THE COUGARS HAVE A NEW COACH AND A NEW ATTITUDE - AND THEY'RE OUT TO GET'YA!!

WSU Women's Basketball Website

The Cougs are sick and tired of being the doormat of the PAC12 women's basketball conference! Come to Maples at 7PM on Friday the 3rd and watch this new stronger better edition of the Washington State Cougars take on the Stanford Cardinal.

It's tough to recruit five star players to the Palouse, WSU has had two barely winning seasons in the last twenty-two years and in 2018, they were 10 and 20. So if you're the Athletic Director, how do you turn the program around? First, you hire a great coach who knows how to win. Kamie Ethridge was the point guard at Texas when her team went 34-0 and won the national championship. She won a gold medal in the '88 Olympics, was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and is generally thought to be one of the greatest players in history. Her last Head Coaching gig was at Northern Colorado where the Bears were 83-44 in her four year stint and 26 - 7 in her last year, including a Big Sky Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. 

Kamie was hired by WSU at the end of the 2018 season. You could feel the difference she brought almost immediately. She's one of the great teachers of the game and she's building a program on a foundation of solid fundamentals. She plays up-tempo and says they'll shoot a lot from distance. When Kamie's hire was announced, she got a letter from Bobbie Buckets (Borislava Hristova, First Team All PAC12 last season) signed by the seven players who decided to stay after the 2018 season, in which she said, ". . . we believe in you, and we are committed to making this thing work."

She's the latest in a series of great coaching hires by PAC12 women's basketball programs - including Scott Rueck, Kelly Graves, Jody Wynn, Adia Barnes and Mark Trakh. You can sense our conference getting stronger every year. Kamie will bring the Cougs to a new level. Soon, they will no longer be an assumed "W" on any schedule - including ours. 

The Cougars feature players from every corner of the earth - Australia, New Zealand, France, Hawaii, Israel, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rwanda and Nebraska. Borislava is one of the best NCAA players in America - by way of Varna, Bulgaria. If she's on on Friday night, she'll put on a show in Maples. She can light it up. 

Obviously, I'm excited for the long-suffering WSU fans and expect a dramatic turnaround in Pullman in the near future.  

    

THE AGGIES ARE COMING!! SHOW UP ON SATURDAY AT 2 PM AND LET THE CARDINAL HEAR YOU!!

Stanford will take on the U.C. Davis Aggies on Saturday December 28th at 2 PM. I assume the team flew home Sunday night and will spend Monday through Thursday with their families and fly back Thursday night - have a practice on Friday and a shoot around Saturday morning. Something like that should be enough to prepare for the Aggies at 2 PM.

You probably know that on Sunday, Stanford lost its first game of the season in Austin where their shooting went south. So, I figure the Aggies will bear the brunt of Stanford's return to the friendly confines of Maples Pavilion, where they will proceed to shoot the lights out. (At least that's my hope.)

I'm predicting six threes . . . in the first half! And four more in the second, as well as a return of the joy and smiles of the Cardinal shooters. I predict that Kiana will skip back to the team huddle for the first timeout.

Katie Toole is a 5'-10" senior guard who averages 16 points. I predict she'll have a long afternoon on Saturday. Cierra Hall is a forward who usually ends up in double figures - I think this weekend she won't. Their post player, Sage Stobbart, got about a dozen rebounds in their last game. On Saturday I'm predicting she'll be in single digits. Their two forwards, Nina Bessolo and Kayla Konrad, will do their darndest, but all in all, I think Saturday will be a happy return to the Farm for the Cardinal players after disappointment in Texas and a rejuvenating few days at home.

Stanford is in the process of getting themselves ready for the start of the PAC12 season and Saturday will provide a helpful tuneup in their preparation. This game, the two Washingtons and the two Cal games will serve to re-establish the Cardinal's momentum, preparing them for their January 16th trip to Eugene and Corvallis.

I'm remembering a famous quote from a Hall of Fame football coach for the Longhorns, Darrell Royal, who said, "You learn more from losing than from winning - but, I don't recommend it." That especially applies to our four freshmen. You may have noticed that they were basically missing in action last Sunday. Your first away game in college is really tough. You've got thousands of rabid fans cheering against you for the first time in your life. The other team is totally psyched and you feel out of sorts in their building, with their cheerleaders, their band, and crowd. It all felt alien - especially in the first half - timing was off, nothing was flowing, the shots weren't falling.

As I watched, I could see the learning curve taking place. The Knight Arena in Eugene will be packed on the 16th and Gill on the 19th. That game in Texas was a baptism of fire. In the next three weeks our young players will grow from that experience. I'm hoping they grow enough to be able to play well in Oregon - the biggest away games of the PAC12 season. And I'm hoping for Maya and DiJonai by then. Whatever happens - the possibilities make all of this so much fun! And it'll just keep getting better! I'm loving this team and this season!

Merry Christmas Cardinal Fans!

GO STANFORD!!WE CAN DO THIS!!     

   

THE LONGHORNS FEEL LIKE GORIN SOMEBODY. WE'RE THEIR NEXT OPPORTUNITY DOWN IN AUSTIN ON SUNDAY THE 22ND AT 10 AM

Texas won a recent hard-fought game against Tennessee by 6 points. They've had some high points this season, that was one of them. Losing to Arizona by 25 wasn't. McDonald went off for 44 against them that night. 

Their two bigs are considerable. (35) Charli Collier is a 6'-5" sophomore center who has skills and averages 14 points. Joyner Holmes is a 6'-3" senior forward who is stout and strong. She leads the team in scoring at 16 points per contest. She and Collier combine for 21 rebounds a game. 

They have three guards who can get hot and hurt you - Sutton, Taylor, and Higgs. That threesome averages 29 points per game. The following link will give you some insight into how they play on a good night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YOjSMkdu5E

If the Cardinal can go on the road and put off going home for Christmas for another day - they can win down in Austin. But nothing will be handed to them. The Longhorns will be primed to play their best and Stanford will have to match and surpass their intensity. GO STANFORD!!  

THE TALLEST TENNESSEE LADY VOLS TEAM EVER ROLLS INTO MAPLES WEDNESDAY NIGHT, LOOKING FOR CARDINAL BLOOD!!!

(0) Rennia Davis is a basketball star in the making. This  6'-2" Junior Guard/Forward is averaging 17 points and 9 rebounds per game. She moves great, has abundant hops, and is a deadly shooter. She'll give the Stanford defense as much as they can handle Wednesday night. (20) Tamari Key is a 6'-5" Freshman post player who is just beginning to come into her own. The same could be said about (25) Jordan Horston, another dangerous Freshman who seems about ready to explode. (13) Jazmine Massengill is a 6' Sophomore who looks to me like an SEC All Star in the making. I've included a link below of the Vol's game against Notre Dame:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-fFUEZho9A

Kelly Harper, the Lady Vols new coach, has a whole lineup of splendid talents that could be compared to a Ford GT40, that is running mediocre laps at Le Mans, because the gaggle of coaches working feverishly on Rocky Top haven't been able to get the tuning right . . . yet. (Don't tell me you haven't seen the movie.) Actually, they're much like this year's bunch in Cardinal. You see glimpses of brilliance and moments of wowsville, but overall you smile, shake your head, and wonder when the moments will turn into quarters, and the rare glimpses to forty minutes of the zinging swishing sweet music of a championship contender.

Wednesday I think you'll see what I'm talking about. If DiJonai, Lacie, Maya, and Mikeala were in uniform at 100% it wouldn't be much of a contest, but I don't think they will be. I expect a total battle. Rankings be damned. Both teams are young untuned GT40s - loaded with talent, but they play faster than they should at times and make mistakes they won't when March rolls around.

I don't know what the problem was last season, but Kelly (Jolly) Harper, the point guard on three national championship teams for Pat, was obviously the answer. She'll get this team tuned up by the end of February and then - WATCH OUT! People in Knoxville will be nodding to each other and agreeing THE LADY VOLS ARE BACK!

Sunday evening those watching got their best look yet at Haley Jones. And it was her defense. Wow was I impressed. The Buckeye's next great star suitably named Bell, was totally eclipsed by a young comet named Haley. I think Bell had no points and almost no assists after she led Ohio State to victory over #2 Louisville. It was amazing.  I wonder who will guard Rennia Davis on Wednesday.
        

LED BY A FRESHMAN PHENOM, UNRANKED OHIO STATE JUST KNOCKED OFF THE #2 TEAM IN THE NATION

On Sunday December 15, Stanford plays the Ohio State Buckeyes at 5:30 PM. Last night the Buckeyes beat #2 Louisville and will be gunning to take down #1 Stanford. You need to be there in full voice!!

Kierstan Bell and LeBron James are the only two athletes in Ohio high school history that have been named Mr. or Miss Basketball for three years in a row. In high school she was usually double-teamed, yet averaged 30 points and 10 rebounds a game. Last night this incredible freshman led unranked Ohio State to a 67 to 60 victory over #2 ranked Louisville. She wasn't the scoring leader, but she was the driving force. Louisville couldn't stop her. Check out this clip of her snatching a pass out of the air and making an incredible spin move while driving the basket:
https://twitter.com/OhioStateWBB/status/1202778465809944578.

Like the Cardinal, OSU is loaded with talented freshmen and sophomores. Kevin McGuff brought in five freshmen this season and his recruiting class was ranked number three in the nation. Against #4 UConn recently OSU's top six players were two freshmen, three sophomores, and a junior. They lost by eleven after giving a good account of themselves. I've included a link showing the highlights and also a link to the official OSU team website:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73GflWUCCd0

Here's a link to the official OSU team website.

The difference between the UConn and Louisville games was the free throws. Against UConn, OSU shot a miserable 5 of 13, but last night they hit 19 of 23 and didn't fade down the stretch like they did against the Huskies. In other words, the Buckeyes are improving by leaps and bounds and plan to ambush the #1 Cardinal.

(24) Kierstan Bell, a 6'-1" freshman guard scored 14 points and had 6 rebounds. Dorka Juhasy is a 6'-4" sophomore from Hungary who had 15 points and 7 rebounds. (3) Janai Crooms is a sophomore guard who scored 11 points and had 5 rebounds. (23) Rebeka Mikalusikova is a 6'-4" freshman from Slovakia who had 11 points and 4 rebounds. (10) Braxtin Miller is a 5'-11" junior guard who had 9 points. This link is the box score from last night.

https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ohio-State-vs.-Louisville-12-5-19-1.pdf

On December 15 the Buckeyes arrive at Maples fresh from beating the No. #2 team in the nation. No. #1 Stanford is coming off a two week break in their game schedule and will have to play their best and toughest basketball. We have to be on and we have to be ready. GO STANFORD! WE CAN DO THIS!!

OSU Stats - click on image to enlarge

Click on Stats above to enlarge

The Victoria Invitational Tournament will challenge our young team. I'm predicting a hard won championship!

The Greater Victoria Invitational Tournament should be the perfect next step for our Cardinal team. I'm predicting that the top seedings will all hold and Stanford will play the three teams previewed below. After an unranked team the first night at 7:30 PM, hopefully we'll win and advance to play the other two nationally ranked and top-seeded teams on Friday and Saturday and win both of those games.

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/

READY OR NOT - A HERD OF BULLS IS GONNA COME STORMIN INTO MAPLES ON SUNDAY AT 2PM!!

The Buffalo guards are  FAST and QUICK!! Did I mention they can REALLY SHOOT! 

I've included a link here that is some video of Dyaisha Fair, their 5'-5" freshman that was taken last year when she was a senior in high school. Couldn't find anything shot this year that tells her story adequately. Take a look. She reminds me a lot of Aari McDonald of Arizona. 
  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJaJslhKYUM

As a freshman, Dyaisha has averaged 26 points in their first four games. Hanna Hall and Theresa Onwuka are also strong guards averaging double digits and are capable of going over 20 on any given night. Theresa went for 31 last week. Loren Christie is 6'-3", has inside moves and can hit from beyond the line.  

In their game Thursday at San Jose State, it appeared in the first half that SJSU hadn't heard about Dyaisha. On half of Buffalo's possessions she would get a crisp pass beyond the arc with no one near her. SWISH! She ended up with 8 threes and 28 points. But in the locker room during halftime Hosey State decided to not lose - and they didn't. They won the 3rd quarter 30 to 13 and the game 95 to 88. The Spartans came out like a different team and began rebounding, running, and playing defense. Surprising what happens when you get serious and play hard! Buffalo was sure surprised. Onwuka had 21, Walters had 17, and Hall had 8. As a team the Bulls ended up with 15 threes, but they got out hustled and out fought in the 2nd half.   

Do you remember an Elite Eight game six years ago or so up in Washington when Courtney Vandersloot kept getting around Karlie in the first half, causing havoc inside our defense? During halftime Karlie suggested a zone designed to stop her. The defenders on either side of Karlie helped her on every possession to stop Courtney's penetrations - turning her into a well-defended perimeter shooter and passer. That zone got us to the Final Four. So, if Kiana or Anna have trouble staying in front of Dyaisha, don't be surprised if Tara decides to Vandersloot her.  
GO STANFORD!! WE CAN DO THIS!!