[teejers1]

I'm glad Stanford has a really tough schedule early in the season.  As the reining National Champions, the ultimate goal should be to repeat.  To do this, Stanford will need to be ready to compete against the best teams in the pressure cooker of the Big Dance.  Stanford does not need to be ranked number 1 overall, so long as they can hold onto a 1 seed in their tourney bracket.   That means they can afford an early season loss or two.  

Stanford came too close to losing in the NCAA tourney to both South Carolina and Arizona.  This season I would like to see them come into the post season case hardened and ready to take on the best.  In their repeat, let them leave no doubt in anyone's mind which team is the best.  Six dominating wins and cut down the nets.

It will be very hard to have "dominating" NCAA Tourney wins without a really good and effective PG.  Kiana was a great PG who did not play great in the latter stages of the tourney.  Think how good and comfortable the NCAA games would have been with Ki playing at the level we know she could have.  (As it was, it took heroics by Prechtel to even get to the FF, and some excellent play by Haley Jones in FF (along with very good play by Lexie) for Stanford to (barely) cut down the nets.  I don't think any guards on the team now are at Ki's level; thus, I don't think dominant wins in the tourney is a reasonable expectation (the guard play at some of the elite schools is going to be off the charts next season).

Now, it may be that some combination of Anna Wilson, the Northwestern transfer, and Jana VanG can be sufficiently good to keep Stanford in contention against the best, by allowing Stanford to flex its considerable muscle at the 3-5 spots (where I think Stanford can be significantly better than its opponents) and win games.  Brink will be a dominant post - hell she already has shown that ability on the court.  But dominance at the post, particularly the 5, does not easily translate to dominant Tourney wins.  For that you need uber elite guard play . . . and it's hard to see that on this roster.

Or to put it in much simpler terms:  I think there was a reason Tara made a spot available for the NW transfer.  She knows that certain teams have elite guards and Stanford will need to play D on them to have a shot to repeat.

P.S.  Bob, I do think Stanford was the overall best team last season; but winning the tourney games doesn't automatically make that so.  The better team loses all the time in the NCAA tourney, as you well know.

I don't think that Tara "made a spot" for the transfer; it became possible when the NCAA waived roster maxima for the 2021 season.

BC

Okay, how about this:  if Tara didn't show some love/interest in having the NW transfer join the Stanford team, then she wouldn't be on this coming season's roster. And she showed the love/interest because Tara knows that certain teams have elite guards and Stanford will need to play D on them to have a shot to repeat.

[teejers1]

I'm glad Stanford has a really tough schedule early in the season.  As the reining National Champions, the ultimate goal should be to repeat.  To do this, Stanford will need to be ready to compete against the best teams in the pressure cooker of the Big Dance.  Stanford does not need to be ranked number 1 overall, so long as they can hold onto a 1 seed in their tourney bracket.   That means they can afford an early season loss or two.  

Stanford came too close to losing in the NCAA tourney to both South Carolina and Arizona.  This season I would like to see them come into the post season case hardened and ready to take on the best.  In their repeat, let them leave no doubt in anyone's mind which team is the best.  Six dominating wins and cut down the nets.

It will be very hard to have "dominating" NCAA Tourney wins without a really good and effective PG.  Kiana was a great PG who did not play great in the latter stages of the tourney.  Think how good and comfortable the NCAA games would have been with Ki playing at the level we know she could have.  (As it was, it took heroics by Prechtel to even get to the FF, and some excellent play by Haley Jones in FF (along with very good play by Lexie) for Stanford to (barely) cut down the nets.  I don't think any guards on the team now are at Ki's level; thus, I don't think dominant wins in the tourney is a reasonable expectation (the guard play at some of the elite schools is going to be off the charts next season).

Now, it may be that some combination of Anna Wilson, the Northwestern transfer, and Jana VanG can be sufficiently good to keep Stanford in contention against the best, by allowing Stanford to flex its considerable muscle at the 3-5 spots (where I think Stanford can be significantly better than its opponents) and win games.  Brink will be a dominant post - hell she already has shown that ability on the court.  But dominance at the post, particularly the 5, does not easily translate to dominant Tourney wins.  For that you need uber elite guard play . . . and it's hard to see that on this roster.

Or to put it in much simpler terms:  I think there was a reason Tara made a spot available for the NW transfer.  She knows that certain teams have elite guards and Stanford will need to play D on them to have a shot to repeat.

P.S.  Bob, I do think Stanford was the overall best team last season; but winning the tourney games doesn't automatically make that so.  The better team loses all the time in the NCAA tourney, as you well know.

I don't think that Tara "made a spot" for the transfer; it became possible when the NCAA waived roster maxima for the 2021 season.

BC

Okay, how about this:  if Tara didn't show some love/interest in having the NW transfer join the Stanford team, then she wouldn't be on this coming season's roster. And she showed the love/interest because Tara knows that certain teams have elite guards and Stanford will need to play D on them to have a shot to repeat.