[Viking_Guy]

In a way, glad to hear that Nneka was ill; I thought it was the ankle injury.  Whatever the case, she had zero lift; think about how long it has been since you've seen her really sky for a rebound and bring it down, or get great elevation for a putback attempt.  I think she may be a bit hurt as well as sick; we'll see how she does in the desert next week.

WBB2, if you're not willing to go there, I am.  Melissa Barlow nearly single-handedly turned the game around.  Stanford had pushed out to their largest lead of the game, 61-47.  After a short jumper, Stanford brought the ball up, and it got knocked loose.  Chiney goes back after it and is run into by Brandon, I think.  Brandon falls to the floor, and Missy whistles - an offensive foul on Chiney for pushing off.  30 feet from the basket.  After all the contact she was letting go under the hoop.  Replays showed little if any contact, and that only after Brandon had slammed into Chiney's left shoulder without being called for a foul.

From that point, Stanford scored exactly 8 points, including Bonnie's 2 3-pointers.  And Bonnie's shots only came after Stanford didn't score at all in 4 minutes or so.  Why?  Can you say K.al went to a 2-3 zone?  I knew that you could.

I somewhat buy the "poor rebounding position" argument against the zone, but you also give up rebounding position if your posts are constantly having to rotate to help because your perimeter players can't stay with their marks at the point of attack in a p2p defense.

I got upset with the coaching; the Bares essentially ran one play for the last 8 minutes or so (and a lot of overtime); high dribble hand-off sets up a pick at the top corner of the lane.  And Stanford did nothing to adjust (at least until about 3 minutes into the overtime, when Chiney finally hedged hard off the pick and forced Boyd out).  But both Boyd and Clarendon were getting open foul line jumpers because (1) their defenders were going under the pick every time and (2) the posts didn't hedge.  How many open jumpshots in the lane or drives into the paint are you going to give up because you're worried that Kal might get good rebounding position against the zone?

Meanwhile, we did exactly nothing against the 2-3 zone.  The only points in the last 8 minutes were Chiney's 2 FTs following an offensive rebound and Bonnie's threes (and even those weren't really the result of a "zone offense"; Bonnie got into the space on the wing and overloaded the top corner of the 2-3).  And then Tara, because Bonnie (like every other Stanford perimeter defender) couldn't/didn't slow down the penetration from that wing pick play, pulls Samuelson out of the game for Greenfield.

And they didn't score at all in the last 2+ minutes.  Part of it was Missy and co. letting them play (there were some out and out tackles going on under the hoop).  But there was just some not so intelligent play against a not-very-good Berkeley press.  Missing the front end of two 1 and 1 opportunities.  Toni, after a press break, being content to heave up a 3 point shot instead of driving inside and trying to get to the FT line.  Oh, and the fact that Missy and company called exactly 1 foul on Berkeley in the last eight minutes of regulation.  Against a zone, admittedly, but still - 1 foul, in eight minutes (and that on Chiney's putback attempt).

There was some defensive adjustment against K.al's lack of outside shooting; Lindy often dropped into the paint when guarding Pierre, Boyd or Clarendon, daring them to shoot (remniscent of Kelley Suminski's one-woman zone against a bad shooting ASU team in the Pac-10 tourney a few years back).  It worked for the most part; the problem was she kept backing up further into the lane until she was giving up FT line jumpshots.  Other players were also playing p2p but with "zonish" execution - not chasing Bares into the corner.

Stanford showed some 2-1-2 and their "high 2-3" at points during the game; the problem was both of those zones either leave a gap in the center of the lane or, if the backline is playing high enough, room underneath for Berkeley's posts to set up for rebounding position.

~~

At this point, I feel like Lindy to a certain extent like I feel about Jarrett Mann - uncertain as to why they play so many crunch time minutes with their offensive limitations, especially against zone defenses.  Lindy not only couldn't hit anything, she was backing further away from the line trying to get her shot up (she was a good 3 feet beyond the line on her last 3-4 shots).  And she's not really a great driver or finisher from the perimeter.  She has some good defensive moments (took a key charge late in the game), but also is the perimeter player who gets beaten on lateral quickness the most easily (well, excepting Bonnie).  She is good at running the triangle, but I am waiting for other teams to do what Stanford today; drop the player guarding her into the lane until she shows she can hit consistently from outside.

POTG definitely to Chiney, 27 points and EIGHTEEN rebounds, and Stanford's primary offensive option in the second half when they built a lead.  Also was the defender out on the perimeter at the end of overtime forcing two horrid shots by Clarendon. Strong cameos by Toni and Bonnie, as the only 2 players to hit an outside shot, and Toni for her nails FTs at the end of overtime to push the lead to 3.

One other thing: we still can't run an effective end of period offense.  The end of regulation was horrific.  Toni gets the ball coming out of a timeout with the game tied and dribbles the clock down for 10 seconds, then we call another timeout.  Ball at midcourt with 11 seconds left, and we end up with Nneka trying to drive from the right wing with 6 seconds left, almost trying to run an isolation.  But those only work if the other team doesn't drop off every outside shooter and crowd the lane, as Berkeley had been doing all game.  Nneka ends up with a contested shot with 4 defenders in the lane to guard against an offensive rebound. I would've tried to set up Bonnie on the far wing from the drive - might not have gone down, but some defenders/rebounders might have had to come farther than 8 feet from the hoop.  To be honest, I was surprised Missy didn't call a foul on Stanford somehow out of that.

One last on the officiating: the worst call of the day wasn't the offensive foul against Chiney.  Late in the second half, Greenfield and a Kal defender were chasing a rebound out toward the northeast corner (right near me).  They collide, the Bare hits the ball twice as it goes out of bounds, and Missy and the other female ref, Nakasone, look at one another.  No signal.  Then no signal.  Then no signal.  They don't huddle, they don't go to the replay to make the correct call; they finally just give the ball to Kal.  If there is a correctable error on a 3-point shot (as there was at the end of regulation), why not there?  It was extremely frustrating, but Barlow has seniority (i.e. she's been just good enough to survive for a long time she gets assigned to work big games). 

My issue with her is that she has an extremely large ego for a ref; she wants to interject herself into the game, and will always manage to find at least one questionable call where she can "impose her will" on the game.  I think she thinks at that point that "making the tough call" means that she is a good ref, so she makes a call that is probably 70-30 one way and calls it for the 30 percent option.

Hoping Nneka feels better in Tempe and Tucson,

VG

[Viking_Guy]

In a way, glad to hear that Nneka was ill; I thought it was the ankle injury.  Whatever the case, she had zero lift; think about how long it has been since you've seen her really sky for a rebound and bring it down, or get great elevation for a putback attempt.  I think she may be a bit hurt as well as sick; we'll see how she does in the desert next week.

WBB2, if you're not willing to go there, I am.  Melissa Barlow nearly single-handedly turned the game around.  Stanford had pushed out to their largest lead of the game, 61-47.  After a short jumper, Stanford brought the ball up, and it got knocked loose.  Chiney goes back after it and is run into by Brandon, I think.  Brandon falls to the floor, and Missy whistles - an offensive foul on Chiney for pushing off.  30 feet from the basket.  After all the contact she was letting go under the hoop.  Replays showed little if any contact, and that only after Brandon had slammed into Chiney's left shoulder without being called for a foul.

From that point, Stanford scored exactly 8 points, including Bonnie's 2 3-pointers.  And Bonnie's shots only came after Stanford didn't score at all in 4 minutes or so.  Why?  Can you say K.al went to a 2-3 zone?  I knew that you could.

I somewhat buy the "poor rebounding position" argument against the zone, but you also give up rebounding position if your posts are constantly having to rotate to help because your perimeter players can't stay with their marks at the point of attack in a p2p defense.

I got upset with the coaching; the Bares essentially ran one play for the last 8 minutes or so (and a lot of overtime); high dribble hand-off sets up a pick at the top corner of the lane.  And Stanford did nothing to adjust (at least until about 3 minutes into the overtime, when Chiney finally hedged hard off the pick and forced Boyd out).  But both Boyd and Clarendon were getting open foul line jumpers because (1) their defenders were going under the pick every time and (2) the posts didn't hedge.  How many open jumpshots in the lane or drives into the paint are you going to give up because you're worried that Kal might get good rebounding position against the zone?

Meanwhile, we did exactly nothing against the 2-3 zone.  The only points in the last 8 minutes were Chiney's 2 FTs following an offensive rebound and Bonnie's threes (and even those weren't really the result of a "zone offense"; Bonnie got into the space on the wing and overloaded the top corner of the 2-3).  And then Tara, because Bonnie (like every other Stanford perimeter defender) couldn't/didn't slow down the penetration from that wing pick play, pulls Samuelson out of the game for Greenfield.

And they didn't score at all in the last 2+ minutes.  Part of it was Missy and co. letting them play (there were some out and out tackles going on under the hoop).  But there was just some not so intelligent play against a not-very-good Berkeley press.  Missing the front end of two 1 and 1 opportunities.  Toni, after a press break, being content to heave up a 3 point shot instead of driving inside and trying to get to the FT line.  Oh, and the fact that Missy and company called exactly 1 foul on Berkeley in the last eight minutes of regulation.  Against a zone, admittedly, but still - 1 foul, in eight minutes (and that on Chiney's putback attempt).

There was some defensive adjustment against K.al's lack of outside shooting; Lindy often dropped into the paint when guarding Pierre, Boyd or Clarendon, daring them to shoot (remniscent of Kelley Suminski's one-woman zone against a bad shooting ASU team in the Pac-10 tourney a few years back).  It worked for the most part; the problem was she kept backing up further into the lane until she was giving up FT line jumpshots.  Other players were also playing p2p but with "zonish" execution - not chasing Bares into the corner.

Stanford showed some 2-1-2 and their "high 2-3" at points during the game; the problem was both of those zones either leave a gap in the center of the lane or, if the backline is playing high enough, room underneath for Berkeley's posts to set up for rebounding position.

~~

At this point, I feel like Lindy to a certain extent like I feel about Jarrett Mann - uncertain as to why they play so many crunch time minutes with their offensive limitations, especially against zone defenses.  Lindy not only couldn't hit anything, she was backing further away from the line trying to get her shot up (she was a good 3 feet beyond the line on her last 3-4 shots).  And she's not really a great driver or finisher from the perimeter.  She has some good defensive moments (took a key charge late in the game), but also is the perimeter player who gets beaten on lateral quickness the most easily (well, excepting Bonnie).  She is good at running the triangle, but I am waiting for other teams to do what Stanford today; drop the player guarding her into the lane until she shows she can hit consistently from outside.

POTG definitely to Chiney, 27 points and EIGHTEEN rebounds, and Stanford's primary offensive option in the second half when they built a lead.  Also was the defender out on the perimeter at the end of overtime forcing two horrid shots by Clarendon. Strong cameos by Toni and Bonnie, as the only 2 players to hit an outside shot, and Toni for her nails FTs at the end of overtime to push the lead to 3.

One other thing: we still can't run an effective end of period offense.  The end of regulation was horrific.  Toni gets the ball coming out of a timeout with the game tied and dribbles the clock down for 10 seconds, then we call another timeout.  Ball at midcourt with 11 seconds left, and we end up with Nneka trying to drive from the right wing with 6 seconds left, almost trying to run an isolation.  But those only work if the other team doesn't drop off every outside shooter and crowd the lane, as Berkeley had been doing all game.  Nneka ends up with a contested shot with 4 defenders in the lane to guard against an offensive rebound. I would've tried to set up Bonnie on the far wing from the drive - might not have gone down, but some defenders/rebounders might have had to come farther than 8 feet from the hoop.  To be honest, I was surprised Missy didn't call a foul on Stanford somehow out of that.

One last on the officiating: the worst call of the day wasn't the offensive foul against Chiney.  Late in the second half, Greenfield and a Kal defender were chasing a rebound out toward the northeast corner (right near me).  They collide, the Bare hits the ball twice as it goes out of bounds, and Missy and the other female ref, Nakasone, look at one another.  No signal.  Then no signal.  Then no signal.  They don't huddle, they don't go to the replay to make the correct call; they finally just give the ball to Kal.  If there is a correctable error on a 3-point shot (as there was at the end of regulation), why not there?  It was extremely frustrating, but Barlow has seniority (i.e. she's been just good enough to survive for a long time she gets assigned to work big games). 

My issue with her is that she has an extremely large ego for a ref; she wants to interject herself into the game, and will always manage to find at least one questionable call where she can "impose her will" on the game.  I think she thinks at that point that "making the tough call" means that she is a good ref, so she makes a call that is probably 70-30 one way and calls it for the 30 percent option.

Hoping Nneka feels better in Tempe and Tucson,

VG