Not Stanford's Day
There was finally an upset in the PAC-12 Tournament. Unfortunately, that meant that #1 seed Stanford, the regular season Champions, lost to #2 seed USC. This was only USC's second PAC-12 Tournament victory. The Trojans' other victory was in 2014 when they also defeated the Cardinal. Stanford finishes their PAC-12 Tournament record with 15 Championship wins in 20 Championship games, a 75% winning percentage -- not bad. But, of course, today's loss is the freshest one.
As an observer, it appeared that Stanford played nervous while USC played hungry. Players that are usually "money" for the CARD struggled (Hannah Jump shooting 1 for 7 and Brooke Demetre going 1-4) while USC players who have not hit big numbers or high percentages all year scored in big bunches. USC players with shooting percentages in the low to mid 30% range were hitting at the mid to high 40% level. It was that sort of day. Shots that usually fall for Stanford circled the rim and spun out or teetered on the rim and fell off, while shots for USC hung on the rim and fell in. Beyond the shots not falling, the biggest story was rebounding. Stanford generally wins the rebounding battle. Prior to today, Stanford was the nation’s number one team in rebound margin — out rebounding opponents by 14! In this game the Cardinal was out rebounded by 20 -- 48 to 28. The disparity on the O-Boards was even greater with USC collecting 18 offensive rebounds while Stanford had only 6. The difference was reflected in USC's 14 second chance points compared to 3 for the Cardinal. Stanford is not going to win many games when out rebounded by those margins. Additionally, Stanford only hit 4 of their 7 free throws while USC hit 11 of 12 from the line.
There were a number of positives for Stanford -- including the solid play of Elena Bosgana on JuJu Watkins. Not only did JuJu fail to "go off" for 51 points, but she was held to a season low nine points, with the majority coming at the free throw line. JuJu didn't score a field goal in the first half, and for the game went 0 for 3 from the three-point line with only three rebounds and one assist. An oddity is that JuJu's season high and low scoring games both came against Stanford. In addition to defending JuJu, Elena matched JuJu's offensive production, scoring nine points. Unfortunately, it is likely that the defensive attention to Watkins, especially given the relatively quick turnaround between late Friday night and Sunday afternoon, played a role in Stanford's problems with rebounding. Another positive for the CARD was the play of Chloe Clardy. In fifteen minutes on the floor, Chloe scored four points, had two assists, a steal and a block with no turnovers. Her tenacious defense and quick hands gave USC trouble. I think we can expect to see more of Chloe as post season play continues. Cameron Brink was, as usual, a beast despite being clobbered by the very physical USC play. Cam had six blocks and 10 rebounds to go with her team leading 19 points. Kiki also put-up big numbers even though she also had shots roll round the rim and spin out, scoring 18 points and grabbing 7 rebounds.
The other good news is that the USC team is unlike most other teams the CARD is likely to play this year or in the future. The USC roster includes five graduate transfers and a senior -- that's 29 years of college playing experience and a lot of physical maturity. Additionally, USC benefited from a "let them play" attitude from the officials - especially in the first half when USC opened up their nine-point lead. Stanford played the Trojans even once the officials started calling some of USC more blatant holds and hinders. Unfortunately, when you have dug a nine-point hole, playing even isn't enough. USC was able to extend their lead in the final minutes when the CARD started gambling more on both sides of the ball in an effort to catch up. Perhaps the best summation was one Tara offered, "we left our offense back at the hotel."
The good news is that this is not the end for this team. Stanford has a 28-5 record, including multiple Top 25 wins. Losing to the nation's fifth ranked team in a week when four other Top 10 teams suffered losses shouldn't impact Stanford's NCAA seeding too dramatically. Of course, given the slights Stanford has suffered at the hands of the NCAA selection committee over the years, nothing is certain. The biggest question is how will Stanford respond to this loss and how will it help them get better?
See you at Maples for the first round of the NCAA tournament.
No comments:
Post a Comment