Stanford beat PAC-10 opponent Washington 80-51. It was another game not televised, although C and R scoured that ESPN3 site so many Stanford fans had told us about but still could not find it. We finally resorted to Gametracker, the line by line play by play with moving chess pieces that is very unsatisfying. In fact, since we knew how unsatisfying it is, we didn’t turn it on until 8 minutes were left in the contest. Stanford was ONLY wining by 20 at that point. Noticed Washington was fouling a lot and the Stanford players were all tied with about 12 points each. All in all, as we have hammered home last year and this, Stanford seems to play to the level of intensity of their opponent and it looked like a slow and plodding Washington team, turning us slow and plodding.
Yes, yes, the final score had Stanford wining by 29, nothing to sneeze at and Tara VanDerveer should be proud that her starters had such a balanced attack and do not depend on one person to lead the team (Maya Moore). The starters all scored in double figures, and few teams can even claim that. It broke down to Chiney with 10, Kayla with 14, Jeanette 15, Nneka lead all with16 and Tinkle had 10 from the bench). Interesting to note, Kayla Pedersen, who has been down this year in scoring was 2-6 from the field, with 2 missed three pointers, yet got herself to the line and converted 10 of 12 free throws. With Kayla, her importance is not in total points, but all the little things the team needs that night to win, and last night it was to get Washington into foul trouble.
However…
Stanford made 18 turnovers, tying a season high, something they will need to trim against stronger teams, and let Washington battle back to within 6 after taking an 11-point lead. Stanford needs to develop a killer instinct, especially playing on the road.
Next up is Washington State, which just beat Cal, before Stanford travels back home to face U-C-L-A.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Basketball Things of Note
Coupla basketball things happened this weekend we wanted to note, sorry it took C and R awhile to get around to it, it was mostly because C was sore for two days after going to a friend’s birthday party at the Sky High Trampoline place (Ever play dodge ball on a trampoline? It’s harder than it sounds).
So thing number one, Notre Dame almost, almost beat UConn! The score was 79-76. Ever since that Stanford loss (hee hee), UConn has lost that air of invincibility and teams now believe they can beat UConn. Last year, UConn had so many weapons that could score that most teams went in mentally with a defeatist attitude and the game was decided before it was played. Now teams are requesting the Stanford-UConn tape and going over it with a fine tooth comb.
Thing number two is sadder. Diana Taurasi’s second sample was tested and confirmed to have the banned stimulant modafinil.
ESPN’s Mechelle Voepelgives a good analysis of how these things work:
-Deny taking the drug
-Wait for the B sample to be tested
-If second sample comes back positive, claim the lab is bad
-Then the Athlete denies taking anything on purpose
-Then a hearing and a penalty
However, if Taurasi is banned for more than 6 months, then she may not attend the 2012 Olympics. Bummer.
Getting back to the lab being “bad”, Taurasi and her lawyer do have a case. According to Mechelle, the "Turkish lab that tested Taurasi's samples was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for a two-month period in 2009 before being accredited again." And ESPN also reports two of Taurasi's teammates on her Turkish team Fenerbahce "have resisted doping tests in Turkey because they also do not trust the lab that tests the samples. Australian player Penny Taylor and Czech teammate Hana Horakova provided samples only after the Turkish federation agreed to send them to Germany for testing at a lab in Cologne."
Diana Taurasi’s contract has now been voided by her Turkish team.
I don't think the girl has gone more than two days without playing basketball since grade school. The irony is she was complaining just last year that she has been playing year around in the WNBA, then overseas where she gets more money and Olympic qualifying games, and that she was tired might need time off… hecka a way to do it.
So thing number one, Notre Dame almost, almost beat UConn! The score was 79-76. Ever since that Stanford loss (hee hee), UConn has lost that air of invincibility and teams now believe they can beat UConn. Last year, UConn had so many weapons that could score that most teams went in mentally with a defeatist attitude and the game was decided before it was played. Now teams are requesting the Stanford-UConn tape and going over it with a fine tooth comb.
Thing number two is sadder. Diana Taurasi’s second sample was tested and confirmed to have the banned stimulant modafinil.
ESPN’s Mechelle Voepelgives a good analysis of how these things work:
-Deny taking the drug
-Wait for the B sample to be tested
-If second sample comes back positive, claim the lab is bad
-Then the Athlete denies taking anything on purpose
-Then a hearing and a penalty
However, if Taurasi is banned for more than 6 months, then she may not attend the 2012 Olympics. Bummer.
Getting back to the lab being “bad”, Taurasi and her lawyer do have a case. According to Mechelle, the "Turkish lab that tested Taurasi's samples was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for a two-month period in 2009 before being accredited again." And ESPN also reports two of Taurasi's teammates on her Turkish team Fenerbahce "have resisted doping tests in Turkey because they also do not trust the lab that tests the samples. Australian player Penny Taylor and Czech teammate Hana Horakova provided samples only after the Turkish federation agreed to send them to Germany for testing at a lab in Cologne."
Diana Taurasi’s contract has now been voided by her Turkish team.
I don't think the girl has gone more than two days without playing basketball since grade school. The irony is she was complaining just last year that she has been playing year around in the WNBA, then overseas where she gets more money and Olympic qualifying games, and that she was tired might need time off… hecka a way to do it.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Stanford Embarrasses Arizona State
Well, it was another Hecka Nneka night, as Nneka Ogwumike had her way with Arizona State. Arizona State actually played good defense, by trying to deny the entry pass to our wings and pushing the ball handler out away from the basket and three point line. Then we would just give it to Nneka and she would take an explosive first step to the basket and drive the lane for two easy points. C and R were shocked Arizona did not play help defense. No one came over to fill the lane, as everyone was busy doing their assigned job of pushing the Stanford players away from the basket. It was obvious Arizona State’s coach, Charli Turner Thorne, a former Stanford player herself, had done her homework against Stanford, but you just can’t defend against a driving Nneka. And little sister Chiney was a chip off the block also driving when we were being pushed back.
Arizona State looked uncharacteristically nervous and were rushing their shots early on. It took them seven minutes before they even make their first basket. Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer, also a coach who has done her homework, had figured out early that ASU has no three point shot. Many times in the first half when Stanford was playing man-to-man defense, they would sag away from the ball handler standing at the three point line just daring them to take a shot. They elected not too, hence no score for seven minutes. The few times they did shoot, they were just jacking them up and some sailed over the glass, not touching the rim, or airballed out of bounds. R leaned over to C and said, “This is embarrassing”. The normally animated ASU coach, Charli TT, is usually all over the court in her pointy high heels, working the refs, cheering on her team and putting forth a lot of energy. She seemed subdued and her team echoed her and also was flat.
Stanford, on the other hand, was playing with so much confidence. They went to a 1-3-1 half court defensive trap to let Chiney play the point and run around and use up her energy so she wouldn’t foul anybody, and Stanford was just picking their pocket and scoring fast break after fast break. Jeanette Pohlen looked like Andrew Luck on one play delivering an overhand strike 7/8’s of the length of the floor to Kayla who show-timed it back the other way to a driving Nneka who leaped for the score. It was obvious early on ASU stopped trying to stop the fast break and looked like they had given up.
The half ended 42-14.
The second half Tara played all of her bench, taking all the starters out for good when we had around 59 points and they had 22. Our bench still outscored them, with the final score 82-35.
Couple of funny plays. To start the second half, Stanford was feeling so good Kayla Pedersen tried an alley-oop pass ion the air to a leaping Nneka. She just missed the pass and it sailed out of bounds, but you don’t get permission from Tara to try those kinds of shots unless she is happy and confident in her team, and you have to be happy to hold a team, any team, to 14 first half points. Freshmen Toni Kokenis was playing so hard, she played right out of her shoe! She gave herself a flat tire running down the court and her shoe came off. She had the presence of mind to pick it up and hurl it at the Stanford bench. Then she stayed with her man and went slipping and sliding all over the court, eventually sliding into her player and committing a foul. The Stanford bench was pretty animated about that, cracking up, and during the stop in play Kayla threw her shoe back at her. Then the freshmen had the added pressure of getting her high-top shoe on and tying it with 4,630 fans watching.
Special shout out to our friend, P, who came along for the ride and got to enjoy the game. However, she had to endure Stanford’s ticket window before the game. I am sorry, Stanford, but you need some help in that department. It took waaaay too long to get one ticket. And C and R have been trying to get tickets to the first and second rounds of the NCAA play-offs being held at Stanford for weeks now and the ticket office cannot seem to figure out how to sell them to us. They keep telling us to just go online and buy them. Really? Another fan wrote in telling us the trouble they had getting handicapped seating at the UConn game. You know, the game that was announced as sold out where they had tickets at the box office. It’s not rocket science, Stanford, although we know you are good at rocket science. Now if you could just figure out how to sell tickets more efficiently.
Because their shooting styles are so similar, sometimes on the court when Chiney makes a basket C and R say way to go Nneka or vice versa until we check the number or hear the announcer give us the correct name. Stanford’s website did the same mix up, saying Nneka was perfect from the field. Nneka was 7-11 for 16 points and sister Chiney was the one who went 4-4 from the field and ended up with 10 points. Glad to see we aren’t the only ones to get them confused.
Nice tribute to coach Tara VanDerveer to honor her 800th win after the game. Lots of great pictures on the scoreboard while listing her accomplishments. They had a few talking heads on the video and the one Stanford player they picked to honor Tara was current freshmen…. Chiney Ogwumike. She just has so much energy and personality! She said where was she when Tara won her first 100 games…she wasn’t yet alive! Cute.
Stanford next travels north to take on the Washington schools, so there will be no box-office battles for a while.
Arizona State looked uncharacteristically nervous and were rushing their shots early on. It took them seven minutes before they even make their first basket. Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer, also a coach who has done her homework, had figured out early that ASU has no three point shot. Many times in the first half when Stanford was playing man-to-man defense, they would sag away from the ball handler standing at the three point line just daring them to take a shot. They elected not too, hence no score for seven minutes. The few times they did shoot, they were just jacking them up and some sailed over the glass, not touching the rim, or airballed out of bounds. R leaned over to C and said, “This is embarrassing”. The normally animated ASU coach, Charli TT, is usually all over the court in her pointy high heels, working the refs, cheering on her team and putting forth a lot of energy. She seemed subdued and her team echoed her and also was flat.
Stanford, on the other hand, was playing with so much confidence. They went to a 1-3-1 half court defensive trap to let Chiney play the point and run around and use up her energy so she wouldn’t foul anybody, and Stanford was just picking their pocket and scoring fast break after fast break. Jeanette Pohlen looked like Andrew Luck on one play delivering an overhand strike 7/8’s of the length of the floor to Kayla who show-timed it back the other way to a driving Nneka who leaped for the score. It was obvious early on ASU stopped trying to stop the fast break and looked like they had given up.
The half ended 42-14.
The second half Tara played all of her bench, taking all the starters out for good when we had around 59 points and they had 22. Our bench still outscored them, with the final score 82-35.
Couple of funny plays. To start the second half, Stanford was feeling so good Kayla Pedersen tried an alley-oop pass ion the air to a leaping Nneka. She just missed the pass and it sailed out of bounds, but you don’t get permission from Tara to try those kinds of shots unless she is happy and confident in her team, and you have to be happy to hold a team, any team, to 14 first half points. Freshmen Toni Kokenis was playing so hard, she played right out of her shoe! She gave herself a flat tire running down the court and her shoe came off. She had the presence of mind to pick it up and hurl it at the Stanford bench. Then she stayed with her man and went slipping and sliding all over the court, eventually sliding into her player and committing a foul. The Stanford bench was pretty animated about that, cracking up, and during the stop in play Kayla threw her shoe back at her. Then the freshmen had the added pressure of getting her high-top shoe on and tying it with 4,630 fans watching.
Special shout out to our friend, P, who came along for the ride and got to enjoy the game. However, she had to endure Stanford’s ticket window before the game. I am sorry, Stanford, but you need some help in that department. It took waaaay too long to get one ticket. And C and R have been trying to get tickets to the first and second rounds of the NCAA play-offs being held at Stanford for weeks now and the ticket office cannot seem to figure out how to sell them to us. They keep telling us to just go online and buy them. Really? Another fan wrote in telling us the trouble they had getting handicapped seating at the UConn game. You know, the game that was announced as sold out where they had tickets at the box office. It’s not rocket science, Stanford, although we know you are good at rocket science. Now if you could just figure out how to sell tickets more efficiently.
Because their shooting styles are so similar, sometimes on the court when Chiney makes a basket C and R say way to go Nneka or vice versa until we check the number or hear the announcer give us the correct name. Stanford’s website did the same mix up, saying Nneka was perfect from the field. Nneka was 7-11 for 16 points and sister Chiney was the one who went 4-4 from the field and ended up with 10 points. Glad to see we aren’t the only ones to get them confused.
Nice tribute to coach Tara VanDerveer to honor her 800th win after the game. Lots of great pictures on the scoreboard while listing her accomplishments. They had a few talking heads on the video and the one Stanford player they picked to honor Tara was current freshmen…. Chiney Ogwumike. She just has so much energy and personality! She said where was she when Tara won her first 100 games…she wasn’t yet alive! Cute.
Stanford next travels north to take on the Washington schools, so there will be no box-office battles for a while.
Stanford vs. Arizona
Hello, C here, and just a quick note about the Stanford Women’s Basketball-Arizona game before C and R head off to the Arizona State game today. It’s too bad we werent’t wearing the “Hecka Nneka” shirt, as she was all that. When Stanford needed a score, she was there. It was interesting how she did score. Nneka Ogwumike would drive to the basket and when she was stopped, she would elevate and bank a one-hander off the glass. It wasn’t a pure, two handed shot mind you, it was a push, as she was up pretty high anyway, and what looked like a crazy angle, the kind that makes you say that was a lucky throw, except she was lucky to the tune of 24 points. And, and… when C and R saw little sis throw the same crazy one-handed bank shot and IT went in, well, you just know it’s going to be Stanford’s year. (And BTW, C and R are glad Nneka recovered from her shoulder and head injury she received at Cal to play the next game)
Speaking of little sis Chiney Ogwumike, who knew when she was recruited that she would become a defense specialist? Well, maybe Tara, but we think not. Chiney has drawn the tough assignments against taller players in the Xavier game, UConn game (Hello Maya Moore) and against Arizona’s top player and she has done a great job. Plus, she usually plays deny defense in FRONT of the player and either recovers to get the back door pass that is coming or her teammates, usually Kayla Pedersen, are smart enough to come over and help.
And speaking of defense, interesting chess match in the first half regarding Arizona using screens to free their guards and how Stanford defended them. At first, Stanford just switched players, as they always do. Then the Arizona bench started yelling, “Mismatch!” They wanted Stanford to switch, because then the Stanford guard was on the taller Arizona player who started the screen, and she would roll to the basket and Arizona was supposed to throw it inside. So then Tara told her team not to switch, to fight around the screen, so the Arizona guards were trying to go around the screen and pull up and shoot threes in the confusion. Both teams kept experimenting, including Arizona using a DOUBLE screen and Stanford had to decide to switch or stay. It was fun to watch.
Well, Stanford is nothing if not consistent in the way we match intensity with teams. Arizona started out with a lot of intensity, so we did, too, going up by 11 early in the half, then they got down, so we did, too, except they scored and got within 3. Then we came out in the second half and crushed them. We read Tara yelled at them a little, and called out her captains, Kayla, Jeanette Pedersen and Nneka, and boy did they respond. Final score was 87-54. Kayla is still a little off, going 4-13 from the floor, but her 11 rebounds were very timely, including all the little things she does on the floor to keep Stanford moving forward.
Well, off to Arizona State and let’s hope they come out with a lot of intensity, so we can too!
Speaking of little sis Chiney Ogwumike, who knew when she was recruited that she would become a defense specialist? Well, maybe Tara, but we think not. Chiney has drawn the tough assignments against taller players in the Xavier game, UConn game (Hello Maya Moore) and against Arizona’s top player and she has done a great job. Plus, she usually plays deny defense in FRONT of the player and either recovers to get the back door pass that is coming or her teammates, usually Kayla Pedersen, are smart enough to come over and help.
And speaking of defense, interesting chess match in the first half regarding Arizona using screens to free their guards and how Stanford defended them. At first, Stanford just switched players, as they always do. Then the Arizona bench started yelling, “Mismatch!” They wanted Stanford to switch, because then the Stanford guard was on the taller Arizona player who started the screen, and she would roll to the basket and Arizona was supposed to throw it inside. So then Tara told her team not to switch, to fight around the screen, so the Arizona guards were trying to go around the screen and pull up and shoot threes in the confusion. Both teams kept experimenting, including Arizona using a DOUBLE screen and Stanford had to decide to switch or stay. It was fun to watch.
Well, Stanford is nothing if not consistent in the way we match intensity with teams. Arizona started out with a lot of intensity, so we did, too, going up by 11 early in the half, then they got down, so we did, too, except they scored and got within 3. Then we came out in the second half and crushed them. We read Tara yelled at them a little, and called out her captains, Kayla, Jeanette Pedersen and Nneka, and boy did they respond. Final score was 87-54. Kayla is still a little off, going 4-13 from the floor, but her 11 rebounds were very timely, including all the little things she does on the floor to keep Stanford moving forward.
Well, off to Arizona State and let’s hope they come out with a lot of intensity, so we can too!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Who's Number One?
The Women’s Basketball Rankings came out for this week and frankly, C and R are surprised. One, the powers that be (TPB) dropped UConn to number two after their loss to Stanford. Everyone (well, all our friends) thought TPB would still keep UConn number one, and are still arguably the number one team in basketball and the one to beat in the NCAA tournament. So who is number one, you ask? Baylor!
Baylor over UConn? Wait, didn’t UConn beat Baylor? C and R don’t understand that one. Duke is number three, and everyone is going to be looking at the match up of UConn and Duke at the end of January. Number four on both the AP Top 25 and the ESPN Coaches poll is Stanford. Actually, both polls agreed on numbers 1-4 and differ with Tennessee being number five on AP and Texas A and M five and Tennessee’s sixth on the coaches poll. So wait, didn’t Tennessee beat Stanford? C has to give a special shout out to R because she predicted Stanford would be 3 or 4 but above Tennessee and C was all, no, Tennessee beat Stanford, Stanford can’t be placed above Tennessee! But R had teh faith. Well, it’s good to know that TPB are looking at how the teams are playing that week and not the strict record.
TH writes in to ask how we think Stanford would match up with Baylor as they might meet in the NCAA tourney. We think you have to beat Baylor with lots and lots of threes and getting Baylor’s Brittney Griner in foul trouble. She can’t hurt you from the bench! Stanford could easily follow UConn’s game plan from last year’s NCAA tourney win over Baylor, which involved having their center, Tina Charles, drive inside and up and in against Brittney so she would collide with Brittney in the air and although BG might get the block, she would get the foul. Plus I think Maya Moore made was dead-on from outside. We think Kayla Pedersen could be the Stanford player to try and get Brittney in the air and foul with her body. Stanford also has a good supporting cast and if hot can hit outside, too, as well as provide stifling defense. Lastly, if Jeanette Pohlen is still red hot and firing up threes and driving in to the lane with Brittney on the bench, we think Stanford could pull it out.
First Stanford has to get past the Arizona schools this weekend.
Baylor over UConn? Wait, didn’t UConn beat Baylor? C and R don’t understand that one. Duke is number three, and everyone is going to be looking at the match up of UConn and Duke at the end of January. Number four on both the AP Top 25 and the ESPN Coaches poll is Stanford. Actually, both polls agreed on numbers 1-4 and differ with Tennessee being number five on AP and Texas A and M five and Tennessee’s sixth on the coaches poll. So wait, didn’t Tennessee beat Stanford? C has to give a special shout out to R because she predicted Stanford would be 3 or 4 but above Tennessee and C was all, no, Tennessee beat Stanford, Stanford can’t be placed above Tennessee! But R had teh faith. Well, it’s good to know that TPB are looking at how the teams are playing that week and not the strict record.
TH writes in to ask how we think Stanford would match up with Baylor as they might meet in the NCAA tourney. We think you have to beat Baylor with lots and lots of threes and getting Baylor’s Brittney Griner in foul trouble. She can’t hurt you from the bench! Stanford could easily follow UConn’s game plan from last year’s NCAA tourney win over Baylor, which involved having their center, Tina Charles, drive inside and up and in against Brittney so she would collide with Brittney in the air and although BG might get the block, she would get the foul. Plus I think Maya Moore made was dead-on from outside. We think Kayla Pedersen could be the Stanford player to try and get Brittney in the air and foul with her body. Stanford also has a good supporting cast and if hot can hit outside, too, as well as provide stifling defense. Lastly, if Jeanette Pohlen is still red hot and firing up threes and driving in to the lane with Brittney on the bench, we think Stanford could pull it out.
First Stanford has to get past the Arizona schools this weekend.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Stanford Rebounds to Beat Cal
C and R have a plan. Our plan is to drive almost to the Berkeley campus, where the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team is playing Cal, and park on the street. R has gotten the inside dope from a friend who is a Cal fan that the meters don’t require feeding on Sunday. Yes, that is the focus of C and R’s worry on Sunday, and yes, R has another friend and can you believe she is a Cal fan? Stanford, on the other hand, became everyone’s friend by knocking off UConn and has to worry about a big post game let down since they had their biggest victory in years and make sure they don’t overlook a young up and coming team in Cal.
Speaking of feeding the meter, tip off is right around lunchtime so C and R need to feed their faces so they also have a plan surrounding that. Their favorite Greek café is right on the way to Cal’s Gym and they stop and order falafels (only in Berkeley) but we want our food to go so they make falafel burritos, double only in Berkley.
So the third thing we have to accomplish is tickets and as of Sunday morning we don’t have a plan, we were just going to show up and get tickets at the box office, but late Sunday morning R’s other two friends named D & C, who, gasp, are also Cal fans call and offer her two free tickets. So C and R are set.
With the car successfully parked on the street for free, falafel burritos in hand, we find our Cal friends with their friend J on the steps of Haas Pavilion and skip the long long lines at the ticket booth. The attendance is 5,198 and quite a few are Stanford fans. The Cal fans give us their tickets for free, and that is a class act right there, and inform us we won’t be sitting by them. C suspects they thought we would be insufferable after the UConn win and banished us to Siberia. R ferrets out that they bought the tickets at a later date for their parents who decided at the last minute not to make the trip so their was no ulterior motive for giving us tickets away from them We promise to meet up with them after the game and go celebrate either way. And the seats were NOT in Siberia, they were fantastic, right behind the Stanford bench. We saw the Ogwumike family and JJ Hones again. Once we get situated in our great seats we dive into the falafel burrito; they are good. C likes hers so much she bites into the foil. Twice.
Oh yeah, there was a game, wasn’t there?
Cal introduces its player NBA style with spotlights and smoke and everything. It is fun to see, especially because C and R know straight-laced Stanford would never do that. Eventually the game starts…
Cal comes out with a lot of energy and very aggressive and makes the first basket. C and R worry. Stanford responds like a brick wall returning a tennis ball, that is they match their energy and take it inside with much success. Jeannette Pohlen drives inside, posts up, and in short is continuing her game from Xavier and UConn. What has gotten into her and how can we spread it to the rest of the team?
Once again Stanford coach Tar VanDerveer has a tailored game plan for Cal. Kayla Pedersen, who is 6-3, is on Cal’s 5-8 guard Eliza Pierre. Eliza is super fast and likes to slash and drive to the basket. We are worried she will totally blow by Kayla. We watch as Kayla often leaves Pierre to help double team and lays off her on the three point line, daring her to shoot. Pierre is reluctant to shoot the three and misses the only one she attempts. The gamble works. She does not burn Kayla driving inside, nor does she burn them with threes. Once again, what do C and R know?
Cal goes flat and Stanford curiously does too, almost like an echo effect. We are slow and plodding against slow teams and try to out-energize the energetic teams. We also stop taking the ball inside in this game and do not compensate with threes.
We pick it back up again, mostly thanks to Nneka Ogwumike and at the half it is Stanford 38-17, and we meet up with D & C & J. They also noticed how flat Stanford was in the middle of the first half and it was too bad Cal couldn’t take advantage of them. Well observed. We need Cal to get back up so Stanford can get back up!
Early into the start of the second half, around the 17:52 mark, Nneka hits the ground hard after a foul while shooting. R saw her head bounce. She stays down and clearly is in pain. Little sis Chiney checks in on her on the floor as they are helping her up. After she gets helped up and moved to the bench, the way she is moving so gingerly, C and R are worried she has a concussion. She did not return to the game. The internet would say she hurt her shoulder, and has a headache.
Tinkle comes in and is holding her head up high ever since that UConn game. She makes a steal around the foul line and instantly looked down court, but because Stanford was on D, no one is down there so she takes off down court for a fast break, and no, she decides, no fast break and slows up for everyone and then sees Jeannette Pohlen pull ahead so finally decides, yes let’s run and does and passes to JP for the lay up and that has to have been the slowest fast break C and R have ever witnessed!
Tara does a good job emptying their bench. Cal matched up size-wise with Stanford having two players as tall as Kayla an Sarah Boothe, but Stanford won the rebounding battle 49-26. Cal is sorely missing a “go to” player who can take charge and ultimately score. The team is mostly made up of frosh and sophs, so expect Joanne Boyle to bring them along every year. The final score is 78-45. Our Cal friends invite us out for salty snacks at a yummy taco bar that had the most impressive salsa bar! They actually watch a lot of different women’s basketball games, not just Cal and Stanford and it is great to get the inside scoop from them. Hopefully they will travel to Stanford when Cal comes to town!
Speaking of feeding the meter, tip off is right around lunchtime so C and R need to feed their faces so they also have a plan surrounding that. Their favorite Greek café is right on the way to Cal’s Gym and they stop and order falafels (only in Berkeley) but we want our food to go so they make falafel burritos, double only in Berkley.
So the third thing we have to accomplish is tickets and as of Sunday morning we don’t have a plan, we were just going to show up and get tickets at the box office, but late Sunday morning R’s other two friends named D & C, who, gasp, are also Cal fans call and offer her two free tickets. So C and R are set.
With the car successfully parked on the street for free, falafel burritos in hand, we find our Cal friends with their friend J on the steps of Haas Pavilion and skip the long long lines at the ticket booth. The attendance is 5,198 and quite a few are Stanford fans. The Cal fans give us their tickets for free, and that is a class act right there, and inform us we won’t be sitting by them. C suspects they thought we would be insufferable after the UConn win and banished us to Siberia. R ferrets out that they bought the tickets at a later date for their parents who decided at the last minute not to make the trip so their was no ulterior motive for giving us tickets away from them We promise to meet up with them after the game and go celebrate either way. And the seats were NOT in Siberia, they were fantastic, right behind the Stanford bench. We saw the Ogwumike family and JJ Hones again. Once we get situated in our great seats we dive into the falafel burrito; they are good. C likes hers so much she bites into the foil. Twice.
Oh yeah, there was a game, wasn’t there?
Cal introduces its player NBA style with spotlights and smoke and everything. It is fun to see, especially because C and R know straight-laced Stanford would never do that. Eventually the game starts…
Cal comes out with a lot of energy and very aggressive and makes the first basket. C and R worry. Stanford responds like a brick wall returning a tennis ball, that is they match their energy and take it inside with much success. Jeannette Pohlen drives inside, posts up, and in short is continuing her game from Xavier and UConn. What has gotten into her and how can we spread it to the rest of the team?
Once again Stanford coach Tar VanDerveer has a tailored game plan for Cal. Kayla Pedersen, who is 6-3, is on Cal’s 5-8 guard Eliza Pierre. Eliza is super fast and likes to slash and drive to the basket. We are worried she will totally blow by Kayla. We watch as Kayla often leaves Pierre to help double team and lays off her on the three point line, daring her to shoot. Pierre is reluctant to shoot the three and misses the only one she attempts. The gamble works. She does not burn Kayla driving inside, nor does she burn them with threes. Once again, what do C and R know?
Cal goes flat and Stanford curiously does too, almost like an echo effect. We are slow and plodding against slow teams and try to out-energize the energetic teams. We also stop taking the ball inside in this game and do not compensate with threes.
We pick it back up again, mostly thanks to Nneka Ogwumike and at the half it is Stanford 38-17, and we meet up with D & C & J. They also noticed how flat Stanford was in the middle of the first half and it was too bad Cal couldn’t take advantage of them. Well observed. We need Cal to get back up so Stanford can get back up!
Early into the start of the second half, around the 17:52 mark, Nneka hits the ground hard after a foul while shooting. R saw her head bounce. She stays down and clearly is in pain. Little sis Chiney checks in on her on the floor as they are helping her up. After she gets helped up and moved to the bench, the way she is moving so gingerly, C and R are worried she has a concussion. She did not return to the game. The internet would say she hurt her shoulder, and has a headache.
Tinkle comes in and is holding her head up high ever since that UConn game. She makes a steal around the foul line and instantly looked down court, but because Stanford was on D, no one is down there so she takes off down court for a fast break, and no, she decides, no fast break and slows up for everyone and then sees Jeannette Pohlen pull ahead so finally decides, yes let’s run and does and passes to JP for the lay up and that has to have been the slowest fast break C and R have ever witnessed!
Tara does a good job emptying their bench. Cal matched up size-wise with Stanford having two players as tall as Kayla an Sarah Boothe, but Stanford won the rebounding battle 49-26. Cal is sorely missing a “go to” player who can take charge and ultimately score. The team is mostly made up of frosh and sophs, so expect Joanne Boyle to bring them along every year. The final score is 78-45. Our Cal friends invite us out for salty snacks at a yummy taco bar that had the most impressive salsa bar! They actually watch a lot of different women’s basketball games, not just Cal and Stanford and it is great to get the inside scoop from them. Hopefully they will travel to Stanford when Cal comes to town!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Cal Q and A, Part I
Happy New Year to you (And it is indeed a happy one, as we are still basking in the glow of Stanford beating UConn). The folks over at California Golden Blogs sent us some Stanford Women’s basketball questions in honor of Stanford traveling to Cal to start PAC-10 play. Here are their questions and our long and rambling answers. At the end are our questions back to them, which we will post in part II.
1. Jeanette Pohen has always been a good player, but after averaging about 10 points per game over the last two years, she's suddenly averaging over 15 per game and shooting around 45% from 3. Is this just an isolated hot streak, or has her game taken a big step forward?
That is a good question. A great question. My what a handsome question… Any questions? Next question.
No, we were modeling a cartoon TV show’s smarmy politician to avoid answering that question because… we don’t know either. After the UConn game, you can say the new and improved Jeanette Pohlen is here to stay, with her career 31 points and her determined game face. She wants a championship, and has improved her game. But can she sustain it? Only time will tell. However, stats don’t lie (although you CAN manipulate the heck out of them) and she is averaging 17 points a game, which does show some consistency. C and R hope if it is a hot streak., it lasts until the championship game.
2. Chiney Ogwumike: talk about her strengths and weaknesses 11 games into her career.
C and R, in particular C, had such high, high hopes riding on Chiney. She thought for sure she would lead the world in scoring by now! In retrospect, perhaps they were unrealistic. Her sister did not have a break out year until her sophomore year, and Chiney is about where Nneka was her freshmen year. It is a big adjustment to the college game. We saw her play in the SF summer league before she got any Tara tutelage, and she was still playing as a high school player, the best athlete on the floor which could let her gamble on defense and usually recover quickly. In man-to-man coverage in the games we saw, she often left her man and went for the steal. She would often miss, probably a new experience, and the other players with college experience found her wide-open man. We thought that was a weakness and coach Tara VanDerveer would “beat it out of her”. Lo and behold, to our surprise, Tara took Chiney’s weakness and turned it into a strength and unveiled a new 1-3-1 defense, with Chiney on the point. Her job was to run around like crazy chasing the ball and use her long arms and leaping ability and go for a steal. If she missed, then there were 4 Stanford veterans behind her to make sure it did not result in a basket. Did we mention we think Tara is a genius? Weaknesses, how many games has Chiney fouled out of? UConn was no exception. She has to corral that instinct to reach out and touch someone. We think her biggest contribution to a disciplined Stanford team though, is her ability to create her own shot. Once Tara gave her sister Nneka the green light her sophomore year, even moving out established senior post Jayne Appel to give her room to create, she flourished. We believe next year Tara will do the same for Chiney and she will be incredible on offense.
PS sometimes big sis Nneka looks for Chiney and forces the ball to her inside where it is stolen, just trying to be all nice and sisterly and everything.
3. A 20 point loss to DePaul was shocking to see, particularly that Stanford allowed DePaul to go for 91 points. But they bounced back by routing Xavier. Was DePaul a fluke? How much did missing Kayla Pedersen impact things?
Geez, you ask good questions! If you strictly compare the DePaul game to Xavier and UConn, you can easily vote fluke. But in context, having one player go down, in this case Kayla Pedersen being out of the DePaul game and not 100% for Tennessee, Stafnord is just not the same team emotionally. She is their security blanket because she can rebound on both ends of the floor, make a big defensive stop, create a shot or handle the ball. Last year when teams pressed us because our guards were suspect on ball handling and were running for their lives in the back court, if they got a pass into Kayla’s hands, no matter where Stanford was on the court, you could see them visibly relax. Oh good, Kayla has the ball, we’re okay. That is a huge dependency to take away. And we didn’t count on the team feeling the same way about Jeanette this year. When she fouled out of the Tennessee game early in overtime, the team just deflated. So we rely on one or two people, much like UConn relies on Maya Moore. If you can stop or limit a team, any team’s “security” you have a shot in beating them (Witness the UConn victory).
4. How has Stanford been coping with the losses of Jayne Appel and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, particularly from a defensive perspective?
Well, we were going to say it’s hard to replace PAC-10 defender of the year in losing Ros Gold-Onwude, but after the Uconn game, our defense is juuuuuuust fine. What that says is Tara has great defensive schemes, teaches the fundamentals well, and can tailor a game plan to any individual team like no body’s business. And smaller Nneka was on tall tall Xavier’s post players, and gave up about 3-6 inches, yet her quickness allowed her to play deny defense and her leaping ability took away the back door pass. Tinkle (Jayne Appel’s doppelganger) also looked really good in her defense at the UConn game.
5. Predictions for Sunday?
Oh, let’s not spoil our friendship with a little thing like picking sides, now shall we?
However, a different question would be who will win the rebounding battle? We are picking the Stanford Trees.
C and R’s Questions for California Golden Blogs
1. How much does this team miss Alexis Gray Lawson? Who has stepped up to fill her scoring shoes?
2. How do the incoming freshmen look? And why did Joanne Boyle only recruit guards?
3. Cal beat Illinois for their first road win. Why is it hard for this team to win on the road?
4. Compare and contrast centers DeNesha Stallworth and Talia Caldwell. Which one will give Stanford fits more?
5 One of Stanford’s new interns this year is Cal’s Lauren Greif, who was a senior on the basketball team last year.
Do you think:
A: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew freely and easily?
B: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew only after being tortured by being shown those Stanford Women’s Basketball videos wherein they had supernatural powers of no use on continuous loop?
C: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew but made them all up. (And for their out of bounds play, they like to inbound it off the backside of the opposing player… and oh, in man to man coverage, they plan to have all five players guard Lindy, even if she is sitting on the bench, because, you know, she can really bomb some threes!)
6. Predictions for the amount of available parking spots in Berkeley on Sunday?
1. Jeanette Pohen has always been a good player, but after averaging about 10 points per game over the last two years, she's suddenly averaging over 15 per game and shooting around 45% from 3. Is this just an isolated hot streak, or has her game taken a big step forward?
That is a good question. A great question. My what a handsome question… Any questions? Next question.
No, we were modeling a cartoon TV show’s smarmy politician to avoid answering that question because… we don’t know either. After the UConn game, you can say the new and improved Jeanette Pohlen is here to stay, with her career 31 points and her determined game face. She wants a championship, and has improved her game. But can she sustain it? Only time will tell. However, stats don’t lie (although you CAN manipulate the heck out of them) and she is averaging 17 points a game, which does show some consistency. C and R hope if it is a hot streak., it lasts until the championship game.
2. Chiney Ogwumike: talk about her strengths and weaknesses 11 games into her career.
C and R, in particular C, had such high, high hopes riding on Chiney. She thought for sure she would lead the world in scoring by now! In retrospect, perhaps they were unrealistic. Her sister did not have a break out year until her sophomore year, and Chiney is about where Nneka was her freshmen year. It is a big adjustment to the college game. We saw her play in the SF summer league before she got any Tara tutelage, and she was still playing as a high school player, the best athlete on the floor which could let her gamble on defense and usually recover quickly. In man-to-man coverage in the games we saw, she often left her man and went for the steal. She would often miss, probably a new experience, and the other players with college experience found her wide-open man. We thought that was a weakness and coach Tara VanDerveer would “beat it out of her”. Lo and behold, to our surprise, Tara took Chiney’s weakness and turned it into a strength and unveiled a new 1-3-1 defense, with Chiney on the point. Her job was to run around like crazy chasing the ball and use her long arms and leaping ability and go for a steal. If she missed, then there were 4 Stanford veterans behind her to make sure it did not result in a basket. Did we mention we think Tara is a genius? Weaknesses, how many games has Chiney fouled out of? UConn was no exception. She has to corral that instinct to reach out and touch someone. We think her biggest contribution to a disciplined Stanford team though, is her ability to create her own shot. Once Tara gave her sister Nneka the green light her sophomore year, even moving out established senior post Jayne Appel to give her room to create, she flourished. We believe next year Tara will do the same for Chiney and she will be incredible on offense.
PS sometimes big sis Nneka looks for Chiney and forces the ball to her inside where it is stolen, just trying to be all nice and sisterly and everything.
3. A 20 point loss to DePaul was shocking to see, particularly that Stanford allowed DePaul to go for 91 points. But they bounced back by routing Xavier. Was DePaul a fluke? How much did missing Kayla Pedersen impact things?
Geez, you ask good questions! If you strictly compare the DePaul game to Xavier and UConn, you can easily vote fluke. But in context, having one player go down, in this case Kayla Pedersen being out of the DePaul game and not 100% for Tennessee, Stafnord is just not the same team emotionally. She is their security blanket because she can rebound on both ends of the floor, make a big defensive stop, create a shot or handle the ball. Last year when teams pressed us because our guards were suspect on ball handling and were running for their lives in the back court, if they got a pass into Kayla’s hands, no matter where Stanford was on the court, you could see them visibly relax. Oh good, Kayla has the ball, we’re okay. That is a huge dependency to take away. And we didn’t count on the team feeling the same way about Jeanette this year. When she fouled out of the Tennessee game early in overtime, the team just deflated. So we rely on one or two people, much like UConn relies on Maya Moore. If you can stop or limit a team, any team’s “security” you have a shot in beating them (Witness the UConn victory).
4. How has Stanford been coping with the losses of Jayne Appel and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, particularly from a defensive perspective?
Well, we were going to say it’s hard to replace PAC-10 defender of the year in losing Ros Gold-Onwude, but after the Uconn game, our defense is juuuuuuust fine. What that says is Tara has great defensive schemes, teaches the fundamentals well, and can tailor a game plan to any individual team like no body’s business. And smaller Nneka was on tall tall Xavier’s post players, and gave up about 3-6 inches, yet her quickness allowed her to play deny defense and her leaping ability took away the back door pass. Tinkle (Jayne Appel’s doppelganger) also looked really good in her defense at the UConn game.
5. Predictions for Sunday?
Oh, let’s not spoil our friendship with a little thing like picking sides, now shall we?
However, a different question would be who will win the rebounding battle? We are picking the Stanford Trees.
C and R’s Questions for California Golden Blogs
1. How much does this team miss Alexis Gray Lawson? Who has stepped up to fill her scoring shoes?
2. How do the incoming freshmen look? And why did Joanne Boyle only recruit guards?
3. Cal beat Illinois for their first road win. Why is it hard for this team to win on the road?
4. Compare and contrast centers DeNesha Stallworth and Talia Caldwell. Which one will give Stanford fits more?
5 One of Stanford’s new interns this year is Cal’s Lauren Greif, who was a senior on the basketball team last year.
Do you think:
A: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew freely and easily?
B: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew only after being tortured by being shown those Stanford Women’s Basketball videos wherein they had supernatural powers of no use on continuous loop?
C: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew but made them all up. (And for their out of bounds play, they like to inbound it off the backside of the opposing player… and oh, in man to man coverage, they plan to have all five players guard Lindy, even if she is sitting on the bench, because, you know, she can really bomb some threes!)
6. Predictions for the amount of available parking spots in Berkeley on Sunday?
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