Stanford Shows Resilience in Addressing Vertical Challenges

Warren Grimes

Stanford has now played four games without a meaningful presence for its star Nunu Agara.  It lost the first two on the road against Notre Dame and Louisville but picked up important wins at home against Syracuse and Boston College. 

Agara played the opening minutes against Notre Dame before going down with an injury, missed the next two games against Louisville and Syracuse, then made only a token appearance against Boston College.

Agara has been a major presence for Stanford, leading the team in points and rebounds.  Her versatility is part of the package – she shoots the threeball but can also score inside with finesse and power moves.  She is also an assist leader.  Her abrupt departure in the first quarter is at least partly responsible for the humbling defeat in the Notre Dame game. 

In the loss against Louisville, Stanford figured out how to play without Agara but still fell short in a fourth quarter comeback attempt.  Back home at Maples, Stanford rediscovered its three-point shooting and found sufficient rebounding and inside scoring to win, decisively against Syracuse and more narrowly against Boston College. 

Most of the scoring in the Maples games came from three starters and one player off the bench: Elena Boscana, Brooke Demetre, Chloe Clardy, and Tess Heal.  Mary Ashley Stevenson started both games and contributed valuable points, boards, and assists. 

There is growth in the performances of all these players.  Boscana is still hitting a high percentage of her outside shots while improving conversions on her improvised inside drives.  Demetre is notably improving her shot blocking while converting her threes and fall-away inside shots.  Clardy is improving her assist turnover ratio while still hitting from outside and on drives.  Heal continues her torrid, above 50% shooting from three-point distance.

Stanford remains a vertically challenged team.  The team does not have the same inside game -- height, power, and finesse -- of recent Stanford teams.  In another sense, Stanford also needs a stronger vertical game.  The team can do perimeter passing as well as anyone but needs to be able to move the ball inside to draw defenders away from its three-point shooters.  In the last two games, Stanford perimeters showed increased ability to penetrate and still dish the ball back outside. 

Agara is a player who can draw multiple inside defenders and helps Stanford deal with these vertical challenges.  The timing for her full recovery and return to form remains uncertain.

Stanford understandably remains cautious in dealing with head injuries.  Female athletes have had some unfortunate outcomes.  Jamie Carrie, after a promising first year start at Stanford, suffered a head injury and ended up transferring to Texas when the medical staff there cleared her to play.  Career-ending head injuries to a star soccer goalie and a hard-hitting volleyball player are part of Stanford’s history.

I have my fingers crossed that Agara’s injury is one which will allow her a rapid and full recovery. 

Hated Symbiotic Rival: Cal Sweeps Two Different Stanford Teams

 

Warren Grimes

On December 13 of last year, the Cal Bears defeated Stanford decisively at Haas (83-63).  A bit more than a month later, playing at Maples, Cal completed the two-game sweep, this time by a narrower 75-72 margin.

A Cal sweep in this rivalry game has happened before – to be precise, in January of 1986.  Almost 40 years had passed between these events.  Sandwiched between these 40 year markers were Tara VanDerveer years in which Stanford won most of the games, often  sweeping the two conference games.  Stanford had won the last 12 straight.

Not this season.   Cal has the strongest team that Charmin Smith has fielded during her 5 seasons as the head coach.  Using the transfer portal, Smith has put together a team that is outperforming the preseason rankings.  The team is now 18-3 and 6-2 in the very competitive ACC conference.  Cal will have a challenge against Notre Dame and Louisville on the road and North Carolina at home, but the team should have a comfortable path to the NCAA tournament.  They are getting it done with focus and balanced scoring by an experienced lineup, with five players averaging in double digits.

As a Stanford student, I quickly bought into the rivalry hype – hate Cal, prank Cal, and most of all BEAT CAL.  Over the years, the rivalry games have brought out the best in players from both teams.  So yes, players and fans are passionate about winning the rivalry games. 

The athletic departments of the two schools likely have more nuanced views.  Rivalry games bring in the fans with more ticket revenues.  There is a kind of a mutual dependence in the Stanford vs. Cal rivalry.  Consider the following.

During their time together in the Pac-12, Stanford and Cal joined in fighting for event scheduling that protected student athletes’ classroom performance.

When the Pac-12 disintegrated, the two schools stood together and bargained for admission to the ACC.

Both the Cal men’s and women’s basketball teams are coached by former Stanford greats (Mark Madson and Charmin Smith).  The Stanford football team is coached by a California alum (Troy Taylor).

Charmin Smith and Kate Paye played together under VanDerveer and later were assistant coaches on VanDerveer’s staff.  Both Paye and VanDerveer openly state that they cheer for Cal whenever the two teams aren’t playing each other.  VanDerveer has referred recruits to Cal when there is no place for them on Stanford’s roster. 

Stanford’s loss to Cal at Maples was painful.  It increases the long odds that Stanford will make the NCAA tournament.  And it was a winnable, one possession game with an inspiring comeback by Stanford.  There was a late-game controversial intentional foul call against Shay Ijiwoye that removed her from the game and gave Cal a four point turn around.

Stanford, however, showed moxie at Maples that wasn’t displayed in the December game.  Stanford was NOT the same team in January that Cal had comfortably taken down a month earlier.

Consider these points.

In the December game, only one starter (Nunu Agara) was an underclassman.  Agara, along with Chloe Clardy and Kennedy Umeh from the bench,  scored 25 points, or 40% of the team’s total 63.

In January, two more underclassmen (Chloe Clardy and Shay Ijiwoye) had joined the starting lineup.  Together with Agara and three more underclassmen from the bench (Courtney Ogden, Mary Ashley Stevenson and Kennedy Umeh), they scored 61, or 85% of the team’s total 72 points. 

During the late third quarter and most of the fourth quarter, the team overcame all but two points of a 19 point deficit.  They did so by generating Cal turnovers.  Ogden and Stevenson joined the three starting underclassmen for most of the inspirational rally.   

In January, Clardy started and played over 39 minutes.   For good reason -- she scored a team and career high 22 points.  Her drives to the basket drew fouls, and she converted 8 of 11 free-throw attempts.

In the January game, Ijiwoye’s statistics were solid (8 points, 2 boards, 3 steals, and 3 assists) but probably understate the spark she provides to her teammates.  Ijiwoye is very strong, very quick, and very aggressive on defense.

Kennedy Umeh played over 5 mintues in the January game (she had only 44 seconds in the December encounter).  Umeh picked up 3 fouls, one free throw, one defensive board, and 2 turnovers.  Unimpressive statistics – but the coaching staff had the confidence and wisdom to give her playing time in a hotly contested game.  She fills a need and will get better.

Nothing is easy for this Stanford team, but I love watching them evolve and compete.  I hope the team will be inspired by Stanford women’s soccer.  In the fall, that injury-ridden team didn’t play well enough to make the ACC tournament.  Never mind.  In the NCAA tournament, they made it all the way to the final four (College Cup).

Looking Forward and Back: Stanford's Small Margin for Error

Warren Grimes

Approaching the halfway point in its season, the Stanford women stand at a pivotal moment.  Will the team regain the momentum it had in November, finishing that month with a 7-1 record and high hopes to outperform preseason predictions?  Or is its path forward mired in its December-early January record of 2-6?

The un-Stanford like realities of this season so far suggest that rival California, with a 16-2 record, is the Cinderella team of the ACC.  Meanwhile, Stanford, with a 1-4 conference record, will be lucky to finish with a preseason-predicted 6^th place finish.   Perhaps even more concerning, a Stanford invitation to the NCAA tournament is now in doubt.

During the Cameron Brink years, Stanford could rely on Brink and other powerful interior players to block shots of opponents who crashed the paint.  Not this year.  For this team, defense requires players at all positions to coordinate and focus on defense.  Focus and intensity for the full 40 minutes are needed.  What may have sufficed during the Brink era will not get it done for this team.

These realities were evident in the team’s last four games.  Stanford has yet to win a single game played outside Maples.  The team was unable to seal the deal against SMU and  Creighton, teams that will struggle to finish in the top half of the conference.  Both were one-possession games, with the loss to Creighton in overtime.  Stanford recovered for a scrappy Maples victory against a solid Florida State team.  The weekend ended with a hard fought but overmatched loss to NC State.  In that last contest, Stanford won the first quarter (by 6 points) and the fourth quarter (by 11 points), statistics that should bode well.  But they weren’t nearly enough.  NC State won the second quarter (by 12 points) and decimated Stanford in the third quarter (by 19 points).  NC State’s 34-point third quarter matched its total for the first half.

There’s no shame in losing to NC State, a final four team last year with a core of guards with substantial WNBA potential.  Stanford showed some mettle with its 24-point fourth quarter, narrowing what had been a 27-point deficit to an 11-point margin near the end of the game.  But Stanford ran out of gas and time. 

As a glass-is-half-full person, I still see hope for the last half of the season.  Stanford will be the underdog in most of those games but change and development is in the air.  After the loss to SMU, Coach Paye changed the starting lineup to add Chloe Clardy and Shay Ijiwoye (moving Tess Heal and Jzaniya Harriel to reserves).  Both additions show promise.  Chloe Clardy had a team high of 17 points against NC State, including 5 boards and 3-5 shooting from three-point range.  Ijiwoye’s strength and quickness will disrupt an opponent’s rhythm on both offense and defense.  Her strengths were on show against Florida State, where she had 7 points, 5 boards, 2 assists and a steal (no turnovers).   

The other starters have not faltered.  Elena Boscana has shown Brittany McPhee-like moves inside.  Brooke Demetre and Nunu Agara have been steady and reliable.

There won’t be any easy wins for this young Stanford team.  The starting lineup now includes two sophomores and one freshman.  Four of the five starters did not start last year.  There is real potential for improvement.  The chemistry remains strong with this scrappy, creative, and fun-to-watch team.  A few wins on the road, and maybe two upsets of higher ranked teams should guarantee Stanford an invite to the big dance.