[Viking_Guy]

MT--

Not sure if it's bias in favor of the offense, or simply the realization that the largest delta in Stanford's games has been on the offensive end.  Look at the opponent's score in each of those games you mentioned:  Baylor 69, UConn 61, Kal 62, Tenn 60.  That's a fairly consistent defensive effort, although it's not normalized by number of possessions (and I think that would be a FAR better indicator than per minute in a lot of ways - a lot of the efficiency statistics are calculated that way to normalize for "style of play" characteristics, though it's a lot more work to calculate).

Just compare the two games last week: in game 1, Kal had 14 12 more possessions (sorry, was looking at rebounds), shot 21 FT attempts and shot 31% from the field.  In game 2, they had a very similar 10 more possessions, ended up with 31 FTs (given late fouling) - and shot just under 30% from the field.  Stanford has a solid and consistent defense, and has only really had defensive struggles against Baylor (whose 45% is almost all Griner and Griner-overplaying benefits to other inside players) - heck, even UConn, with all of their success in turning Stanford over, shot only around 38%.

Then you look at the offense:  in game 1 last week, 50% from the field and only 9 TOs, enough to offset 0-8 from 3 and 58% FT shooting.  In game 2, 2-12 from 3 was not improvement enough to offset 16 TOs and 35% from the field.  UConn? 20% from the field. Baylor?  51% from the field.  Tennessee? 49% from the field. Heck, in the other close win against South Carolina, we shot 40% from the field and held them under 30.

I don't know if we're talking past one another, but I think the primary issues facing the team are offensive.  It may be that better offensive players bring defensive liabilities with them, true. 

The other indicator of confidence issues to me is what you could call the "quicksand" or "cascade" problem - when things go wrong on offense for Stanford, they go wrong in bunches.  I can't remember a Stanford team (well, other than the current men's team  ::) that has such regular and consistent scoring droughts, where players all seem to tighten up and nothing works.  The key stretch in the loss to Kal was the middle of the second half - Stanford's defense played REALLY well, holding the Bears to 10 points over nearly 11 minutes, from the 15 minute mark to the 4 minute mark on the clock.  The problem was that over the same stretch, Stanford scored a grand total of 8 points, shooting 3-16 with four turnovers.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

MT--

Not sure if it's bias in favor of the offense, or simply the realization that the largest delta in Stanford's games has been on the offensive end.  Look at the opponent's score in each of those games you mentioned:  Baylor 69, UConn 61, Kal 62, Tenn 60.  That's a fairly consistent defensive effort, although it's not normalized by number of possessions (and I think that would be a FAR better indicator than per minute in a lot of ways - a lot of the efficiency statistics are calculated that way to normalize for "style of play" characteristics, though it's a lot more work to calculate).

Just compare the two games last week: in game 1, Kal had 14 12 more possessions (sorry, was looking at rebounds), shot 21 FT attempts and shot 31% from the field.  In game 2, they had a very similar 10 more possessions, ended up with 31 FTs (given late fouling) - and shot just under 30% from the field.  Stanford has a solid and consistent defense, and has only really had defensive struggles against Baylor (whose 45% is almost all Griner and Griner-overplaying benefits to other inside players) - heck, even UConn, with all of their success in turning Stanford over, shot only around 38%.

Then you look at the offense:  in game 1 last week, 50% from the field and only 9 TOs, enough to offset 0-8 from 3 and 58% FT shooting.  In game 2, 2-12 from 3 was not improvement enough to offset 16 TOs and 35% from the field.  UConn? 20% from the field. Baylor?  51% from the field.  Tennessee? 49% from the field. Heck, in the other close win against South Carolina, we shot 40% from the field and held them under 30.

I don't know if we're talking past one another, but I think the primary issues facing the team are offensive.  It may be that better offensive players bring defensive liabilities with them, true. 

The other indicator of confidence issues to me is what you could call the "quicksand" or "cascade" problem - when things go wrong on offense for Stanford, they go wrong in bunches.  I can't remember a Stanford team (well, other than the current men's team  ::) that has such regular and consistent scoring droughts, where players all seem to tighten up and nothing works.  The key stretch in the loss to Kal was the middle of the second half - Stanford's defense played REALLY well, holding the Bears to 10 points over nearly 11 minutes, from the 15 minute mark to the 4 minute mark on the clock.  The problem was that over the same stretch, Stanford scored a grand total of 8 points, shooting 3-16 with four turnovers.

VG