[cardboard=number_redacted]

Big Card supporters, so share everyone's disappointment.  Take what you want, leave the rest.   

1. Tara is an intellectual. She stubbornly refused to use the right defense in the right situation, until Ole Miss's freshman had torched us from the perimeter. Having played interior defense, It is proper to respect the drive, but c'mon. We have more size and height.  it takes lots of energy for bigs to block shots on the perimeter. Better to play with your legs, not your arms. Having to watch Cam, Fran, others who are stellar shock blockers duped, and duped again, made me wince.  Lepolo and Haley were no confidence votes on the P. The Agnes pick and rob leading to a Rebel 3 - left me pounding the armrest

2. Kate Paye's offensive scheme (?)  Speaks for itself.

3. Rest of coaching staff - either clueless or did not alert Tara to her biggest deficiency, for me, in inspiring team unity. Tara spent most of the last few games glaring, scolding. 

What happens in practice, we can only speculate. 

4. Lack of offensive balance; riding (2) freshman point guards and, let it be said, the profound lack of someone who doesn't fit the Tara mold, like, uh, Tiana Williams who could reverse the momentum of a game. lepolo looked like a deer in the headlights most of the time, and Nivar, who is further along, cannot figure to break down the Ole Miss zone. Guards need to pass and penetrate, not telegraph entry passes (Haley, you listening?)

Again, this is on the STAFF for drawing up a predictable game plan.

5. Losses - USC and Utah were warning signs. This team, from coaching, to its players, whether mentally or physically tired, was upset aching to happen.

6. The 'Tara' way:  This is a talented, smart group. Team did not play close to its individual talent, and appeared ridiculously outplayed  at times, as with other uber-talented Card teams that found a way to fold.  We know playing WBB for Stanford is one of the most intimidating challenges for a female athlete. Playing point guard for Tara is the most intimidating challenges in an already intimidating environment.  Ask Roz. 

You can make the case it's that way for any other big time time. But there's something in Tara's way that recoils from the dogfight. I would take a street fighter like Staley or Pat Summitt, at the height of her career over Tara.  Every day.  it's not being a 'Cally nice, smart girl' thing that other teams use to beat us, despite what the announcers say.  It's the lack of unity and imparting a message that does not reach players lick Prechtel, who was horribly underutilized this year, and Kiki, who will likely transfer, and why not?  Playing for Tara and this coaching mindset hasn't advanced their careers.  And that's when you know there's a fly in the ointment. 
 
Being a number one seed, as we see, if not all it's cracked up to be, men or women. I believe it's Tara's belief in sportsmanship, or rigidity, if you will, of not allowing players to say enough is enough (see Hollingshead) improvise, and which allows  tough, scrappy teams like Ole Miss to take advantage of our programming to eschew street ball for Taraball. 

Tara's coaching legacy cannot be tarnished by this or any other loss.  But changes need to be made.

Fell bad for Cam but not so much rest of team. Tara knew riding Cam to the exclusion of (see balanced offense)  was going to come back to bite us. Ole Miss took advantage by hassling and pestering. Lack of Cardinal cohesion, some players just react to pressure differently, call it lack of desire, or mental fatigue, the Tara voodoo, after a fantastic and long run, has run its course. 

Time for regime change.

To the game and to the season...

We have the game tied with the ball to inbounds and 40 seconds left. Offense gets tied up but Lepolo misses seeing a wide open Nivar close to the basket and Tara has to call another TO. Then with 28 seconds left, Jones throws it to Jump who is trapped in the corner. Haley could have passed to Lepolo instead. Then Jump panics; could have passed into Brink who had position or called a TO. Then dumb foul by Haley which basically sealed the game. 

Bitter tast at the end of the season losing to Utah, Ucla, and now this one.

Too many turnovers, especially bad ones. Too many gimme missed shots. Too many acrobatic types shots around the basket that missed. Too weak rebounding. Too much Haley trying to force things rather than find open teammates.

When is Stanford going to learn that it needs to defend tightly on the perimeter (applies to MBB too) and not give so many open looks from three?

But in the end, we were what we knew we were; not strong enough at the guard positions to be championship caliber. On O, our guards cannot create and penetrate nor hit threes at any decent level. On D, they cannot pressure to force turnovers, bad shots, or rebound. 

I'll leave this on a positive note. Hats off to Brink. What a warrior! She had to be weakened after being sick, and puts up 20, 13, and 7. And an amazing 10 of 10 from the line. She hasn't missed a FT since Feb.12, and has made at least 46 in a row (had 5 of 6 prior, don't know when she had her miss) and she has made 70 of her last 72 FT attempts since Jan.27 and 85% for the season. Take away her first 5 games of the season and she would have been 89%. Her spirit and fight were incredible. Without her, we get blown out by 25. She needs to rub off onthe rest of the team.

[cardboard=number_redacted]

Big Card supporters, so share everyone's disappointment.  Take what you want, leave the rest.   

1. Tara is an intellectual. She stubbornly refused to use the right defense in the right situation, until Ole Miss's freshman had torched us from the perimeter. Having played interior defense, It is proper to respect the drive, but c'mon. We have more size and height.  it takes lots of energy for bigs to block shots on the perimeter. Better to play with your legs, not your arms. Having to watch Cam, Fran, others who are stellar shock blockers duped, and duped again, made me wince.  Lepolo and Haley were no confidence votes on the P. The Agnes pick and rob leading to a Rebel 3 - left me pounding the armrest

2. Kate Paye's offensive scheme (?)  Speaks for itself.

3. Rest of coaching staff - either clueless or did not alert Tara to her biggest deficiency, for me, in inspiring team unity. Tara spent most of the last few games glaring, scolding. 

What happens in practice, we can only speculate. 

4. Lack of offensive balance; riding (2) freshman point guards and, let it be said, the profound lack of someone who doesn't fit the Tara mold, like, uh, Tiana Williams who could reverse the momentum of a game. lepolo looked like a deer in the headlights most of the time, and Nivar, who is further along, cannot figure to break down the Ole Miss zone. Guards need to pass and penetrate, not telegraph entry passes (Haley, you listening?)

Again, this is on the STAFF for drawing up a predictable game plan.

5. Losses - USC and Utah were warning signs. This team, from coaching, to its players, whether mentally or physically tired, was upset aching to happen.

6. The 'Tara' way:  This is a talented, smart group. Team did not play close to its individual talent, and appeared ridiculously outplayed  at times, as with other uber-talented Card teams that found a way to fold.  We know playing WBB for Stanford is one of the most intimidating challenges for a female athlete. Playing point guard for Tara is the most intimidating challenges in an already intimidating environment.  Ask Roz. 

You can make the case it's that way for any other big time time. But there's something in Tara's way that recoils from the dogfight. I would take a street fighter like Staley or Pat Summitt, at the height of her career over Tara.  Every day.  it's not being a 'Cally nice, smart girl' thing that other teams use to beat us, despite what the announcers say.  It's the lack of unity and imparting a message that does not reach players lick Prechtel, who was horribly underutilized this year, and Kiki, who will likely transfer, and why not?  Playing for Tara and this coaching mindset hasn't advanced their careers.  And that's when you know there's a fly in the ointment. 
 
Being a number one seed, as we see, if not all it's cracked up to be, men or women. I believe it's Tara's belief in sportsmanship, or rigidity, if you will, of not allowing players to say enough is enough (see Hollingshead) improvise, and which allows  tough, scrappy teams like Ole Miss to take advantage of our programming to eschew street ball for Taraball. 

Tara's coaching legacy cannot be tarnished by this or any other loss.  But changes need to be made.

Fell bad for Cam but not so much rest of team. Tara knew riding Cam to the exclusion of (see balanced offense)  was going to come back to bite us. Ole Miss took advantage by hassling and pestering. Lack of Cardinal cohesion, some players just react to pressure differently, call it lack of desire, or mental fatigue, the Tara voodoo, after a fantastic and long run, has run its course. 

Time for regime change.

To the game and to the season...

We have the game tied with the ball to inbounds and 40 seconds left. Offense gets tied up but Lepolo misses seeing a wide open Nivar close to the basket and Tara has to call another TO. Then with 28 seconds left, Jones throws it to Jump who is trapped in the corner. Haley could have passed to Lepolo instead. Then Jump panics; could have passed into Brink who had position or called a TO. Then dumb foul by Haley which basically sealed the game. 

Bitter tast at the end of the season losing to Utah, Ucla, and now this one.

Too many turnovers, especially bad ones. Too many gimme missed shots. Too many acrobatic types shots around the basket that missed. Too weak rebounding. Too much Haley trying to force things rather than find open teammates.

When is Stanford going to learn that it needs to defend tightly on the perimeter (applies to MBB too) and not give so many open looks from three?

But in the end, we were what we knew we were; not strong enough at the guard positions to be championship caliber. On O, our guards cannot create and penetrate nor hit threes at any decent level. On D, they cannot pressure to force turnovers, bad shots, or rebound. 

I'll leave this on a positive note. Hats off to Brink. What a warrior! She had to be weakened after being sick, and puts up 20, 13, and 7. And an amazing 10 of 10 from the line. She hasn't missed a FT since Feb.12, and has made at least 46 in a row (had 5 of 6 prior, don't know when she had her miss) and she has made 70 of her last 72 FT attempts since Jan.27 and 85% for the season. Take away her first 5 games of the season and she would have been 89%. Her spirit and fight were incredible. Without her, we get blown out by 25. She needs to rub off onthe rest of the team.