara
Power forward-Eschmeyer
Post-Umeh

3) Eschmeyer - In general I would say Alex needs some seasoning.  She didn't seem quite at the level of others in the McDAA and Nike Hoops games.  Her biggest weakness was defense.  She got a couple of blocks in McDAA, but I also saw other players get by her pretty easily, despite her 6-5 height.  (I'm not sure if she was overly concerned about fouling or not.)  She'll get there, but didn't seem like she was as close to being a starter for Stanford as the other two.  That's said, there's no Brink or Iriafen on the team right now, so she may get a shot earlier than I think.  Whenever she cracks the starting line up though, I predict she will be a very important part of Stanford's success.  

One last thing - Hailee and Lara both have particularly delightful personalities and they are surely going to be the heart and soul of this team in the coming years.  During the Nike Hoops broadcast the announcer said "That Stanford team's gonna be fun.”  And I 100% agree!

[OCcardinal]

Fall practice is a long time from now, but I'm getting excited about next season with our three All-American freshmen along with two other quality players.  With only a few exceptions, freshmen typically have sat on the bench and gradually earned more minutes.  But I would love to see this lineup, early-on.

Point guard-Swain
Shooting guard-Clardy
Small forward-Agara
Power forward-Somfai
Post-Eschmeyer

What I like about this lineup is- size and power along the front line (especially with Nunu and Lara); quickness and athleticism at the guard positions; and scoring threats at every position; something Stanford did not have last season.  Whenever they do play, I hope Kate will not use a short leash and immediately bench any of the freshmen if they make a mistake.  You learn by playing through mistakes.  Alex must get stronger, but she already has good moves on the block and she can also step out and hit from range.

Your thoughts?

Having watched the McDonald's All American, Chipotle National Championship and Nike Hoops Summit games, here are my opinions (with a few stats thrown in):

1) Hailee Swain - She is the best scoring PG on our roster since Kiana Williams.  She was the leading scorer on the McDonald's All American West team, with the 3rd most points (13) of any Cardinal player ever in a McDAA game.  Whether she starts early or not will depend on how well the offense flows with her in there.  That would be hard to happen with 3 frosh on the floor.  Kiana didn't start her first game until 10 games in (and then started every game after that). I expect that the offense will flow better with Talana at point, at least to start.  Defense will also be a factor, but there, Hailee's 3 extra inches over Talana would be a plus for her.  Hailee struggled a bit in Nike Hoops (though still showed flashes of brilliance).  We'll see how consistent she is as a frosh.

2) Lara Somfai - I love her game and her mobility (despite being 6-4).  She looks like she can play anywhere from the 2 to 5 position.  And for that reason I think we'll see her in the starting lineup sooner than later.  It's impressive that she started both for the East in McDAA and the international team in Nike Hoops. She also was #2 in total minutes for the international team.  She can drive to the basket (scoring with either hand), shoot 3's and both post up against and defend bigs (I thought she did pretty well in Nike Hoops when she had to defend against Sienna Betts, who's the real deal).  Somfai looked very comfortable defending guards too.  She did commit a few fouls, but didn't seem overly foul prone.  Unfortunately, Lara did have some cold shooting spells, but hopefully that was just a consequence of offenses being disorganized in those all star games.  Lara already has a ton of experience against really good competition (including winning the Chipotle national championship), so that with her versatility could earn her a place in the starting lineup pretty quickly.  Cameron Brink didn't get her 1st start until 12 games into her Stanford career.  If Lara beats that it will be a very good sign.  As far as lineups with Lara, I honestly think any of these could work:

Small forward-Ogden
Power forward-Agara
Post-Somfai

Small forward-Somfai
Power forward-Agara
Post-Eschmeyer/Umeh

Small forward-Agara
Power forward-Somfai
Post-Eschmeyer/Umeh

And if we end up playing the giants at TCU:

Shooting guard-Somfai
Small forward-Agara
Power forward-Eschmeyer
Post-Umeh

3) Eschmeyer - In general I would say Alex needs some seasoning.  She didn't seem quite at the level of others in the McDAA and Nike Hoops games.  Her biggest weakness was defense.  She got a couple of blocks in McDAA, but I also saw other players get by her pretty easily, despite her 6-5 height.  (I'm not sure if she was overly concerned about fouling or not.)  She'll get there, but didn't seem like she was as close to being a starter for Stanford as the other two.  That's said, there's no Brink or Iriafen on the team right now, so she may get a shot earlier than I think.  Whenever she cracks the starting line up though, I predict she will be a very important part of Stanford's success.  

One last thing - Hailee and Lara both have particularly delightful personalities and they are surely going to be the heart and soul of this team in the coming years.  During the Nike Hoops broadcast the announcer said "That Stanford team's gonna be fun.”  And I 100% agree!