The Last PAC-12 Champions
Stanford wrapped up the final PAC-12 regular season with two wins in games at Oregon State and Oregon. Stanford finished with a regular season record of 26-4, 15-3 in the PAC-12. With the win at Oregon State, Stanford clinched sole possession of first place in the conference. The CARD finished with a two-game lead over their closest competitors - the LA schools.
Cameron Brink celebrated finishing the regular season in her home state by an incredible stat-sheet stuffing performance. In a close game against Oregon State, Cam scored 25 points, pulled down 24 rebounds, dished out five assists, and had one block. Those 24 rebounds tied Stanford's single game record set by Chiney Ogwumike in a game against Oregon eleven years ago. Against Oregon Cam scored 18 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, had five assists, three blocks, and a steal. That's a two-game total of 43 points and 41 rebounds! The four blocks put Brink over the century mark for the second season in a row. (Cam needs 17 more blocks to break her own single season record of 118.) According to the announcers, Brink's two double-doubles over the weekend put her over the century mark for career double-doubles. That stat is not listed in the Stanford career records. In her post-game interview following the Oregon game, Brink described her role on the Stanford team as being a leader, a scorer, a little bit of everything. For this weekend and this season, she has been all that.
Oregon State is a Tough "Out"
The Oregon State game was hard to find in "real" time as it was only on PAC-12 Oregon due to the competition with men's basketball and their regular Thursday night schedule. Those able to watch it got a bit of a cardiac workout, as the game went down to the final seconds. Stanford didn't put the game "out-of-reach" until Kiki Iriafen hit one of two free throws with five seconds remaining to give Stanford a four-point lead. Although the game was close, Stanford was in the lead virtually the entire game, taking the lead at 5:55 mark in the first quarter and never giving it back. However, Stanford couldn’t "put-the-game away,” never opening more than an 11-point lead. Every time the CARD threatened to blow the game open, Oregon State battled back.
Stanford has now won both of its matchups with Oregon State this season. In both games the home team has been without their "star" player. Stanford beat Oregon State 65-56 at Maples to give Tara Vanderveer her record breaking 1203rd victory without Cameron Brink. Then, Stanford defeated Oregon State in Corvallis with Raegan Beers on the bench due to the broken nose she suffered against UCLA on Feb. 16. If both teams can "hold seed" -- and that is certainly not a "given" in the PAC-12 tournament where upsets often reign -- they will meet in the PAC-12 tournament Semi-finals.
Dominating Oregon
While Stanford has "exceeded" the pundits' expectations this year, Oregon has had a disappointing season. Clearly the Ducks miss Te-Hina Paopao who transferred to South Carolina at the end of last season. They finish the season last in the PAC-12 without any "quality" wins. So it is not surprising that, despite not missing way too many "bunnies," Stanford dominated the Ducks.
Playing without Talana Lepolo, the CARD took the lead early. Oregon's only lead was five to four as both teams were cold in the first half of the first quarter. By the end of the first quarter Stanford was up by seven and the game was never closer than that. Although Oregon came out hot to open the third quarter, making their first three shots, they were never able to cut the gap below nine points. By the game's end, Stanford was comfortably in control and both Stavi Papadaki and Lauren Green were on the floor.
The good news for the CARD was that, in addition to strong performances from Brink and Iriafen (16 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists), the whole team contributed. Four players had double digits scoring and all nine of the "core" players scored. Seven players had assists and eight players had at least one rebound. If the Cardinal is going to go deep into the post season, the team will need to be able to rely on more than seven players.
The Post Season Is Here
With the regular season over, it's tournament time. First up is the PAC-12 Tournament where Stanford enters as the number one seed. But if there is anything that this year's PAC-12 season and the last several years of PAC-12 tournaments has demonstrated it is that rankings don't really matter. On any given night, any team can beat any team. The main thing being the number one seed means is that the CARD only needs to win three games to win the tournament, not four. Amazingly, two teams, Colorado and Utah that were ranked in the nation's top 20 last week, will find themselves playing on the first day of the tournament!
Before the season, pundits justified Stanford's ranking of 15th in the nation and third in the PAC-12 by doubting Brink's ability to lead Stanford to a Final Four or even Elite Eight run in the post season. Of course, in addition to vastly underestimating the value of Cam's leadership, those pundits didn't anticipate Kiki Iriafen's emergence as a legitimate All-American candidate. Those two, along with the strong play from the other eight members of Tara's "trusted" rotation give Stanford a legitimate chance of getting to Cleveland. This team has chemistry, talent, and joy -- and great coaching. Nothing is out of the question -- but then, nothing is a given.
Questions
1. Can Stanford stop missing the easy ones?
All season Stanford has been great from the free throw line and good at finishing at the rim. Against Oregon that wasn't the case -- Stanford only shot 50% from the free throw line (or course they only had six free throws so that was 3 of 6) and missed on a number of point-blank shots. Maybe it was the relief of being in control in a game that mostly didn't matter, but these are some of the "little things" that need correcting.
2. Can Stanford grab one last PAC-12 Tournament title?
In my mind, the best title for this version of my blog was, "Save the last dance for the Cardinal." This upcoming PAC-12 tournament is the league's last dance. It seems only fitting for the team and the coach who have defined PAC-12 basketball for as long as it has been the PAC-12 to have the confetti fall one last time.
I love this line, Nancy. Ir couldn't have been said better.
ReplyDelete"It seems only fitting for the team and the coach who have defined PAC-12 basketball for as long as it has been the PAC-12 to have the confetti fall one last time."