12-03-2025, 11:40 PM
Yes, agreed. The optimist in me came away quite encouraged by how we handled a defense we had no experience against and probably minimal preparation for.
This felt, to me, like Swain's coming out party. Loved her tenacity and confidence in driving to the basket. Her passing still needs some work and she occasionally got ahead of herself but it's been a while since we've seen a freshman guard who confidently dribbles into traffic.
As I said earlier, I also loved seeing Ogden assert herself in offense - she has a really nice and rare (for Stanford) combination of size, handles, and shooting touch (when it's on). On this team, I think she's our only player who can consistently execute the mid-range jumper, and that pays such dividends in breaking defenses down.
I was really digging the Swain - Clardy - Ogden - Nunu - Somfai lineup. Offense + defense + handles + versatility. Could we please see more of that?
The only lament I have is that I think our tournament hopes evaporated in the last 50 seconds. The ACC is truly terrible this season and we have very few "good" wins left to build a resume. And given our disastrous road trips last season, I'm assuming we will lay a few road eggs yet again.
So I'm trying to adjust to a mentality that this will need to be a three-year rebuild rather than two. I think I'm on board with it, especially if we continue to see player growth like we saw from several of our key pieces tonight
This felt, to me, like Swain's coming out party. Loved her tenacity and confidence in driving to the basket. Her passing still needs some work and she occasionally got ahead of herself but it's been a while since we've seen a freshman guard who confidently dribbles into traffic.
As I said earlier, I also loved seeing Ogden assert herself in offense - she has a really nice and rare (for Stanford) combination of size, handles, and shooting touch (when it's on). On this team, I think she's our only player who can consistently execute the mid-range jumper, and that pays such dividends in breaking defenses down.
I was really digging the Swain - Clardy - Ogden - Nunu - Somfai lineup. Offense + defense + handles + versatility. Could we please see more of that?
The only lament I have is that I think our tournament hopes evaporated in the last 50 seconds. The ACC is truly terrible this season and we have very few "good" wins left to build a resume. And given our disastrous road trips last season, I'm assuming we will lay a few road eggs yet again.
So I'm trying to adjust to a mentality that this will need to be a three-year rebuild rather than two. I think I'm on board with it, especially if we continue to see player growth like we saw from several of our key pieces tonight