Deep Depth: Why This Stanford Team is BAD, BAD, BAD!

 Warren Grimes

BAD, as in Balanced And Deep.

Speaking of his beloved Yankees, Yogi Berra once said that his team had “deep depth.” 

Sorry, Yogi. 

Your Yankees had nothin’ compared to Kiana Williams and her mates.   

There are 12 active players on this season’s squad.  Each of these 12 is good enough to start or be a major rotation player on the 11 other conference teams.  Let’s take the two freshmen that averaged under 10 minutes per game.

Agnes Emma-Nnopu – Stanford’s Australian freshman averaged the fewest minutes (5.9 per game) but showed unique capabilities as a defender and rebounder.  Quick to the ball, Emma-Nnopu was the fourth highest rebounder on a per minute basis.  That’s impressive for a perimeter player.  What’s more, she was especially effective as an offensive rebounder.  Emma-Nnopu was the only player on the team that had more offensive boards (19) than defensive boards (16).  No one else came even close to this ratio.  Tell me that Charmin Smith or Cori Close wouldn’t have mortgaged the house in order to have Emma-Nnopu playing major minutes for their team.

Jana Van Gytenbeek  - A talented point guard, Van Gytenbeek averaged 8.7 minutes per game and shot three pointers at a 39.6% clip.  She had 30 assists against just 12 turnovers.  Jana would have started for many Pac-12 teams.  And tell me that Colorado and Oregon wouldn’t have loved to have Van Gytenbeek to fall back on when their starting point guards fell injured.

The only other Stanford player that averaged below 10 minutes is senior Alyssa Jerome, a team leader and solid and reliable player who started many games over her career.  This season, Jerome started only once, but that is surely a sign of the depth of this team, not any fall off in Jerome’s performance.  In the OSU game in Corvallis, Jerome came off the bench and was a real difference maker, hitting four of five 3-point shots and totaling 14 points.  No Pac-12 coach would turn down an opportunity to add Jerome to the roster.

The rest of the team?  Well six of the nine remaining have received at least one season-ending award.  Here’s the list.

Kiana Williams – All conference team and most outstanding player in the Pac-12 tournament.

Haley Jones – All conference team and chosen once as conference, player of the week.

Lexie Hull – All conference team and all-tournament team.

Anna Wilson – Co-winner conference defensive player of the year (and shot 38.5% from the three point line).

Cameron Brink – All-tournament team, all-freshman team, and honorable mention, all conference team.

Lacie Hull – Chosen as sixth player of the year.

A seventh player, Ashten Prechtel, received no award this season, but was chosen as the media, sixth player of the year last season.  Prechtel was one of 9 players on this team that shot threes at 32.6% or higher. 

That leaves only Fran Belibi and Hannah Jump.  Belibi, nationally known for her dunks, was the second leading rebounder on the team (on a per minute basis), and had an enviable field goal percentage (54.2%).  Jump had the highest three point conversion rate (42.7%) and was second only to Kiana Williams in total threes made.  So which Pac-12 coach isn’t drooling to have these two players on the roster?

Here’s one more illustration of this team’s depth.  Coach VanDerveer likes to relate that in intra-squad practice games, the team with the Hull twins routinely wins.  This is apparently so even if the opposing team is loaded with starters.  The story illustrates the amazing intensiveness and competitive spirit of the twins, but it also shows something else.  There isn’t much fall off between those who start and those who come off the bench. 

You got it, Yogi.  It’s deep depth.

This dynamic dozen should receive one of the two top overall seeds in the NCAA tournament.  Winning six games in a row against really good teams is a tall order.  But this team has BAD.  Stanford is Final Four material.  They will be a challenge for any opponent, even in potential fifth and sixth games.  

Bring it on.

And stay safe.

A Superb Conference-Winning Team -- How Good Are They?

 

Warren Grimes

The regular season is over.  Stanford has won the conference championship for the first time since 2014.  Stanford accomplished this in a unique and very trying season in which the team played no home games, and had no home practice facilities, for two uninterrupted months.  But just how good is this team?

The conference statistics show that, after a lapse of years that began with Chiney Ogwumike’s graduation, Stanford is once again, by a significant margin, the preeminent team in the conference.   

Stanford was the number one conference team in a variety of offensive categories, including average points per game (78), field goal percentage (46.9%), average margin of victory (25 points per game) and rebounding margin (10.5 per game).  The team also had a number of conference leading totals on defense, holding opponents to an average of 53 points per game and to conference lows for opponents’ field goal shooting (32.9%) and 3-point shooting (26.9%). 

When compared to great Stanford teams of the past, this season’s team still looks very good indeed.  Of course, the proof will lie in post-season performance.  The team’s defensive prowess is particularly impressive.  Here are some comparisons of this season’s defensive stats with past Stanford VanDerveer-coached teams.

Opponents average points – Holding opponents to an average of 53 points per game, this is the second best showing ever during the VanDerveer era (the 2012-2013 team allowed only 51.9 points per game). 

Margin of victory - This year’s squad was the second best in the VanDerveer years (25 point margin this season compared to a 26.6 point margin in 1989-90).

Opponent’s 3-point percentage – Stanford limited opponents to 26.9%, the best since 2012-2013 (23.5%).

Offensive stats also compare favorably with past great Stanford teams.   

Field goal percentage – At 46.9%, this year’s team was the best since 2014 (47% and a final four team).

Points per game – At 78, this total was the highest since 2011 (79.3 points per game and a final four team).

Rebounding margin – At 10.5, the margin was the best since 2011 (11.6).

These comparisons may understate the quality of this year’s team.  Many of the old records were set during a time when Stanford tended to dominate the conference.  No more of that – as demonstrated by 6 consecutive seasons when Stanford failed to win the conference. 

How does Stanford stand up to last year’s Oregon team?  Last year’s Ionescu-led team was the best conference team in memory, and would have bested this season’s Stanford team in offensive categories (points per game, field goal percentage, and margin of victory).  Interestingly, this year’s Stanford team showed better in defensive categories, holding opponents to fewer points and also besting the Ionescu-led squad in rebounding margin.  We’ll never know the results of this imaginary matchup, but it would have been a great contest to see.  

High school coaches who have experience with both boys and girls teams often comment on a key difference: the boys support the team in order to win: the girls win in order to support the team.  What happens when a high school coach yells at a player?  On a boys team, teammates stay silent and think to themselves: “Glad it wasn’t me.”  On a girls team, the player’s teammates are likely to rally to the player’s defense. 

The girls/womens squad’s greater focus on the team may be particularly apt for this season’s Stanford squad, where mutually supportive athletes have played through the Covid 19 pandemic (still going) and won a regular season title by a two game margin in what is probably the toughest conference in the country.

In the final season games, Stanford played especially stout defense.  Over the past 11 games (since losing to UCLA), the average points allowed was 49.2.  Stanford held its last three opponents to an average of 40.7 points.  This was accomplished with one of Stanford’s stoutest defenders (Lacie Hull) not playing against Arizona or California.  Part of this defense was a full court press implemented in the third quarter against California (Stanford outscored Cal 27 to 2 during that quarter).  The press is one more weapon that can be employed in the post season. 

So who is it on the team that plays defense? 

The answer: Everyone.

On a Tara VanDerveer team, no one gets playing time without playing D. 

But certain players do stand out.  On the perimeter Anna Wilson is a strong candidate for conference defender of the year.  The Hull sisters are also highly focused and effective perimeter defenders.  Inside, Cameron Brink leads the conference in blocks.  Brink and other interior defenders play a substantial role in keeping down the opponent’s shooting percentages.  Shots that are not blocked tend to get altered.  

Stanford has depth; Stanford has balance; Stanford has the defense; Stanford has the offense; and Stanford can bring the moxie.  If it does, it should win the Pac 12 tournament.   

Starting with 2013, Stanford has won the tournament every other year (2015, 2017, and 2019).  2021 fits nicely into this pattern.  

Stay safe.