The Season Has Begun

            Stanford has its first win as the 2022-23 basketball season has officially begun -- Stanford 86 - San Diego State 48.  The starting five were the same players who had started against Vanguard: Haley Jones, Cameron Brink, Hannah Jump, Kiki Iriafen, and Agnes Emma-Nnopu. Unlike last week's exhibition, this time the CARD started fast on offense and defense, rattling off ten points before SDSU put the ball through the hoop. The score was 25 to 4 at the end of the 1st quarter. SDSU, another team with only one player over six feet tall, was clearly overmatched. SDSU did better in the other three quarters, but never seriously threatened.

            Playing time was spread around. All fifteen Stanford players participated with twelve scoring.  Haley played the longest at 23 minutes. As a team Stanford shot 51.6 %, 20 percentage points more than SDSU's 31.6%. Stanford spread the scoring around with four Stanford players scoring in double figures (Iriafen, Brink, Bosgana, and Nivar), led by Iriafen's 16 points and Elena Bosgana's 15, career highs for both. Another encouraging stat - Stanford shot 84.6% from the free throw line. 

            

 

            The All-Americans

 

            Cameron Brink took up where she left off last year with six blocks, 13 points, eight rebounds, and three assists. Brink's three pointer on Stanford's opening possession got the scoring going and announced that she is going to shoot the three ball. It was a real treat to watch her "don't you try to come into my house" face as she decisively swatted away the shots of the much shorter SDSU players. Cam's eight-blocks-in-20-minutes performance was the second highest block total in the country.

            Haley Jones was a leader and a force on the court, but only scored six points to go with her five assists.  Playing the point, a new position, seems to interfere with other aspects of her game -- and of course, SDSU focused considerable defensive energy on her.  We can expect her scoring to go up when Stanford actually needs her to score and as she becomes more accustomed to point guard duties.  Of course, Haley may not need to get that familiar with the role as Talana Lepola is making a strong case for taking over at point guard. Against SDSU she had 11 assists in 20 minutes and, as in the intersquad scrimmage and exhibition game, ZERO turnovers! Talana's assist total tied her for 5th in the nation for total assists -- one below Baylor's Jaden Owens who played 33 minutes -- it seems quite possible that with 33 minutes Talana's assist total would have equalled the 13 that was tops in the country.

 

            Still some rough spots

 

            In the early going Tara had a pretty quick hook -- it was "one foul and you sit."  It is also clear that these early games give Coach VanDerveer a chance to play different combinations of players as she sorts out this relatively young team. All the substitutions gave the game a disjointed feel. The machine isn't running smoothly yet -- but the parts are fabulous and the promise is great! 

 

            Next UP

 

            The next game is at 6 pm Wednesday, Nov 9, against Cal State Northridge (CSUN).  Unlike the first two teams the CARD have faced, CSUN has height.  Their roster lists a 6'6' center and multiple players over six feet.  For some of the Stanford "bigs" it may be refreshing to guard somebody closer to their own height instead of the short players they have been lining up against (and dominating).  CSUN is likely to come in grumpy as they lost to CAL in their first game.  Perimeter defense will be important.  Against CAL, CSUN shot better from 3 pt range (55%) than overall (33%). We can expect another fun, high energy game.

 

The Questions

 

1.  When will Talana Lepolo get into the assists record book? 

            Her 11 assists in 20 minutes of play against SDSU were only one assist short of putting her into the multi-player tie for 6th place on the single game assist record.  What happens if she gets 25 or 30 minutes?

 

2. What's going on with Fran Belibi's hand?

            It seems clear that Fran is not 100% -- and her hand is obviously taped. She still did her opening dunk, but seemed limited in the game. Stanford protects player's privacy so we don't know what's going on.  We just hope it heals soon. Fran is a senior after all.

 

3. Who will sign on signing day?

            Stanford already has three verbal commits for next year -- and there are other prospects, including JuJu Watkins.  But, nothing is a done deal until the letter of intent is signed.