Wins 1199 and 1200!

Wins Against the Washington Schools

            The Washington schools came to Maples this weekend for their final PAC-12 trip. Both teams had been ranked in the nation's Top 25 during this young season. Washington State arrived as the defending PAC-12 tournament champions - hoping to get their first ever win against Stanford. Washington arrived as the team with the nation's best scoring defense, holding teams to 48.5 points per game, and hoping to do the same to Stanford. Both left disappointed.  Washington State going down 74 to 65.  Washington losing 71 to 59.  

 

Washington State and the Tale of Three Pointers

 

            Kiki Iriafen and Cameron Brink were impressive -- as usual.  Brink had a 20 point, 18 rebound double-double (with 5 blocks, 2 steals, and three assists to fill the stat sheet). Iriafen had 17 points, 8 rebounds, and three assists.  One, and usually both, of these players leads the CARD in scoring regularly.  They are, arguably, the most dynamic frontline duo in the country. The key for Stanford going forward against PAC-12 and NCAA Tournament competition will be to have a strong complementary cast. 

 

            The stories of the Washington State game -- good and bad -- really centered around guards who got hot from three.  Coming into the game, Washington State's outstanding guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, normally a three-point machine, was hitting less than 20% of her threes (11 of 59).  Against the CARD, she found her three-point stroke -- hitting 5 of 10.  Some of that was due to defensive lapses by Stanford, but much of it was likely due to Leger-Walker getting past an emotional Christmas back in New Zealand after losing her beloved grandfather last season. For the Cardinal, it was Talana Lepolo's 4 of 5 from beyond the arc.  Those five attempts combined with Lepolo's 10 three point attempts against Cal represent over 40% of Lepolo's three point attempts for the first 13 games of the season.  Hopefully this shows that Lepolo realizes that for Stanford to win against good teams, she needs to make opposing teams view her an somebody they need to guard.  If they don't, she needs to make them pay. The third "guard" who got hot was Brooke Demetre, with an efficient 12 points on four of seven shooting.  Brooke is another vital part of the Stanford rotation and a great shooter. Her scoring filled a void left by Hannah Jump's mini-slump (0 for 2 from three).

 

            The other story from this game was, unfortunately again, the officiating.  Cameron Brink got hammered over and over.  On one play it seemed as if she was fouled five different times without getting a call.  But the worst was a play where Brink was soaring towards the basket and got taken down, flattened. The refs did manage to notice that it was a foul -- but they called it a common foul -- not a flagrant foul and not a shooting foul. It was so bad that even the normally calm Tara VanDerveer stormed towards the court and had to be held back by her assistants.

 

 

Washington -- The Immovable Object and the Irresistible Force

 

            Washington came in with the best scoring defense in the country -- holding teams under 50 points while the Cardinal came into the game with one of it's highest offensive averages in decades.  The victory went to the offense, although Washington held Stanford to it's lowest total score of the season -- 71 points.  The good news is that 71 points was enough for a double-digit victory.  

 

            Washington kept it close in the first half, with multiple ties and lead changes, mostly in the first quarter.  One of the big reasons was that Cam and Kiki spent too much of the first half on the bench due to foul trouble. Drawing fouls is a big part of Washington's game plan, they are good at falling down and running in front of people -- although to be fair they are also good at standing their ground.  In the second half the officials appeared to be less impressed by Huskies hitting the deck.  To be fair to the officials, perhaps Stanford players were also a bit more careful.

 

            Stanford's offense came alive in the 3rd Quarter. Hannah Jump hit three straight threes, finishing the game with four (4 of 13) after going 0 for seven in the first half.  Like all great shooters, she is capable of continuing to shoot even when a bunch of shots haven't fallen. The Stanford inside-out offense got into a flow, overwhelming the Washington defense. The Huskies didn't roll over and play dead despite falling 19 points behind, but Stanford maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.

            Some of the best news for the day was solid evidence of continued development from Stanford's freshman and other less experienced team members. Sunday was Nunu Agara's day -- as it has been several other times. Nunu was the fourth CARD in double figures. But, Courtney Ogden and Chloe Clardy also played valuable minutes.  Elena Bosgana also had a few potential highlight reel moments.  On one she had an athletic steal and streaked down court towards the basket with a defender on her heels and Kiki Iriafen pushing to catch up on the wing. In past years one suspects that Bosgana would have attempted to make what would probably have been a contested layup.  This time, she made a perfect pass to Kiki who hit the layup in stride.

 

Burying the Lead

 

            In journalism one of the marks of a poorly written story is being paragraphs or even pages into the story before mentioning the most important news - "the lead" - is mentioned.  Perhaps this column is guilty since the biggest story of the day from the standpoint of history is that with these two wins, Tara VanDerveer notched the 1199th and 1200th wins of her career.  This leaves Tara just two short of tying Mike Krzyzewski's record of 1202 wins and three short of becoming the winningest coach in college basketball history. The only defense for this journalistic faux pau is that if you were to ask Tara what was more important - her team playing well and winning without getting injured or Tara winning her 1200th game - we are all pretty sure what her answer would be.

 

Question

 

1. What will it take for women's basketball to get the quality of officiating that the players deserve?

 

Last year's Final Four and many of the games leading up to the Final Four were marked by questionable and potentially game changing calls. It sometimes appears as if the officals want to "level the playing field" by allowing smaller players to maul and bang bigger players with impunity. The physical play in some of Stanford's games has reached levels where players' well being appears at risk. 

 

Being an official isn't easy.  This is especially true in our current society where civility has all too often given way to thuggery and violence.  We have political "leaders" who encourage people to threaten violence against those with whom they disagree.  There are incidents where coaches and officials have been assaulted by so-called fans who didn't like their decisions. So, it is hard to imagine people standing in line to get a position as a basketball ref. Many fans have seen the same faces officiating games for decades -- and we can't imagine those refs are as quick and fit as they were when they were decades younger. But, the game has gotten faster and more physical.  We hope those responsible for college sports will address this issue.  But, when is that going to happen?