I think this year's Stanford WBB team is better than last year's Final Four team and has a true shot at a NCAA title. This post borrows and adds to an earlier buried post.
Many Stanford players' names are the same but their games have changed. Brink has improved greatly, in so many ways. Her very high free throw percentage now wins games. Her drives score points at the basket or at the free throw line. Front line foul outs become the other team's issue, too. Brink and Jones' chemistry as well as Brink and Betts' chemistry has changed our post play. Betts' continuing improvement gives us a player Tara simply did not have last year or even the first half of this year-- especially when awful refs push Brink off the floor. Betts has wonderful hands and court vision, and you cannot teach 6'7". Betts is a very graceful player around the basket and seems to run the floor faster each new game.
Other Stanford players are new, improved versions. Iriafen and Jump and Demetre are far better than last year, both as defenders and shooters. Jump often interlopes to the forefront as a momentum changer in difficult games, a player Tara calls her "security blanket." Demetre is a great passer, great defender, and a true three point threat. Emma-Nnopu has emerged as an offensive as well as defensive force.
Sure, Stanford will miss the Hull twins but Lepolo may be superior to either Hull sister or Wilson as a true point guard. Lexie and Lacie Hull's worst Stanford game was their last Madness game The Hulls were great wings not great point guards. Lepolo's high three point conversion ratio, about 40%, makes her a 3FGM threat when she's left open. Lepolo (like Brink and Emma-Nnopu, the best FT% on the team) is great at the charity stripe. Opponents' frequent decisions to double or triple team Brink and Betts opens up Jump/Demetre/Lepolo for threes. Jump just sometimes needs clever screens to shoot them.
Stanford's emerging depth in its developing bench is a huge plus -- Belibi, Prechtel, Bogsana, Emma-Nnopu, Nivar now are solid role players. Stanford's extraordinary depth paid dividends in high altitude Boulder yesterday. Did you notice Stanford did not have Brink the entire 2OT -- and won? I do hope Prechtel who saved our 2021 Championship run finds her three point shot before this year's Madness, and Emma-Nnopu displays her magical ASU game three point touch in future Madness games. In the Madness, Bogsana may be this year's 2021 Prechtel, at least the shooting part. She now knows when to shoot and when to pass.
Tara's wonderful issue this year has been finding the right combinations with so many great talents on the team. If you watch enough games, you will notice how she now uses the depth to huge advantage. Stanford's opponents now are forced forced to cover Jump and Demetre and Emma-Nnopu closely. Stanford can easily space the floor, opening the middle lanes, for Jones's stops and pops or layups. Boulder was a classic example, as Jones came to life in the 2OT and Stanford outscored Colorado 12-3.
Stanford players, in clusters, have become interchangeable, more or less -- such as Brink/Betts/Iriafen/Belibi or Jump/Demetre or Lepolo/Nivar/Emma-Nnopu. Notably, in recent games, Tara matches her players to the other teams' players, sometimes even playing quick end-to-end offense/defense shifts, especially utilizing Belibi. Sure Brink, Jones, and Jump are the big stars, but each bench player does have special talents, and any one of them can play exceptionally well and star in particular games.
Stanford unfortunately tends to start slowly, but also tends to run other teams off their game, with Stanford scoring more in later quarters. The stock opponents' response recently has been attempting to play slow half court games and to avoid fast Stanford transitions. See, e.g., USC, Arizona, Colorado. Often opponents' first half "hot hands" grow colder later after close Stanford defense wears them down. Stanford's frequent substitutions save our players, an important factor during the Madness long haul.
Stanford, in other words, may successfully counter the usual Madness conventional wisdom of only playing 7 or 8. Stanford can play 9 or 10 -- and often does. Tara's motives in playing so many may be mixed -- revealing both a current game and a long term team strategy.
She is the master at creating a happy team.
Championship happy, we hope.
stanford.rivals.com
