Weekly Conference Awards -- Weakly Relevant to Team Performance

 

Warren Grimes

In women’s hoops, as in a number of other team sports, the Pac-12 conference honors players for their performance during the week – the Player of the Week (PoW) and the Freshman of the Week (FoW) awards.  The conference has dispensed 22 awards over the last 11 weeks.  These awards are a way of promoting the sport and building fan interest – so far not much to dislike. 

Washington State has won the FoW award six times.  Each went to Charlisse Leger-Walker.   UCLA has won the PoW award 4 times (Charisma Osborne has won twice).  Both of these teams are very good – but lack the depth and balance of other top teams. 

Meanwhile, the top two teams in the conference (Stanford and Arizona) plus another team in the top four (Oregon) have each won an award only once.  For Stanford, the sole award recipient is Haley Jones, who won the PoW award in the second week of the season.

Although rebounds, assists, and steals are frequently mentioned in announcing the winner, the chief criteria for the awards is points scored.  Charlisse Leger-Walker does a lot for the WSU team, but it is her point-scoring that has given her six FoW awards.  It is standard for any weekly award winner to have had at least one 20 plus-point performance during the week. 

To win games, a team must score points and play defense to limit an opponent’s points.   The weekly awards honor offensive performance but almost totally ignore defense.  In season-ending awards, the Pac-12 does recognize defensive performance, but this sensitivity is nowhere to be seen in the weekly recognitions.  If it were, a player such as Anna Wilson would have been recognized.  Consider, for example, Wilson’s performance in holding Charlisse Leger-Walker to season low numbers during Stanford’s back to back victories over WSU.

Another idiosyncrasy is the treatment of players who don’t play 30 plus minutes on court.  Stanford is blessed with depth that keeps many of its top players on the court for fewer minutes (Kiana Williams is the only Stanford player averaging over 30 minutes).  

Cameron Brink is a great example.  Since joining the starting lineup, Brink has averaged just over 20 minutes per game.  Despite this, Brink leads the conference in at least three categories: (1) field goal percentage (60.7%); (2) rebounds (Brink is 6^th in the conference in rebounds per game, but first in rebounds per minute); and (3) blocks per game.  Two of the categories are defensive (Brink’s defensive boards and blocks).  Brink was nominated for the FoW for the week ending Feb. 7.   Averaging just over 20 minutes per game, Brink had a double-double against Utah (10 boards, 12 points and 3 blocks) and was equally impressive against Colorado (8 boards, 13 points and 6 blocks).  But Brink lost out to Leger-Walker’s 20 plus point performances against USC and UCLA. 

The award system leaves players like Brink under recognized.  It also leaves teams with depth and balance under recognized – and that would be Stanford and probably Oregon as well.   As a team, Stanford leads the conference in a long list of categories, both offensive (points scored, scoring margin, field goal percentage, rebounding offense, and rebounding margin) and defensive (scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, blocked shots, three point percentage defense, and rebounding defense).  These category wins are team wins.  Stanford does not have players (other than Brink) who lead the conference in any individual category.

Stanford’s statistical dominance is more pronounced than any Stanford team within recent memory.  That statistical balance is a strength – it gives Stanford more options in critical moments of a close game.

Statistical dominance, however, does not assure victory.  In the two losses, UCLA and Colorado bested Stanford despite these two teams far weaker showing in overall conference statistics.  And Oregon, which shows well in conference stats, has two lopsided losses to Arizona, which lags a bit in conference stats. 

The Pac 12 is a tough conference.  So matchups, game strategy, and motivation are wild cards that will determine the outcome of many a game.  On paper, Stanford should win out in the conference.  But in practice, Stanford will be threatened in most if not all of its remaining conference games.

As far as the conference’s player of the week awards, they do leave a balanced and deep team like Stanford under recognized.  When Stanford wins, that lack of recognition matters little.  The wins are the best form of recognition.   Any day of the week, I’d take a conference championship over all the player of the week awards.  Perhaps, however, the conference should consider a weekly award for defensive prowess.  

Stay safe!

The Essence of Hull: How Many Hull Sisters Are There?

 

Warren Grimes

Coach VanDerveer reportedly told Lexie and Lacie Hull’s parents that, after watching the twins in action, triplets would have been preferred.  Indeed, a third Hull on the team would be a blessing. 

It got me to thinking – perhaps Stanford already has a third.  Take a look at the essence of a Hull basketball player.

A Hull is a gym rat.

A Hull is a tall slender player from the Pacific Northwest.

A Hull is a player with a high basketball I.Q., always with her mind in the game.

A Hull can shoot the three ball, but can also battle to rebound and score inside.

A Hull is a top notch defender, always trying to steal or block the opponent’s shot.

A Hull is an energizer bunny – that keeps going, and going, and going.

A Hull quietly leads by example. 

 The essence of Hull is really the essence of the Stanford team.   The Hull twins set an example that others follow.  All of the team’s players meet most of these criteria.  There is, however, one player (other than Lexie and Lacie) that meets all of them. 

Look carefully at the essence of Hull, and tell me that Cameron Brink does not possess each and every one of these traits.  Perhaps Cameron is the twins’ long lost little sister.  Little is not the right word – try “younger and taller” sister.   Indeed, one might say “a Hull on steroids.”  Henceforth, she could be known as “Cameron Brink-Hull.”

Mind you, if Brink is a Hull sibling, I cannot explain how it came to pass that Cameron grew up in a different city, a different state, and with different parents.  A mix up in the hospital nursery?  A severe case of parental amnesia?  Fake news?

Whatever the explanation, the identity of basketball traits cannot be denied.  Brink has come off a fine Sunday to Sunday run, starting the last four games and putting up numbers that make her the talk of the conference.  In those four games, Brink averaged 4.25 blocks, 8 boards, 8.25 points, and 2 assists – all of this while playing an average of only 21 minutes per game.  Brink remains the conference leader in field goal percentage, the conference leader in blocks, and the conference leader in boards per minute.  Not bad for a freshman.

Of course, Brink still has some freshman kinks to work out, among them avoiding fouling herself off the floor, learning to deal with stronger interior players, and refining her free throw shooting.  In the last four games, she’s already improved on the fouling.

Stanford has won the last four games, three against strong teams (WSU and USC) by an average of 27 points.  The team has held these opponents to an average of 51 points.  While only playing roughly half of the minutes, Brink’s blocks and rebounds have been a significant part of these decisive outcomes. 

I hate to sound greedy, but could there be another missing Hull sister out there somewhere?

The team will be back in Maples on Friday – That’s a blessing.  The team’s peripatetic adventure (hopefully) is at an end.

The pandemic has created skewed results for the conference.  Stanford has played 14 conference games, the most of any team.  California has played only 8 conference games, and chief rivals for the championship are behind Stanford (Oregon 12 games, Arizona 11 games, and UCLA 10 games).  Potential controversy lies ahead in picking the conference champion and the seeding for the conference tournament.

Meanwhile, Stay Safe.