02-25-2011, 10:43 AM
Viking Guy gives such good reviews, the rest of us are almost speechless.
In the spirit of making this more than just everyone else just absorbing what VG says, here\'s some comments of my own:
The game was almost remarkable in that the refs didn\'t get noticed. Good job! (But that brings up the question as to whether Stanford played like the half-time exhibition: no contact. Stanford tied its season low in free throw points.)
I\'ve felt that we\'ve seen the future of Stanford more in the past two games (with Nneka out). This could have been a year in which we were a 3 man team, but the others have really been helping.
As said, Toni was the spark plug. She\'s done what we might have hoped Melanie would do. We\'ve not been much of a fast break team, but in this game we had our season high of 14 fast break points (2nd is only 8pts)
I\'m glad Sarah Boothe got some good playing time, and got high point. Her hook isn\'t that pretty, but it is nice when they go in. I thought she played reasonably intelligently, but I think she should use her body more to block out. MAYBE, Tara had made not fouling a point of emphasis for her for this game. She did get only the one foul, with just 2 minutes left. That might explain a low level of aggressive play.
VG said "First, gave up too many offensive rebounds." [meaning OSU got too many OR]. Actually, our defensive rebounding was slightly above our average (we got 74% of the rebounds under their basket compared to avg of 70%; at OSU, we only got 56%). We did much worse than our average on our offensive rebounds. We only got 27% (2nd worse of the year) when we average 42%.
On that same note, despite OSU\'s 12 OR, they got 0 second chance points. That\'s the first time this year we\'ve not allowed any second chance points.
As a result of our poor offensive rebounding, we only got 2 second chance points ourselves, very much less than our average of 15.
The rebounding & 2nd chance points woes can be clearly attributed to our missing Nneka. Sarah B. is just not talented in that area. But both Stanford\'s and the opponent\'s points in the paint were about the average in Stanford games.
Once again, the end-of-game squad was mostly pulling away. Those players may not get much playing time late in the tourney, but their quality of play must improve the practice levels for the first stringers.
Another interesting thing was that the scoring was spread around. Â At one point in the second half, Kayla had 13 points and the other 4 players in the game had 10 points each.
How good is the team? Well, when we actually wish for more games in the PAC-10 tourney so we can tune up more, then we\'re clearly believing that no one can sneak in there and surprise us, AND that we\'ve got the depth to overcome injuries such as sprained ankles.
But I am a bit concerned that we don\'t seem to be dominating teams early in the same way we did earlier in the season.
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I looked back at the DePaul game, which I didn\'t watch. Â I knew DePaul shot lights out, but I hadn\'t realized that we only hit 37% of our 2-pt attempts. Â Other stats of note from that game. Season high 18 TO. Â Season high 22pts by our opponents off turnovers. Â Opponents tied season low with 11 fouls. Â Season high of 16 assists by opponents. Season high 66% 2-pt percentage by opponent. Near season high 50% 3-pt percentage by opponent.
In the spirit of making this more than just everyone else just absorbing what VG says, here\'s some comments of my own:
The game was almost remarkable in that the refs didn\'t get noticed. Good job! (But that brings up the question as to whether Stanford played like the half-time exhibition: no contact. Stanford tied its season low in free throw points.)
I\'ve felt that we\'ve seen the future of Stanford more in the past two games (with Nneka out). This could have been a year in which we were a 3 man team, but the others have really been helping.
As said, Toni was the spark plug. She\'s done what we might have hoped Melanie would do. We\'ve not been much of a fast break team, but in this game we had our season high of 14 fast break points (2nd is only 8pts)
I\'m glad Sarah Boothe got some good playing time, and got high point. Her hook isn\'t that pretty, but it is nice when they go in. I thought she played reasonably intelligently, but I think she should use her body more to block out. MAYBE, Tara had made not fouling a point of emphasis for her for this game. She did get only the one foul, with just 2 minutes left. That might explain a low level of aggressive play.
VG said "First, gave up too many offensive rebounds." [meaning OSU got too many OR]. Actually, our defensive rebounding was slightly above our average (we got 74% of the rebounds under their basket compared to avg of 70%; at OSU, we only got 56%). We did much worse than our average on our offensive rebounds. We only got 27% (2nd worse of the year) when we average 42%.
On that same note, despite OSU\'s 12 OR, they got 0 second chance points. That\'s the first time this year we\'ve not allowed any second chance points.
As a result of our poor offensive rebounding, we only got 2 second chance points ourselves, very much less than our average of 15.
The rebounding & 2nd chance points woes can be clearly attributed to our missing Nneka. Sarah B. is just not talented in that area. But both Stanford\'s and the opponent\'s points in the paint were about the average in Stanford games.
Once again, the end-of-game squad was mostly pulling away. Those players may not get much playing time late in the tourney, but their quality of play must improve the practice levels for the first stringers.
Another interesting thing was that the scoring was spread around. Â At one point in the second half, Kayla had 13 points and the other 4 players in the game had 10 points each.
How good is the team? Well, when we actually wish for more games in the PAC-10 tourney so we can tune up more, then we\'re clearly believing that no one can sneak in there and surprise us, AND that we\'ve got the depth to overcome injuries such as sprained ankles.
But I am a bit concerned that we don\'t seem to be dominating teams early in the same way we did earlier in the season.
-----------
I looked back at the DePaul game, which I didn\'t watch. Â I knew DePaul shot lights out, but I hadn\'t realized that we only hit 37% of our 2-pt attempts. Â Other stats of note from that game. Season high 18 TO. Â Season high 22pts by our opponents off turnovers. Â Opponents tied season low with 11 fouls. Â Season high of 16 assists by opponents. Season high 66% 2-pt percentage by opponent. Near season high 50% 3-pt percentage by opponent.