Challenges Ahead!

 

A Family Affair

 

            Friday afternoon's game against UC San Diego had the air of a family affair -- with a bit of a "big sister domination" dynamic.  For openers, there were an unusually large number of family members in the stands for both sides as Stanford had hosted Thanksgiving dinner for players, coaches, and their families the previous day.  Additionally, the seriously overmatched UC San Diego team is coached by Tara's younger sister -- Heidi VanDerveer.  Following the game there was a "Behind the Bench" session with the two VanDerveers.

 

Hot Start -- Solid Finish

                  Tess Heal joined Nunu Agara, Elena Bosgana, Brooke Demetre, and Jzaniya Harriel in the starting line-up. Talana Lepolo, Stanford's junior point guard was not dressed for the game due to lingering soreness from her last season's knee injury and a mildly sprained ankle. All other players were available and all spent time on the floor.

 

                  Tess played well, scoring 13-points, on five-of-six shooting, and dishing out three assists with no turnovers. But the star of the game was Elena Bosgana who was perfect from the floor, including five three-pointers, for a career high 26 points. Elena's perfect shooting tied a school record for shooting percentage.  Her only miss was from the free throw line.  Elena also had six rebounds, four steals, three assists, and unfortunately four turnovers. That's a VERY nice stat line!  Also scoring in double digits were Nunu Agara, the CARD's season scoring leader, with 22 and steady Brooke Demetre with 12. 

 

                  Stanford began the game at a blistering pace, scoring the game's first 11 points enroute to a 32-4 first quarter lead.  In that first quarter the CARD made over 78% of their shot attempts, hit over 66% of threes, and recorded a respectable 75% of their free throw attempts.  The scoring cooled off as Coach Paye played younger players and experimented with different player combinations. Stanford "only" shot 56.9% from the floor and 40.9% from three for the entire game.  The distressing notes on the stat sheet were the 50% shooting from the free throw line and the high turnover number.  Although Stanford had 18 assists on 33 made baskets, they also turned the ball over 25 times! That level of sloppiness would be disastrous against a team that coverts a higher percentage of their possessions. Stanford still ranks #1 in the country on three-point percentage and 6th in fielding goal percentage.  But the CARD dropped to 14th in assist-to-turnover ratio. 

 

Strange Year

 

                  It is still unclear how the Cardinal will do this year.  Coming into the season, the pundits did not have Stanford ranked in the Top 25.  The CARD were ranked 7th in the ACC. Those rankings almost certainly reflected a reaction to the changes -- no VanDerveer, no Brink, no Iriafen, and no Hannah Jump.  But as we have noted, Stanford retains a collection of talented players and a well-tested coaching staff - and a proud tradition.  So far this year, Stanford has had very few (no?) truly competitive games.  There have been no real "nail biters." The only possible exceptions were the 13-point win over UC Davis and the 13-point loss to Indiana.  But even in those games it was more a matter of things "not being hopeless" than "equal chance to win." 

 

                  That seems to be true of women's hoops more generally.  Stanford's 29-point average margin of victory is only 25th in the nation! Even some of the games expected to be competitive like South Carolina against UCLA or Iowa State ended up in blowout victories.  As this is being written there are still 32 undefeated teams in women's college hoops although many of the teams highly ranked in preseason rankings are not among them.  The question remains: is this year's team a "top team" or an "also ran." The next few weeks will provide important clues as Stanford travels next week to play #7 LSU and has a Chase Center game against #11 Ohio State on December 20.  A win in either of those games would put the CARD firmly into the national conversation.  Of course, it is important to remember that the only ranking that really matters the NCAA tournament.  This year's CARD can take inspiration from the women's soccer team that didn't rank high enough to qualify for the ACC tournament will be one of the four teams playing in the College Cup. 

 

Questions

 

1.  How well will the "newcomers" mesh with the returning players?

                  Coming into this season, Stanford didn't have a true "core group" but had a core returning players with some experience and a collection of talented newcomers. This is a team that will need to be carried by teamwork not superstars.  Can the pieces come together?

 

2. When will the freshmen stop being freshmen?

                  This year's team has several talented freshmen whose talents are particularly needed.  That is especially true of Kennedy Umeh whose height and imposing frame will be essential against teams with strong post presence and Shay Ijiwoye whose speed and quickness will be important against the ACC's quick guards.  Both have shown flashes of their potential -- but both have also had moments that remind us they are freshmen...hopefully that is over by March.