Do you find yourself thinking about this team we're so excited about? Glowing as you review crucial moments in the NCAA Tournament? Haley coming through, again? Lexie stealing and keying another fast break? Kiana seeing the shot clock hit "2" and letting fly with a 26' swish? Cameron catching a rebound in one hand up near the rim and banking it in off the backboard in one motion? Ashton calmly hitting another three?
I'm convinced that the eastern sportswriters still feel sure that having two PAC12 teams battling for the championship was a total aberration. And having their AP Player of the Year get smoked by the PAC12 Player of the Year in the semi-final must have been because Paige had an off night. Before the tournament next year, all the national players of the year will once again come from within a couple of hundred miles of the eastern coastline, and the brilliance of the western players will once again be a total shock to the eastern writers in next year's NCAA Tournament.
How could they be so dense, you might ask? For decades the best players of the nation crowded into the schools near the New York City home of the nation's sportswriters. So, there was little motivation for the writers to watch games not involving UConn, Maryland, Louisville, Notre Dame, Kentucky, Tennessee - and more recently Baylor and South Carolina. So, those are the games ESPN always covers, and they're almost all in the same time zone as NYC. The sportswriters hear rumors of teams thousands of miles away that play games that start at 11PM their time, but who cares enough to stay up?
Next year's tournament in Minneapolis will force Charlie Creme and his cohorts to finally come to grips with the new reality - Stanford is the nation's preeminent women's college basketball program. They're at the top of the PAC12, the most powerful women's conference in the nation. The fact that UConn runs up the score and pads their stats in every Big East game against the likes of Seton Hall and St. Johns - actually means very little. In late March 2022, the Huskies will again get soundly beaten by the PAC12 runner-up in the semi-final game of the Final Four - then the Ducks will play the Cardinal for the national championship a few days later.
I'm sure you did as well, but I saw glimpses of real power in our team's play during the tournament. Power that I can't wait to watch become our team's normal "voltage" next season. Power that will send shockwaves through the women's college game for years to come.
Haley's passing will become the norm for our team. The overall velocity and accuracy will increase as everyone gets on board. Over the off-season her "handle" will improve to match her passing and she'll become the best point-forward ever in the women's college game. Her three-point shot will become awesome.
Lexie's, Lacie's, and Anna's defensive intensity will become the norm for our team. Their three-point shooting will lead Stanford to the top of that statistic across the nation (yes, Anna's going to hit three or four each game). And the Hull layups will become as certain as their free throws.
Cameron and Ashton will dominate the paint offensively and defensively. Their passing will continue to improve and their one dribble drives will become unstoppable. And both will join the barrage of between fifteen and twenty threes we hit every game.
Hannah Jump will become the best sixth player in the nation and her floater and jump shot will become as sure as her three-point shooting. When our team hits a lull, Hannah will jump in and immediately hit three threes and get us rolling again.
Fran will develop a jump hook that will enable her to use her vertical lift to score consistently over anyone Oregon or Oregon State can throw at her. She'll also get a consistent mid-range jump shot.
The magnificent seven on the bench will become a fantastic "X" factor. Who will demonstrate the kind of play that demands they get more playing time? I'll bet its Brooke Demetre. (6'-3" shooting sensation from Mater Dei in SoCal.) Who do you pick? Anyway, it will be a year like none ever before. And I can't wait!
GO CARDINAL!!
Just for kicks I'll include a couple of paragraphs from my October 2020 blog looking forward to the 2021 NCAA Tournament. (What's that old saying about ". . . even a blind squirrel sometimes finds a nut."?
And what about Lexie? You almost tend to take her for granted. By the end of this season, though, the wbb sports writers will finally realize that there is no more complete player in the nation. I predict that she'll make the All Tournament Team in San Antonio among a number of major awards.
Anna's solid maturity and fearlessness will help anchor this young group and she'll contribute importantly at both ends of the floor.
And Kiana. I never got to see Jennifer Azzi play in college, but to my mind Kiana Williams has gifts that defy athletic description and make her the MVP of all the guards I've seen play at Stanford. Besides, she skips back to the huddles with a big grin on her face. One in a thousand players can play this game and never hurry - can hit the crucial basket almost without doubt - and make everything look easy and natural.
And speaking of Kiana's Alamo City - I had a dream the other night. I know that none of us put much stock in dreams, but in this dream the Final Four ended up, after two weeks of titanic battles and great upsets, being Stanford, Arizona, Oregon, and South Carolina. In the semis, Stanford takes out the Wildcats and South Carolina struggles mightily in overcoming the Ducks. Unfortunately, my dream was interrupted by my iphone alarm during the introduction of players for the National Championship game and I'll have to wait until the first week of April to see how the dream ends.
It ended pretty much the way I dreamed it.
