Playing in the Mirror
For the first three games of the season, Stanford had been putting on an offensive clinic and racking up dazzling, nation leading offensive stats. Against UC Davis the stats weren't gaudy, but the most important one remained impressive. Stanford is still undefeated.
The coaches at UC Davis are the people who taught Tara VanDerveer and her staff the Princeton Offense. That's the offense the CARD is currently running. In fact, both teams on the floor were running the same offense and Coach Paye thought Davis was running it better.
The game wasn't pretty for either team. That's what happens when everybody knows the other team's plays. Neither team could get open often for easy threes. Both shot under 30% from three for the game. However, both teams had some decent looks that went halfway down before popping out. If those shots had fallen the stats would have been better. The Cardinal team that had been scoring 89 points or more in their first three games only managed 29 points in the entire first half. That's only three points more than the CARD scored in the FIRST Quarter against Gonzaga. Those 29 points were enough to give Stanford an eight-point lead, but it certainly wasn't the blow out lead the CARD had been establishing in previous games. Not only did Davis hang around, never getting more than 10 or 11 points down, but late in the third quarter they threatened to steal the game -- rallying to tie and finally take a one-point lead with 25 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.
Gut-check time!
One of the questions about this year's team was, how would the team respond when things weren't easy. Would they buckle under pressure or buckle down and grit it out.
Against Davis the CARD rose to the challenge. Having been put on notice that the game could be lost, Stanford pulled away to win by double digits. The surge began with a three-pointer by Courtney Ogdon on a beautiful assist from Lepolo as time expired in the Third Quarter. UC Davis never led again although they tied the game twice. By less than two-and-a-half minutes into the fourth quarter Stanford had taken a two possession lead. The game was never closer as Stanford pulled further away. The CARD's biggest lead came at the game's end.
It was a team effort, but sophomores Nunu Agara and Courtney Ogdon scored 15 of Stanford's last 23 points. Seniors Demetre and Bosgana scored the other eight. In fact, those four scored 60 of Stanford's 69 total points for the game. Agara was especially impressive in this one, as she had been in the tougher than expected exhibition against Cal State LA. Nunu collected her first official double-double with a career high 25 points and 10 rebounds. She also managed two steals and an assist! Just as the Cardinal has played itself into the national conversation -- now back in the Top 25 (at 24) -- Agara is playing her way into the national conversation about top power forwards.
The View from Behind the Bench
Fall Quarter exams are still almost a month away, but this seems like a good time to discuss "midterm grades" for Kate Paye and her coaching staff. Kate is different from Tara and not different. She is on her feet more, but like Tara she works hard at coaching/teaching players throughout the game. She is a bit more emotional, but like Tara she doesn't appear to panic. So far Kate and her staff have an undefeated team that is fun to watch. At least ten players have seen time on the floor in every game and only one is averaging more than 30 minutes a game -- Nunu (31). Players appear to be having fun, playing like a team, and improving.
Another big part of the coaching staff's job is to recruit quality players. Wednesday Coach Paye announced the first recruiting class of the Paye Era at Stanford. If anybody had been predicting a drop-off after Tara's departure, they were wrong! The five new players committed to Stanford for next fall, including two over 6'4”, are all rated four and five stars by talent evaluators. They form a class that is currently ranked number two in the country! That may change as several of the players ranked in the top 20 have not yet committed to a school. Overall, this recruiting outcome means that next year's team will remain relevant.
The final measure will be retaining the talent already on the team. That task is complicated by the ability and willingness of the "collectives" at some schools to dangle big money (high six or even seven figure paydays) as enticement for young women to transfer. That is what cost Stanford Kiki Iriafen -- Lifetime Cardinal couldn't compete with USC. However, having players who are happy and feel connected to their teammates and school reduces the chances of losing players who aren't being offered lottery winner level deals.
Questions:
1. How will this CARD team fare outside of Maples?
To date all of Stanford's games have been played inside the comfy confines of Maples Pavilion -- on the Tara VanDerveer Court. That changes now. Sunday the CARD is on the road to Indiana. December's schedule includes away games against LSU and CAL along with a "neutral" Chase Center contest against Ohio State. Once the ACC schedule starts half the games will be on the road, often against ranked teams! The team is unlikely to remain undefeated through all of that-- but we would like to see them continue to do well.
2. What's up with the offensive fouls?
Against Davis the ACC refs seemed to be mostly "letting them play." Bodies were hitting the floor all over the place with no calls. However, of the 19 fouls called on Stanford, six were offensive fouls. Of the 13 fouls called against Davis, NONE were offensive fouls. One must ask, were Cardinal players being more blatant with their offensive physicality or are there ACC refs having some anti-Stanford bias already...? The good news is that no Stanford player picked up more than one offensive foul -- so they showed the ability to learn what the refs were calling.
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