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Joined: Dec 1969
I didn't record the ASU-Oregon game as it played, but had to settle for the PAC-12 channel replay.
Spoiler Alert: (Did I confuse you? I meant that the PAC-12 spoiling of the replay.)
The PAC-12 channel "modified" the replay to lose the game from Ore 56-52 ASU at Q4 4:35 up to Ore 56-58 ASU Q4 3:37. A rather critical minute of playing time.
Both teams played well. Oregon did not seem the juggernaut that some of their scores might suggest. I have to presume this was an off game for them.
One of the impressive stats was the information that no ASU player was in the top 20 scorers (PAC-12 pts/game), and they were the only team without such a player. (Today's stats show Tapley with 11.8 pts in 23.4 min (=20.2/40min) at #20. Lexie is at #16; Kiana #19. ) They have 6 players averaging more than 20 minutes per game, with the top at 25.5. Stanford has 4 players with > 20 minutes, with Kiana at 31.2. (On the other hand, Stanford has 11 (of 13) players averaging 12.7 min/game; ASU has 10 (of 13) players averaging 12.2 min/game. As this is an average per game, it does include DiJonai.)
As is often the case, officiating impacts the result. Sabally picked up a charge her 4th foul with just under 6 minutes left, when the defender's foot was clearly on the circle of the protected area. The 4th foul clearly affected Sabally's play after that.
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Stanford has to be well-prepared for the next 3 games. After Friday's win, Stanford may be looking past Sunday's game, which can always be dangerous. Even so, I'm not too worried about that. As for Oregon, I expect they'll want to take out their frustrations on Arizona. I do hope Oregon prevails, or we might have hell to pay when we visit them on Thursday. I expect the Oregon State - ASU game to be very interesting. Oregon State will be playing for a #1 ranking, and will be very focused on Sunday's game. ASU will have a lot of confidence but won't be overconfident. Even if OSU gets ahead, ASU will know they can come back from a deficit. If OSU loses, Baylor will take #1, probably for the rest of the season. I believe if OSU wins, they clearly should be #1, hopefully only for a week.
If Stanford were to win all their games this week & next, the polls should be very interesting. I'd think in such a scenario, Stanford will have a strong claim to #1, haven beaten 2 top-5 teams in the week. As I said, if OSU wins this weekend & next, they clearly should be #1. If OSU loses to ASU but beats us, I think their claim to #1 after next week would be as strong, or stronger, than Baylor's.
There are enough scenarios that it makes my head swim, so let's see what happens on the court. In some sense, all this mid-season mixing won't matter much, but the big games should pay off come tournament time.
(By the way, on my Sling Box, there is a "Stanford at Cal" scheduled at 3:30 Sunday on PAC-12BA. That is NOT the game you want. Tomorrow's WBB game starts at 5PM, and is also just labeled "Stanford at Cal". FYI: TiVo is apparently entering into some sort of relationship with Sling in the near future, so some of Sling's misfeatures may be avoidable.)