[stopandpop]

Alex should dominate in these type of games.  Her stats aren't terrible, except for the 4 turnovers.

Swain scored a career high 26 points.  She is our MVP by far.

Agree about Swain. Ijiowye (sp) shows flashes but inconsistent. Alex plays like she doesn’t want to be 6’5”.

Agree about Alex.  I can't imagine that Paye is telling her to step outside and simply be a screener and facilitator.  Something has changed.  Watching her body language, she has either lost confidence in her inside game or doesn't want to 'bang' with the other 'Bigs', or perhaps a little of both.  In the St. Mary's game, Eschmeyer was consistently posting in the block, calling for the ball, and her teammates were finding her.  UC Davis is a notch or two better than St. Mary's, but this was a game Alex should have dominated.  Umeh can post, but she lacks the basic skill sets to score so at this point, Stanford has no inside game at all.

Right now, Stanford is an East-West team and Swain is their only true weapon (although a great one).  The Cardinal need Eschmeyer playing down low and being aggressive.  Still early in the season, but somebody on the staff needs to work with Alex- and soon or the Cardinal will lose a lot more games than they lost last season.

I’m more worried that Alex’s play might be caused by coaching.

You make a good point.  Alex played over 29 minutes.  Using your argument, if Paye wasn't happy with Alex's play, one would think she would have pulled and lectured her, but she kept her in for long stretches.  If your theory is right, that would be a brobdingnagian concern about how Alex is being coached and contrary to what Paye said about Alex during media day- "future All American and future WNBA player".  Why would you take a skilled, mobile 6'5 center and deliberately move her outside?  Just doesn't make sense.  I wonder if anyone on the Stanford coaching staff sees things differently than KP?

[stopandpop]

Alex should dominate in these type of games.  Her stats aren't terrible, except for the 4 turnovers.

Swain scored a career high 26 points.  She is our MVP by far.

Agree about Swain. Ijiowye (sp) shows flashes but inconsistent. Alex plays like she doesn’t want to be 6’5”.

Agree about Alex.  I can't imagine that Paye is telling her to step outside and simply be a screener and facilitator.  Something has changed.  Watching her body language, she has either lost confidence in her inside game or doesn't want to 'bang' with the other 'Bigs', or perhaps a little of both.  In the St. Mary's game, Eschmeyer was consistently posting in the block, calling for the ball, and her teammates were finding her.  UC Davis is a notch or two better than St. Mary's, but this was a game Alex should have dominated.  Umeh can post, but she lacks the basic skill sets to score so at this point, Stanford has no inside game at all.

Right now, Stanford is an East-West team and Swain is their only true weapon (although a great one).  The Cardinal need Eschmeyer playing down low and being aggressive.  Still early in the season, but somebody on the staff needs to work with Alex- and soon or the Cardinal will lose a lot more games than they lost last season.

I’m more worried that Alex’s play might be caused by coaching.

You make a good point.  Alex played over 29 minutes.  Using your argument, if Paye wasn't happy with Alex's play, one would think she would have pulled and lectured her, but she kept her in for long stretches.  If your theory is right, that would be a brobdingnagian concern about how Alex is being coached and contrary to what Paye said about Alex during media day- "future All American and future WNBA player".  Why would you take a skilled, mobile 6'5 center and deliberately move her outside?  Just doesn't make sense.  I wonder if anyone on the Stanford coaching staff sees things differently than KP?