[liveoak]

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?

It’s possible that Alex wants to develop her outside game for the next level. In this world of transfer portal and given history of apparently unhappy transfers, coaches would feel compelled to honor that request.  Just a guess on my part . I do t think, though, that you can assume players are used like the coach wants to use them in this modern era. It’s a new world.

I think that some people believe Alex is the reincarnation of Jayne Appel and expect her to play on the low block. I personally see her as a much more mobile center - someone who can step out and hit threes and work in a mobile offense. Kennedy Umeh is much more of a low-block center and I would like to see her develop those skills...and I'm a little surprised they haven't been developed. I could see Umeh at the 5 and Eschmeyer at the 4 - this could be a good combination. 

I agree that Eschmeyer seemed less aggressive and didn't seem to want to play inside - she got blocked early and that may have been a factor. Paye may have also used offensive schemes that don't put her on the low block.  I did notice that when Umeh was in, the offense was changed so that she posted up down low - I don't think that Umeh fits well into the Princeton offense that Stanford runs.

[liveoak]

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?

It’s possible that Alex wants to develop her outside game for the next level. In this world of transfer portal and given history of apparently unhappy transfers, coaches would feel compelled to honor that request.  Just a guess on my part . I do t think, though, that you can assume players are used like the coach wants to use them in this modern era. It’s a new world.

I think that some people believe Alex is the reincarnation of Jayne Appel and expect her to play on the low block. I personally see her as a much more mobile center - someone who can step out and hit threes and work in a mobile offense. Kennedy Umeh is much more of a low-block center and I would like to see her develop those skills...and I'm a little surprised they haven't been developed. I could see Umeh at the 5 and Eschmeyer at the 4 - this could be a good combination. 

I agree that Eschmeyer seemed less aggressive and didn't seem to want to play inside - she got blocked early and that may have been a factor. Paye may have also used offensive schemes that don't put her on the low block.  I did notice that when Umeh was in, the offense was changed so that she posted up down low - I don't think that Umeh fits well into the Princeton offense that Stanford runs.