Two Exhibitions Played: Now for the ones that count!
Fans have now had two opportunities to preview the "Kate Paye Era" of Stanford Women's Basketball. The 2024-25 team has been on display for two exhibition games. The first was the Red & White Scrimmage where Stanford players, Coach "Bird" McCall, alum Hannah Jump, and the team's male practice players participated in a four-quarter scrimmage. In that scrimmage the "White" team consisted of team members, but the identity of those players changed at the end of quarters. The "Red" team had as its core the male practice players, Bird, Jump, Stavi Papadaki, and Lauren Green. The second was an exhibition against Division II Cal State Los Angeles. Neither returning starting point guard Talana Lepolo nor freshman point guard Shay Ijiwoye participated in either exhibition due to injuries.
Red & White Scrimmage
The unique format of the Red & White scrimmage created challenges for analyzing the team's performance. Talana's absence as she recovers from her off-season knee surgery only added to that difficulty. But, one fact is abundantly clear - this is a young team. Gone from the "White" team were the four players (Brink, Iriafen, Jump, and Lepolo) who averaged more than 25 minutes per game last season. While Talana should be back on the court soon, replacing All American/PAC-12 Player of the Year Brink, team leading scorer All American Iriafen, and Stanford's three-point career record holder Jump will not be easy. They scored over 61% of Stanford's points last year (47.4 of the team's 77.5 points per game.) Of the returning players, other than Lepolo who average over 30, only Demetre averaged over 20 minutes a game (21). Brooke and senior Elena Bosgana are experienced players with good three point stokes -- they will need to provide solid leadership and consistent play if this young team is going to secede.
The team's five newcomers include two players with college experience, Tess Heal and Mary Ashley Stevenson, and three solid recruits. Point guard Heal, a junior from Australia, transferred from Santa Clara where she was #4 in the country in made free throws. Wing Stevenson transferred from Purdue where she was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. The three freshman newcomers are 6'4" center Kennedy Umeh, 6'3" Harper Peterson, and 5'6" guard Shay Ijwoye. All five new players are learning the Stanford system, and the freshmen are just making the transition from high school to college. That transition involves playing a faster game on a larger court with a longer three-point line against older players. Bottom line, this is a team one expects to get better as the season goes along.
There were some other clues to the season ahead in the Red & White scrimmage. First, returning sophomore Nunu Agara showed that she had made the improvement one hopes to see in a returning sophomore. Fellow returnees Ogden and Clardy also showed increased confidence but didn't quite seem to have "put it all together." This was most evident with Ogden, clearly a very talented player, who seemed to lack that solid sense of when to pass and when to push, resulting in some missed opportunities on offense. Heal, despite being in a new system, acquitted herself well subbing for the missing Talana. Similarly, Harriel showed the maturity of four years at Stanford -- and seems ready to play a significant role on this team. All of these players clearly have an "upside” and we expect the talented Stanford coaching staff to help them achieve real improvement as individual players and as a team.
The good news was that the team played with pace and ball movement. The bad news was that the team missed way too many shots. There were no stats displayed so it is hard to know what the shooting percentages were -- but unlike last year when it was raining made threes, this year the "rain" was hit and miss, with too many misses. There were similar struggles at the rim.
Exhibition Against CAL State LA
The good news for the CARD is that nobody got hurt and six players scored in double figures -- led by Nunu Agara's monster 25 point, 13 rebound, 5 assists, and two block game. Stanford played with good pace, evidenced by Stanford's 91 total points. Although Stanford had a number of good looks that didn't fall, overall the shooting percentages were very close to the season averages from last year. (Total FG% 46.3% last year to 46.9%; 3-PT % 34.6% last year to 34.5%) Free throw shooting was another plus. The team hit 91% of their 23 freebies. There were only two misses, both early misses from players who hit a combined 15 of 17 -- not bad at all!
The bad news is that although Stanford won this game by over 21 points, it was not the blow out that most would have expected against a Division II team with only two players over 6' on the roster. The Cardinal "won" every quarter, but the margin for each quarter was between four and seven points. One major factor in this surprisingly even game was CSLA's efficient 11 of 26 (42.3%) from the three-point range and 44% success from the floor overall. Obviously, Stanford needs to improve on defense! Some of that improvement should come when Talana Lepolo, generally a strong defender, gets back on the floor. Some will come as the team gains more experience playing together since Stanford does a lot of switching on defense. However, a key factor in defensive improvement involves players making a commitment to defense. Players need to "hang their hats" on their defense -- coaches need to ask for that and reward it with playing time.
A Star Starts to Shine!
Coming into this season with Brink, Jump, and Iriafen gone, one big question was who will be the next Stanford Star? Possible candidates included senior Brooke Demetre, senior Elena Bosgana, red-shirt junior Jzaniya Harriel, sophomore Nunu Agara, and sophomore Courtney Ogden. Bosgana, Demetre, and Agara were Stanford's fourth, fifth, and sixth leading scorers last season. Harriel was last season's three-point percentage leader (39.5%). Ogden, the most highly rated recruit in last year's freshman class, had been hampered by nagging injuries but showed flashes of brilliance.
At the Red & White scrimmage, Agara flashed strong signals that she was ready to shine. Against Cal State LA she transformed those signals into a star worthy performance. On offense, Nunu attacked the rim with confidence, pulled down seven "O-boards," stepped out to make one of her two 3-point shots, and was Stanford's assist leader with five. On defense Nunu was generally an effective defender, grabbed seven rebounds, and managed two blocks -- albeit against a team lacking in size. Additionally, Nunu was a vocal leader on the floor -- helping to direct and encourage her teammates. She was a warrior. However, for me the best Agara moment came with her on the bench in the games waning moments. Freshman post Kennedy Umeh credits Agara, her teammate on the Gold Medal winning USA 2022 U17 team, as her inspiration and her reason for committing to Stanford. When Kennedy grabbed her first rebounds and scored her first basket as a Stanford player, Nunu smiled, cheered, jumped up and down enthusiastically! That unselfish enthusiasm for a teammate's performance from a player who had just put in over 30 exhausting minutes on the court is the true hallmark of a Stanford star. Coaches and players talk about the Stanford sisterhood. In her obvious joy over Kennedy's success, Nunu exhibited it!
Over the course of the year, other players need to shine. Winning teams have more than one star, sometimes more than one superstar. The performances against CSLA hint that other Stanford players will have multiple star turns this season. Let's show up and watch. Next game -- Monday night against Le Moyne at 7:00 pm! That game, the first official game of the season, will be followed by a game against Washington State, Thursday also at 7 pm. Then Sunday at noon, Stanford will play Gonzaga in a noon game that will also feature the unveiling of the Tara VanDerveer Court at Maples Pavilion.
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