Preview:
We hope to get back on track vs. a team coached by the coaches who taught our coaches the Princeton. We played UC Davis first game last year and again in the 1st round of the NCAAs. You can see my write ups here:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...#pid234863
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...#pid244987
Malcolm over at the FBC has written a great preview that I think gets everything about right. You can read his column here:
https://fbc-previews.blogspot.com/
The Aggies are having an "off" year. They are 4-7, with their best win probably being over San Francisco. The computers put them at 174, which is better than Cal Baptist or Eastern Washington. Interestingly, Northern Colorado is ranked 173. In short, this is not the Davis team that we sometimes have met in the first round of the NCAAs. It looks to me as if they have not recovered from the graduation of their outstanding 6'4" center Morgan Bertsch. This is a warm-up team which--if we play well--we should beat by 30 points. On the other hand, Cal Baptist should teach us some humility. We didn't exactly beat them by 30 points.
Overview:
Granted, UC Davis should know how to defend our offense better than most anyone else, given that they taught it to us. But that did not stop us from thoroughly beating them twice last year. The fact that they led us for the majority of the game leads me to ratchet down my expectations for this season--this was uncomfortably like Cal Baptist. In the end, an excellent performance by Jones--who is the one freshman ready to play on both ends of the court--saved the game.
Flow of the game:
Davis has made 35% of its three point shots this year, which is good but not exceptional. Its opponents have made 36%. But in the first half of the game they made 58%, including Turner going 4/5 in only 11 minutes. Meanwhile, we went 1/6 from three point range in the first half. That helps to explain why UC Davis led 32-30 at halftime.
In the 1st quarter we went on a 9-0 run to open up a 10 point lead, and all seemed to be going as planned. Wilson, Lexie, Fingall, and Williams (hitting her only basket of the game) gave us the respectable lead. It seemed as if Davis was providing the appropriate doormat on which to clean our feet prior to conference play. But then something funny happened. As in funny peculiar. I didn't find it funny "hah hah." Davis closed out the quarter on their own 10-2 run, and in the second quarter they outscored us 15-11 on the basis of a very close, handsy defense that discombobulated us, and a few unmolested treys of their own.
Tara gave the team a very stern talking to at halftime, which in her own words was not suitable for a general audience. Anna Wilson had 16 minutes in the second half playing her aggressive style of defense, and Tara went with 4 guards and Jones much of the time. Our offense did not improve much in the 3rd quarter but our defense certainly did, holding the Aggies to 9 points. We took our first lead of the game when Jones made a jumper with 2:07 left in the quarter. Davis never led again, but kept the game tense and got within 5 with 3 minutes left. When Lacie made a trey with 1:29 left for a 10 point lead, the game finally felt in hand. Not the boring 30 point blowout that I expected with a lesser Davis team and a Stanford team smarting after its first loss.
Performances:
In the first half, we were outrebounded 21-14. We gave Davis 8 O-boards and only got 3 of our own. In the second half, we outrebounded Davis 21-12, a complete reversal. We had 7 O-boards to their 4. Tara's tongue lashing and/or adjustments turned around that stat. But I would have thought that after Texas we would have needed no encouragement to rebound well.
Davis had 20 turnovers to our 14. A couple of them came when we employed a full court press in the second half. First time I think I have seen Stanford do that--and it worked for change of pace.
We had 8 blocks--a few spectacular, as when Belibi rejected a shot to start a fast break that she completed at the other end.
We shot 47% to their 37%.
As far as individual performances, I would highlight Haley Jones and Anna Wilson.
Jones led with points at 21, rebounds with 11, and assists with 4. Anna Wilson's aggressive defense helped to cut down Davis's 3 point percentage from 58% in the first half to a more normal 38% in the second half.
I'd also call out Fingall for a solid performance today. Steady defense, 11 points on efficient shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal.
All that said, I am worried about Williams, who seems to be in an offensive slump, making just one basket and dishing only a single assist today. And we could really use Carrington, who provided a lot of the toughness and senior leadership on the court that we need.
Conclusion:
It was a win, and Haley Jones was spectacular, with another of her over the shoulder and behind-her-back layups to go with leading all the important categories for the team. But this game gives us one more piece of evidence that we are not as good as we dreamed. Not only did we struggle with Davis, we lost at Texas, struggled with Cal Baptist, and eked out a win against Gonzaga, at home. We are talented, but the freshmen as a group are not yet playing the defense we will need to be an elite team. As Tara said, the Pac 12 will be a bloodbath this year. Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, Arizona, and perhaps others could all easily beat us. Hold on for a wild ride.
We hope to get back on track vs. a team coached by the coaches who taught our coaches the Princeton. We played UC Davis first game last year and again in the 1st round of the NCAAs. You can see my write ups here:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...#pid234863
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...#pid244987
Malcolm over at the FBC has written a great preview that I think gets everything about right. You can read his column here:
https://fbc-previews.blogspot.com/
The Aggies are having an "off" year. They are 4-7, with their best win probably being over San Francisco. The computers put them at 174, which is better than Cal Baptist or Eastern Washington. Interestingly, Northern Colorado is ranked 173. In short, this is not the Davis team that we sometimes have met in the first round of the NCAAs. It looks to me as if they have not recovered from the graduation of their outstanding 6'4" center Morgan Bertsch. This is a warm-up team which--if we play well--we should beat by 30 points. On the other hand, Cal Baptist should teach us some humility. We didn't exactly beat them by 30 points.
Overview:
Granted, UC Davis should know how to defend our offense better than most anyone else, given that they taught it to us. But that did not stop us from thoroughly beating them twice last year. The fact that they led us for the majority of the game leads me to ratchet down my expectations for this season--this was uncomfortably like Cal Baptist. In the end, an excellent performance by Jones--who is the one freshman ready to play on both ends of the court--saved the game.
Flow of the game:
Davis has made 35% of its three point shots this year, which is good but not exceptional. Its opponents have made 36%. But in the first half of the game they made 58%, including Turner going 4/5 in only 11 minutes. Meanwhile, we went 1/6 from three point range in the first half. That helps to explain why UC Davis led 32-30 at halftime.
In the 1st quarter we went on a 9-0 run to open up a 10 point lead, and all seemed to be going as planned. Wilson, Lexie, Fingall, and Williams (hitting her only basket of the game) gave us the respectable lead. It seemed as if Davis was providing the appropriate doormat on which to clean our feet prior to conference play. But then something funny happened. As in funny peculiar. I didn't find it funny "hah hah." Davis closed out the quarter on their own 10-2 run, and in the second quarter they outscored us 15-11 on the basis of a very close, handsy defense that discombobulated us, and a few unmolested treys of their own.
Tara gave the team a very stern talking to at halftime, which in her own words was not suitable for a general audience. Anna Wilson had 16 minutes in the second half playing her aggressive style of defense, and Tara went with 4 guards and Jones much of the time. Our offense did not improve much in the 3rd quarter but our defense certainly did, holding the Aggies to 9 points. We took our first lead of the game when Jones made a jumper with 2:07 left in the quarter. Davis never led again, but kept the game tense and got within 5 with 3 minutes left. When Lacie made a trey with 1:29 left for a 10 point lead, the game finally felt in hand. Not the boring 30 point blowout that I expected with a lesser Davis team and a Stanford team smarting after its first loss.
Performances:
In the first half, we were outrebounded 21-14. We gave Davis 8 O-boards and only got 3 of our own. In the second half, we outrebounded Davis 21-12, a complete reversal. We had 7 O-boards to their 4. Tara's tongue lashing and/or adjustments turned around that stat. But I would have thought that after Texas we would have needed no encouragement to rebound well.
Davis had 20 turnovers to our 14. A couple of them came when we employed a full court press in the second half. First time I think I have seen Stanford do that--and it worked for change of pace.
We had 8 blocks--a few spectacular, as when Belibi rejected a shot to start a fast break that she completed at the other end.
We shot 47% to their 37%.
As far as individual performances, I would highlight Haley Jones and Anna Wilson.
Jones led with points at 21, rebounds with 11, and assists with 4. Anna Wilson's aggressive defense helped to cut down Davis's 3 point percentage from 58% in the first half to a more normal 38% in the second half.
I'd also call out Fingall for a solid performance today. Steady defense, 11 points on efficient shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal.
All that said, I am worried about Williams, who seems to be in an offensive slump, making just one basket and dishing only a single assist today. And we could really use Carrington, who provided a lot of the toughness and senior leadership on the court that we need.
Conclusion:
It was a win, and Haley Jones was spectacular, with another of her over the shoulder and behind-her-back layups to go with leading all the important categories for the team. But this game gives us one more piece of evidence that we are not as good as we dreamed. Not only did we struggle with Davis, we lost at Texas, struggled with Cal Baptist, and eked out a win against Gonzaga, at home. We are talented, but the freshmen as a group are not yet playing the defense we will need to be an elite team. As Tara said, the Pac 12 will be a bloodbath this year. Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, Arizona, and perhaps others could all easily beat us. Hold on for a wild ride.
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