A "Chalk" Bracket

BEST YEAR EVER

 

                  For fans of women's basketball, the final PAC-12 tournament is special.  As this column is being written, only the Championship game remains.  Eight of the ten games that have already occurred involved at least one team ranked in the national Top 25, four were between two teams ranked in the national Top 25.  The Championship game will be between the nation's #2 team, Stanford, and the nation's #5 team, USC.  The quality of competition here has been Sweet 16 and Final Four level.  There are women's basketball fans here who have traveled from the East Coast despite not having a "team" in the tournament just because they wanted to see the display of top talent involved in this tournament!!!  What a swan song for the PAC-12.

 

                  In the first ten games there have been several "never happened before" stories.  One amazing story line is that for the first time in the 22-year history of the PAC-12 tournament the bracket has been "all chalk" -- meaning that there has not been a single upset.  The higher seeded team has won every game!  The games that have occurred are the games that were predicted by the bracket. That is particularly amazing because in this year's loaded conference play, almost every weekend had included at least one upset -- with the higher ranked team losing to a lower ranked team.  Every team, including Oregon, the Conference's last place team, had at least one win against a team ranked above them in the conference standings but not in this tournament! Hopefully the CARD will be able to sustain that "all chalk" story line as Stanford -- the regular season Conference Champion -- is the higher seeded team in the final game.  Although the higher seeded team has won every game -- two games have gone to double overtime, another "never happened before." Oregon State needed double overtime to defeat Colorado in the Quarterfinals and USC needed double overtime to defeat UCLA in the Semifinals.  Stanford did not need overtime for any of the CARD's wins, but both victories involved coming back from eight-point halftime deficits, deficits that had been even higher at some point.   In both games, Stanford fans couldn't breathe easily until the last minute!!!

 

                  That Championship game will be the 20th of the PAC-12’s 23 Championship games that Stanford has participated in -- an incredible record of consistent excellence.  Stanford has won 15 of those prior Championships. Stanford players have been named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player 16 times (including current Stanford assistant Erica McCall.)   So far in this tournament several Stanford players are obvious candidates for the MOP -- led by Kiki Iriafen and Cameron Brink.  Of course, the CARD will almost certainly need to defeat USC in the Championship for this to be relevant. Stanford's Nicole Powell is the only player to be named Tournament MOP while playing for the losing team -- and that was in the league’s first tournament in 2002.  Nonetheless, it is worth noting the strong play so far by Iriafen and Brink. Kiki was the scoring leader against CAL with 28 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal -- followed by 15 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and two blocks against Oregon State.  Against CAL Cam had 15 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block -- followed by 16 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists, two blocks, and a steal against Oregon State.  Brink's stat line is what one would expect from the First Team All-American that Cam is.  But, Kiki's stat line suggests that Stanford's leading scorer (18.6 ppg), who averages over 11 rebounds per game also deserves to be an All-American.  

 

 "Physicality" in The Women's Game

 

                  One significant and sad second-half incident of the Stanford - CAL game was an injury to CAL's Michele Onyiah.  She fouled Cameron Brink and as Brink fell back, their heads collieded -- the back of Cam's head into the front of Onyiah's. Onyiah lay on the floor -- eventually leaving bent over and holding a towel under her nose.  This injury or one like it was the predictable result of the level of physicality being allowed in the women's game, somewhat across the board in this tournament and around the country.  In this tournament there have been numerous times when players were pulled or knocked to the floor with no fouls called.  It's not so much that the officials were "favoring" one team over another -- they were just allowing a lot of bumping and banging.  In the late Semifinal, several players -- including JuJu Watkins and Charisma Osborne -- left the game after laying of the floor.  Unlike Onyiah, both Watkins and Osborne returned to the game.  Hopefully all of these players will be healthy for whatever remains of their team's season -- but the tolerance for this increased rough play in women's basketball endangers the athletes and deprives fans of a chance to watch the best players. 

 

 

Stanford 71 -- CAL 57

 

                  Stanford trailed by eight at the end of the first half. The game had begun as a "back and forth," with two lead changes in the 1st quarter. But CAL led the entire 2nd quarter with a lead that kept growing!  The CARD seemed a bit out of sorts -- CAL was by far the more poised and aggressive team.  That switched in the second half.  Stanford came out with intensity.  It only took the CARD a tad over three minutes to achieve the first tie of the second half -- one of five ties in the third quarter.  Stanford entered the 4th quarter up by four points and maintained a growing lead throughout the final quarter.  By the middle of the 4th, Stanford was up by double digits. The CARD never led by less than ten for the rest of the game. But with CAL's ability to heat up on threes, Stanford fans didn't breathe easy until the final minutes. 

 

                  The box score for the game was quite unusual.  Despite ten CARD players being on the floor for at least two minutes, only FOUR of them scored a single point!  Those four, Iriafen, Bosgana, Brink, and Lepolo, were all in double figures.  The other six players, including Hannah Jump, took only 10 of Stanford's 63 shots -- none of them attempting more than two shots!  It appears that Stanford players were "feeding the hot hand" as three of those players had very impressive shooting percentages -- led by Kiki's 79% shooting for 28 of Stanford's 71 points.  Unfortunately, those numbers hide the important roles played by the players who didn't score, especially their defensive roles.  Not every contribution is reflected on the "regular" box score.  The steals and rebounds show up but the box-outs and defensive pressure doesn’t — but those things are key to any victory and everybody who got into the game contributed.

 

 

Stanford 66 - Oregon State 57

 

                  The final score doesn't reflect how close this game was, and for fans in the arena it felt even closer than it actually was.  Perhaps that was because fans remember the final weekend of regular season when Stanford was up seven with four minutes to go, but OSU made it a one-possession for the last three minutes. In this game, Stanford was up by seven with 3:34 remaining.  But this time the CARD didn't let the Beavers get closer than seven in the remaining minutes.

 

                  This was an incredibly physical game.  OSU clearly didn't intend to allow Stanford to dominate in the paint -- and Reagan Beers knows how to use her big body.  Beers pushed Brink to the floor several times as she moved into position to score with no foul call.  Beers also managed to disrupt several layup attempts by Brink and Iriafen with her body without a foul call.  But, as has been said all season, against Stanford teams must "pick their poison." Stanford hit 46.7% of their three-point attempts, all of which occurred in the 2nd and 3rd quarters as the CARD dug out of what had been a 16-point deficit. Three-point shots helped Hannah Jump lead all scorers with 20 points (8-13 overall, 4-7 from three).  Brooke Demetre also hit two important back-to-back threes to ignite the Cardinal. Unlike the win over CAL when the box score didn't reflect that the entire team contributed, in this game the box score did.  Of course, timing is everything -- so the box score's recording of one steal by Chloe Clardy doesn't reflect that the steal occurred in the final three-and-a-half minutes, taking the steam out of OSU's rally attempt. This isn't Clardy's first significant steal.  Amazingly, despite averaging only 10.2 minutes a game, Chloe's 22 steals are second only to Cameron Brink's 23!  As the tournament season continues, Clardy's quick hands and solid "handles" could be a big factor.

 

                  Following the game, Cameron Brink shared what Assistant Coach Erica "Bird" McCall has told the team about what she said when her Stanford team was down 17 to Notre Dame in an Elite-Eight game they eventually won. "Bird" had announced in the locker room -- "alright we've got them right where we want them."  Cam says that has become a team joke -- reminding the team that they can come back.  These two "comeback" games reinforce that ability to battle back for this Stanford team.  Hopefully they won't need to do that again, but now they know they can.  I will defer summing up the tournament and the state of the team until the break between the tournament and Selection Sunday. 

 

The Las Vegas Experience

 

                  The tournament seems relatively well attended, with Oregon State having the largest number of fans based on shirt colors in the stands.  Of course this may reflect the early loss by Oregon.  It may also, as some fans have suggested, reflect the lack of other exciting ways to spend your time in Corvallis. But, regardless, OSU had a loud fan presence for both their games. Stanford has a respectable fan representation -- although not the crowd the regular season conference champion, number two ranked team in the country deserves -- but what else is new?

 

                  This year's tournament, like the first Las Vegas tournament, is being held at the MGM Grand's Garden Arena rather than at the Mandalay Bay.  There are some pluses to that.  The MGM is more centrally located on the strip, providing more easily assessable hotel and restaurant options. The biggest fan complaint is that the seats in this arena are not comfortable.  On Thursday when there were four terrific basketball games, most fans had a hard time physically tolerating the experience of sitting in those seats.   At least this time there was water available without buying it, despite not allowing fans to bring refillable water bottles into the arena.  It was strange, however, to see fans being allowed to sit inside the arena holding large beer cans (and other "adult beverage" cans).  If water bottles aren't allowed because they could be projectiles, why are beer cans safe?  

                    Overall, the tournament has been a fun experience — more so because the CARD are winning.  But, under the fun, it is hard to believe that this is the last dance for the PAC-12.  The merchandise booth has done a brisk business in PAC-12 items as fans reach for one final piece of this conference’s storied history. So bittersweet.