(01-20-2025, 05:10 PM)bl82 Wrote:The Princeton did not come in until 2019. After Chiney graduated in 2014 Tara installed a guard oriented offense to feature Lili Thompson and Amber Orrange. I don't remember it having a name, but there were lots and lots of screens to set Amber and Lili up to curl to the basket. It was a rough start since screening well came slowly, and we got lots of offensive fouls for moving screens. But Tara created a new offense that radically departed from the triangle under Appel-Nneka--Chiney. That was not going to be viable with the personnel we had in 2014-15. We had a bunch of young, inexperienced bigs. Freshman Kaylee Johnson started most games and was a rebounding machine, prior to injuries diminishing her performance later in her career, but she was not a consistent scorer. Taylor Greenfield and Erica McCall had not yet developed, although they got minutes, they didn't score much. McCall did start scoring more by year's end. The lead scorers for that year were Lili and Amber at 13ppg each, with stretch-4 Bonnie Samuelson hitting about 3 treys a game. We lost 10 games that year--one of our worst years--but did get to the sweet 16 where we lost to Notre Dame. Transitions are tough.(01-20-2025, 04:35 PM)TheFarm07 Wrote: Potentially relatedly, do you think running the Princeton offense might have been a turnoff for some elite guards who like to direct traffic and run the offense through them? From my understanding, the Princeton is less guard-centric of a strategy and so recruits who are used to controlling their team's offense might not be as enthusiastic of going into a system where their freedom to improvise/conduct the offense might be limited.
Great question and one I too would like to get to the bottom of. Also, should we expect Kate to have more or less system flexibility than Tara going forward?
That screening offense lasted until Tara invited UC Davis coaches Jennifer Gross and her husband/coach Joe Teramoto to come down to Stanford to teach our staff the Princeton. They were known for being the best purveyors of that system on the west coast. Installing it was also not easy. The timing between passers and cutters is all important, and it needs to be deep in muscle memory. You see a few blown passes every game this year as our passers try to feed a cutter and wind up turning it over. But the Princeton seemed to be well suited to the personnel we had, particularly position-less players like Haley Jones who could move around and play 1-5 and who could pass and score with equal ability. With players constantly in motion and switching spacing and positions, players who are versatile like Haley flourished in that system, and we won a national championship 2 years after it was installed. But the first year we lost 6 games in the COVID shortened year, including three miserable losses to Oregon. Did I mention that transitions are tough?
But what we have this year are a lot of very, very inexperienced players, except for the injured Talana Lepolo. Inexperience and the Princeton do NOT mix well. Even so, our offense is averaging a respectable number in most games, but good opposing coaches understand how to disrupt it just enough to throw us off stride. The Princeton, since it emphasizes precise passes and motion much like wide receiver routes, is particularly vulnerable to long defenders, rough defenders (pass interference anyone?), and officials who don't call fouls. Transitions are tough, and while it is an old system to the team and to the fans, it is a new-ish system to most of the players we put on the floor this year.
The hallmark of Tara's coaching career, though, was evolution. The Triangle was not the first offense she used--it was probably the 3rd or the 4th. She created or borrowed offenses to build around the players she had at any given time. Kate knows this. And Kate still talks to Tara. They know who is coming to the Farm next year. They will evolve the offense accordingly. But changing an offense mid year, as we saw recently, is always a cure worse than the disease.
