A New Year -- A New ERA
A NEW YEAR!
Stanford Women's Basketball got the 2025-26 season started with an exhibition against CAL State Los Angeles, the same team the CARD opened against last season. Like last year, the game resulted in a Stanford win. However, unlike last year, this game never felt close -- mostly because it wasn't. Starting two freshmen - Swain and Somfai, two juniors - Agara and Ogden, and a senior - Lepolo, Stanford opened up with a six point lead on three baskets from the freshmen. By the end of the 1st Quarter, Stanford was up by 12. The Cardinal never led by less than 9 points the rest of the game. By the end of the first half the lead was 16. Stanford was ahead 31 points after three quarters and continued to outscore CAL State LA even with emptying the bench in the fourth quarter.
Coach Paye substituted freely, with the first three subs (Clardy, Stevenson, and Eschmeyer) coming in after three minutes. The next round of subs came in after a bit less than three minutes. It appeared that Kate is committed to playing at a fast pace with subs being the key to keeping fresh legs on the floor. Stanford's (and the game's) two leading scorers, Chloe Clardy (20 pts) and Nunu Agara (17 pts) also had the most playing time with Chloe putting in a little over 28 minutes and Nunu paying a bit over 25. All in all, nine Cardinal players had double digit minutes (the five starters plus Clardy, Eschmeyer, Stevenson, and Ijwoye) and four (Clardy, Agara, Swain, and Somfai) scored in double figures. Every player got time on the floor and nobody got injured except Lauren Green -- and her injury did not appear to be serious.
Problems Fixed
Some of last year's weaknesses appear to be rectified. Point guard, a position that was iffy now appears well covered. Telana Lepolo is back and appears healthy. Chloe Clardy took up just where she left off with defense, scoring, and good decision making. Shay Ijiwoye still has hops and Hailee Swain, the highest rated recruit in the incoming class, is speedy and smooth. Swain had an immediate impact Wednesday night, scoring Stanford's first two baskets and snagging an impressive steal during the opening quarter. All four players can handle the point guard duties, giving Stanford tremendous versatility. The lack of size that troubled Stanford last year appears to be solved by the addition of 6'5" Alex Eschmeyer and 6'3" Lara Somfai. Additionally, unlike last year when none of the returning players had previously been frontline starters, this year's team has multiple players who have been team leaders -- especially Agara, Clardy, and Lepolo. Nunu has been named to several preseason watch lists including the Wade trophy list.
Bottom line, this team looked fun and exciting. The defense appeared solid except for one brief stretch in the second quarter, holding CAL State to under 27% shooting (21.4% from three) for the game. Agara and Clardy continued to be "stat stuffers," recording numbers in virtually every category from blocks to steals, while newcomer Somfai recorded a double-double on 13 points and 10 rebounds. Rebounding was another strength for the Cardinal, especially in the second half. Stanford out rebounded the Golden Eagles 60 to 30 with the Cardinal collecting 10 more rebounds than LA in both the 3rd and 4th quarters. There were a decent number of assists - 17 on 32 made baskets (53%) - and some of them were highlight worthy.
Remaining Concerns
There are some areas of concern. Stanford's three-point shooting was nearly absent - 3 of 18 for 16.6%!!! Of course, given the size mismatch Stanford had with LA it is easy to understand scoring 50 points in the paint (to LA's 12) and only nine from the three-point line. But Stanford will want to find its three-point stroke for nights when the other team has players with height. There were also too many turnovers, that will matter against better opponents. The best news is that a team with three freshmen playing almost 20 minutes each is only going to get better as the season continues. There will undoubtedly be some growing pains but come March this team should be "back in the conversation."
A NEW ERA
This season also marks a significant point in the transition from amateur student athletes to professional/semi-professional athletes who also attends college. With the approval of a settlement in the legal challenge against the NCAA brought by former college players, schools are allowed/required to pay their athletes. Adding school payments to the world of transfer portals, N(ame)-I(mage)-L(ikeness) payments and the social media landscape where players earn money and endorsements from "likes" and "followers" blasts away the remnants of the amateur illusion. The House vs NCAA settlement will likely help set some limits on NIL recruitment/poaching efforts. A commission has been set up to evaluate all payments over $600. This may reign in the activities of wealthy donors like the men from Texas Tech who (successfully) offered softball player NiJaree Canady over a million dollars to leave Stanford as there is some expectation that NIL money will be limited to "market value" for players. That raises some questions about whether this will be good news for women athletes and all athletes in minor sports as the players "market value" may be considered lower than the value for football players and mem's basketball players. Many schools have indicated that most of the money they can pay directly to athletes will go to football and men's basketball. Regardless of what it means for women, these new rules should bring some stability to the college sports world. The same can be said for the changes in the transfer portal rules. The time of the portal's opening will be shorter, and athletes will again have to sit out a year it they transfer more than once. Finally, although many of us "old timers" yearn for a return to the "old" conferences, it appears that the "musical chairs" of conference realignment is mostly over for now.
How all these changes will play out at Stanford remains to be seen. After several years of foot dragging, Stanford has embraced the need to pay players and raise NIL money. The benefits of that decision can be seen in the team's ability to recruit top talent and hold on to all eligible players except transfer Tess Heal. Going forward Stanford will only be able to hold onto top players and recruit top talent if women's basketball fans step up and contribute to the various funds (particularly the Home of Champions Fund and the Women's Basketball Fund) that support women's basketball. More on that in future blogs.
At this point Stanford appears less ready than other top programs to fully embrace the transfer portal. The university still places limits on upper class transfers and grad transfers have issues in being accepted for highly competitive Stanford graduate programs. One can hope that Stanford doesn't continue to experience talented players like Kiki Iriafen and DiJonai Carrington leaving Stanford for their last year and promising freshmen leaving after one year of development for other schools. It may be that Stanford can expect a few players to depart for their senior years when it becomes clear that they won't ever be Stanford stars or even starters -- particularly if they are able to earn their Stanford degrees before leaving. But Stanford can't hope to be a top program if it can't hold on to its star players, or at least most of them. The requirement that players sit out a year after a second transfer may slow down the college player free agency game. However, we also wonder how long it will be before the WNBA starts allowing players to come into the league without the current required college stint. That change may come as soon as the WNBA salaries reach a level that makes them desirable options for college players. After all, a number of European players have entered the WNBA at 18 or 19 and acquitted themselves nicely.
We don't know what the future will hold for the women's basketball landscape. What we do know is that this year's Cardinal, despite being overlooked by the national pundits, will be fun and entertaining. Last year there were plenty of people surprised by Stanford's performance in a less than great way -- this year we suspect the surprise may go the other way.
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