[81alum]

[I don't get the replay until 4AM, so this is based on what I noted.]

Did you notice that Stanford had Alanna do the jump ball at the start of the game?  I presume that was the Aussie she was jumping against.
When we failed to hit the rim in the 1st possession, I thought we were in real trouble.  But we got the first 8 rebounds.  Unfortunately, we did a lot of padding of our offensive rebounds throughout the game.  I think at one point we had 18 rebounds and 20 points.

I thought the refs were calling things they didn't see.  There are some specific plays I want to see in replay.

WSU had a lot of good play.  I salute their keeping after it.  It will be interesting to see how they do against ןɐɔ.

I was surprised we kept in our starters as long as we did, esp. for the first game of the weekend.  However, the refs weren't calling fouls and I think WSU benefited from that.

The WSU summary of the game didn't say anything about the player that went out with the leg injury.  I hope that's a good sign.

I would not have wanted to be in the Stanford locker room after the game.  The team seemed to have no particular joy after the game & when throwing the balls into the crowd.  Are they not allowed to dance with the band after conference game wins, or was that just what happened tonight?

I know there's been a lot of comments about Kaylee's lack of offense, but I will note that she only played 18 minutes in the loss, where we got out-rebounded so bad.

Stanford repeatedly put two bigs on the inbounder when under the opponent's basket.  I didn't see it give us any advantage.  Indeed, it seemed that once WSU had a chance to talk about it, they were not only beating it, they were getting a good shot on the basket as we had to defend 4 players with 3.

I mostly agree with your observations.  Yes, Alanna jumped against #4 Louise Brown, the other girl from Melbourne.  They smiled and hugged before the game.  So I don't know if that is a one-time deal or if we will see Dodson starting in order to get the tip-off again shortly.

The refs seemed quite incompetent to me.  There was the one when the WSU player got the ball on a breakaway and tripped over her own feet but they called a foul on Kiana who was six feet away.  They badly messed up a couple of out of bounds balls.  To give them a little credit, after one apparently bad call I and a few neighbors screamed "go to the monitor" and, whether they heard us or not, they went to the monitor.  Sadly, I don't think they reversed themselves.  They DID call WSU for fouling McPhee, and so Britt got to the line six times--something that has not been happening for her, so that was an improvement from her standpoint.  I could not see what Carrington did to earn the technical foul, so I can't comment on that.  She was screened behind other players from where I was sitting.

I think Kaylee was a big key to our victory.  She has really been our best rebounder for 4 years, but tonight she made some early baskets that turned her into a genuine offensive threat too.  But her attitude and aggressiveness about going for those rebounds seemed infectious to me, and as a senior I think she helped to show the level of effort that was needed to turn things around from our worst rebounding game in six years to a really good effort.

I thought putting the two bigs on the WSU inbounds plays was interesting.  It did pay off one time, as I recall, as an errant pass wound up being stolen by McPhee for a fast break.  But for the most part it did not seem effective.  It will make Washington and future teams waste a little time in practice preparing for it.

As for the attitude of the team after the game--I did not stay to observe carefully.  I would guess that they were pretty disappointed in themselves for how they played in the fourth quarter.  Tara was ebullient after the first half but told Ross "well, ask me after the second half."  I am sure that Tara made it a big point of emphasis at halftime to not let up, and they probably felt they had let up. 

However, I also am inclined to agree with those who have said above that a lot of it was WSU simply getting its act together and playing better defense and offense.    Many of Carrington's misses and Marta's turnovers happened in the second half, and McPhee and Williams seemed to tire and become less effective by the fourth quarter.  While Tara rotated the bigs quite a lot, she did not rotate the guards very much and WSU was just fresher and more energetic, especially Chanelle Molina who didn't even start and played just 25 minutes opposite William's 36.  Carrington was the only guard from the bench who got significant minutes and she was ineffective except for her always good rebounding--we appear to have really missed Wilson last night.

[81alum]

[I don't get the replay until 4AM, so this is based on what I noted.]

Did you notice that Stanford had Alanna do the jump ball at the start of the game?  I presume that was the Aussie she was jumping against.
When we failed to hit the rim in the 1st possession, I thought we were in real trouble.  But we got the first 8 rebounds.  Unfortunately, we did a lot of padding of our offensive rebounds throughout the game.  I think at one point we had 18 rebounds and 20 points.

I thought the refs were calling things they didn't see.  There are some specific plays I want to see in replay.

WSU had a lot of good play.  I salute their keeping after it.  It will be interesting to see how they do against ןɐɔ.

I was surprised we kept in our starters as long as we did, esp. for the first game of the weekend.  However, the refs weren't calling fouls and I think WSU benefited from that.

The WSU summary of the game didn't say anything about the player that went out with the leg injury.  I hope that's a good sign.

I would not have wanted to be in the Stanford locker room after the game.  The team seemed to have no particular joy after the game & when throwing the balls into the crowd.  Are they not allowed to dance with the band after conference game wins, or was that just what happened tonight?

I know there's been a lot of comments about Kaylee's lack of offense, but I will note that she only played 18 minutes in the loss, where we got out-rebounded so bad.

Stanford repeatedly put two bigs on the inbounder when under the opponent's basket.  I didn't see it give us any advantage.  Indeed, it seemed that once WSU had a chance to talk about it, they were not only beating it, they were getting a good shot on the basket as we had to defend 4 players with 3.

I mostly agree with your observations.  Yes, Alanna jumped against #4 Louise Brown, the other girl from Melbourne.  They smiled and hugged before the game.  So I don't know if that is a one-time deal or if we will see Dodson starting in order to get the tip-off again shortly.

The refs seemed quite incompetent to me.  There was the one when the WSU player got the ball on a breakaway and tripped over her own feet but they called a foul on Kiana who was six feet away.  They badly messed up a couple of out of bounds balls.  To give them a little credit, after one apparently bad call I and a few neighbors screamed "go to the monitor" and, whether they heard us or not, they went to the monitor.  Sadly, I don't think they reversed themselves.  They DID call WSU for fouling McPhee, and so Britt got to the line six times--something that has not been happening for her, so that was an improvement from her standpoint.  I could not see what Carrington did to earn the technical foul, so I can't comment on that.  She was screened behind other players from where I was sitting.

I think Kaylee was a big key to our victory.  She has really been our best rebounder for 4 years, but tonight she made some early baskets that turned her into a genuine offensive threat too.  But her attitude and aggressiveness about going for those rebounds seemed infectious to me, and as a senior I think she helped to show the level of effort that was needed to turn things around from our worst rebounding game in six years to a really good effort.

I thought putting the two bigs on the WSU inbounds plays was interesting.  It did pay off one time, as I recall, as an errant pass wound up being stolen by McPhee for a fast break.  But for the most part it did not seem effective.  It will make Washington and future teams waste a little time in practice preparing for it.

As for the attitude of the team after the game--I did not stay to observe carefully.  I would guess that they were pretty disappointed in themselves for how they played in the fourth quarter.  Tara was ebullient after the first half but told Ross "well, ask me after the second half."  I am sure that Tara made it a big point of emphasis at halftime to not let up, and they probably felt they had let up. 

However, I also am inclined to agree with those who have said above that a lot of it was WSU simply getting its act together and playing better defense and offense.    Many of Carrington's misses and Marta's turnovers happened in the second half, and McPhee and Williams seemed to tire and become less effective by the fourth quarter.  While Tara rotated the bigs quite a lot, she did not rotate the guards very much and WSU was just fresher and more energetic, especially Chanelle Molina who didn't even start and played just 25 minutes opposite William's 36.  Carrington was the only guard from the bench who got significant minutes and she was ineffective except for her always good rebounding--we appear to have really missed Wilson last night.