(03-06-2025, 11:14 AM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: What would you say has been (to date) the season highlight for this team?
The highlight was Defeating a highly regarded Florida State team at Maples. Superb all around effort and good atmosphere.
Runner-up was taking LSU to overtime on their home court. Hard to say it was a highlight though since we lost. But it seemed as if we could play with anyone.
I'll go on record and say that while Kate Paye had some better and some worse games this year as a coach, I actually think she did well given what she had to work with. Namely:
1) There was not enough time to install a radically different offense after all the roster changes became apparent. She was stuck with last year's offense and then deprived of the people who could make it work.
2) Injuries kept the roster in constant flux. Losing Lepolo doomed the Princeton--although it should go in any case. Harriel should have been an important perimeter bomber--she did shoot 43% from three this year--but she played limited minutes down the stretch when we needed her. Just as the team began to come together we lost Agara, who is still not back to her old self.
3) Travel did not by itself cost us any game. But before we criticize the "lack of effort" we need to consider how much of that perception is due to the steady grind of that crushing travel schedule. Next year may not be much better--all the schools we travel to next year are the ones we did NOT travel to this year--more new situations and new routines. Perhaps our non-freshmen will be find it more routine, but it was not routine for anyone this year. Does no one remember the road trip to Colorado and Utah that Tara cited as the most difficult weekend in conference play? Try moving that trip a couple thousand miles further east, and try doing it every trip. And then note that Miami and Georgia Tech did not play a single game outside the Atlantic time zone all year until they came to Maples--except for a tournament in Hawaii in November. And they did not perform up to their expectations either when they had to do for one week what we had to do for half our weeks.
4) We may indeed have had a deficit of talent, but whatever effect that had, it was greatly compounded with the deficit of experience. As I documented earlier in the year, this was the least experienced Stanford WBB team I could find since records were kept. Even one of our seniors was a
first year starter. To compound the problem, most of the ACC teams we played were loaded with transfers and grad transfers. It was often the case that the players we put on the floor had started less than half the number of games that the players on the opposing team had started. Sure, if we were greatly more talented than the other team we could overcome that. But we weren't. The lack of experience is most evident in inconsistency and emotional ups and downs that translate into uneven play. Which we saw in spades.
The Project. Kate has to find ways to overcome all these issues next year. If she comes back with the Princeton I will be surprised and disappointed. She needs to construct a new offense around Hailee Swain--one that will allow her to become the second coming of Juju, and rapidly. An offense that can successfully start one or more freshmen. The travel situation, for whatever we did to mitigate it--it was obviously not enough. She needs to continue to develop Ogden, Ijiwoye, and Agara. One idea that no one has mentioned--if Tess Heal could somehow improve her defense and quicken her three point release, she would be a real force to be reckoned with. She shot 50% of her treys this year in volume. I don't think even Candice or Jennifer managed to do that. Can our coaches help her come along further?
So lots and lots for the coaches to consider and to do. I'll be much more confident about making my own judgments after next year. I do not expect us to return to final four form immediately, but we need to become a consistent, winning team with steadily improving players, become competitive with elite teams, make it to the NCAAs and win a couple, make noise toward the top of the ACC. That would be a successful transition next year.
