On Thanksgiving Day, Stanford will play California Baptist University. CBU is undefeated to date and in their last game they defeated UCSB in double overtime. The problem for the Lancers playing Stanford is that their tallest player who gets playing time is 6'-1". I know they'll play tough, but I'm hoping our starters can open up a lead and sit for much of the game on Thursday. We'll have two tougher games on Friday and Saturday.
Cal Baptist has surprised three Big West schools on their way to a 6 and 0 start this season. They have great chemistry and poise to go along with their fine basketball IQ and crisp passing. Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, and UCSB were all out-played along the way. Lexy Ram and Caitlyn Harper both average about 16 points and 9 rebounds. Taylor Wu has hit 13 of 28 3's this season. Georgia Dale and Sydney Palma generate assists and steals. We certainly can't overlook the Lancers and our defense has to take over the game.
Syracuse was one point down after two quarters against Oregon on Sunday and comes into the Thanksgiving Tournament in Victoria, BC ranked #17 in the nation. In the second half, the Ducks pulled away and won by 17. Syracuse will play Houston on Thursday and should have little difficulty with the Cougars. I've included a link below to show you the game on Sunday. I was expecting the Orange to be a wicked pressing team and felt concerned about how our young team would handle our first tough press of the season. But the Cuse defense was an effective zone without intense pressure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvFb2Xq_Slg
Kiara Lewis is the Orange's 5'-8" junior floor general and she had 23 points on Sunday afternoon, including 4 three-pointers. Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi is a 6'-2" sophomore forward who had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Emily Engstler is a 6'-1" sophomore guard and had 10 points and 9 rebounds. Digna Strautmane is a 6'-2" junior forward who scored 9 points and took down 6 boards.
Syracuse hit 10 three-point shots, got 5 steals, and caused 14 turnovers. Interestingly, when the game was over there were dozens of little girls and boys, plus many teenagers and adults lining the runway to the Ducks locker room, and the marquee players of college women's basketball gave many autographs and pictures to their new upstate New York fans.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs have been destroying their preseason opposition. I've mentioned it before, but State's scheduling makes me doubly grateful for the steady progression of Stanford's opponents through the fifth week and going forward. I wonder how smart Mississippi State has been thus far, scheduling so far below their talent level. They've won their last two games by scoring an average of 125 points. They're ranked #8/10 and face their first real challenge of the young season Monday night in Marquette. It was an incredible battle and came down to the last minute with the Bulldogs winning 74 to 68.
The Bulldog stars are Jessika Carter, a 6'-5" athletic talented sophomore center who is averaging 19.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and Jordan Danberry a 5'-8" grad student guard who is a defensive buzzsaw. Jessika is the latest of Vic Shaefer's imposing post players, but against Marquette she was on the bench much of the game with fouls. Tierra McKown, you remember, was their 6'-7" boss under the basket for the past four years, as the Bulldogs mounted two strong, but unsuccessful campaigns to win the national championship.
https://youtu.be/rh2uP5MI3AU
Typical of Vic Shaefer's teams, the Bulldogs use a full court press throughout the game on made baskets. In the Marquette game on 11/25 their press comprised mostly of Danberry, Myah Taylor, and Chloe Bibby and must have caused fifteen turnovers on inbound passes, usually resulting in points for the Bulldogs. In addition, Danberry stole the ball five times from the point guard playing a hard pressing one on one defense and usually scored on a layup going the other way. Her hands are lightning quick.
In all, Marquette had 28 turnovers and State scored 32 points off of turnovers. Danberry had 20 points to lead all scorers. The Bulldog press won the game, even though the Golden Eagles fought tooth and nail the whole way and were up by five early in the fourth quarter. Marquette tried all night to throw the inbounds pass from the end line over the pressing defense and completed about 50% of those passes. It turns out, that pass has to be almost perfect or its a turnover. In the second half, the Golden Eagles realized that they could use backdoor moves against State's overplaying defense and must have made eight or ten baskets going backdoor.
Kiana, Haley, Anna, Jenna and the whole Cardinal team are going to have to play the best game of the year to date to cope with the Bulldog press. Every pass is challenged, but with a good fake the defender is hung out to dry, which leads to a pass to a backdoor cutter. Marquette didn't make near enough use of this basic move against an overplaying defense and must have lost a dozen intercepted passes. The other major problem the Eagles had came from giving up their dribble too early. Instantly, there would be two or three defenders trying to steal the ball from the overwhelmed ballhandler. If you're aggressive with the ball they'll foul you more often than not and if you drive the basket they foul almost every time. It'll be an interesting challenge.
You may remember in the national semi-final game between Stanford and Texas A&M. Coach Shaefer was the defensive assistant coach and his press completely undid the Cardinal. Jeanette Pohlen was the point guard and under normal circumstances she would have been the shooting guard, but the Cardinal didn't have a real point guard, so Jeanette took on the job. A&M had incredible guards and their press was even more effective than this year's Bulldog press. A&M beat Notre Dame for the national title that year, because of Vic's high intensity pressing defense.
This year State's guard corps is again deep and talented led by Jordan Danberry, Andra Espinoza-Hunter, and Myah Taylor who are all averaging about 10 points per contest. They don't lean on their forwards for much of their scoring, to date, but Chloe Bibby is averaging 9 rebounds per game. The Bulldogs were 4 of 16 on 3-point shots, so tonight that wasn't a bright spot.
At the risk of redundancy, I'm grateful and impressed with the insight and intelligence shown in the construction of the Stanford schedule. The tournament in Victoria is the perfect next level of competition and we will be severely challenged - which is the idea, right? When I write my next blog piece about the Ohio State game on December 15th, we'll know if our progression led to our best game of the season against the Bulldogs and a tournament championship. I think it will. Fun isn't it!
GO STANFORD!! WE CAN DO THIS!
http://victoriainvitational.com/
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