RebKell's Junkie Boards

[NOLAbballgirl]

Jayne Appel - you are my hero!

National Championship baby! (even though I picked UCONN... )

[pilight]

[bricklayer]

Sheesh no respect for Appel. How far into sportscenter do we have to go for Appel highlights? They've already shown louisville highlights.

[mekanos]

[njjosh]

[bricklayer]

[slats-59's]

[NOLAbballgirl]

[NOLAbballgirl]

[slats-59's]

[eyevolley4]

So last season was an unforgettable one. Wiggins seemed to be a lightning rod that sparked her team to play absolutely unbelievable basketball. Stanford was one of the most exciting and viewer-friendly teams to watch the entire tournament, and they had a face with a smile bigger than any other.

This season, you won't see smiles on the court. Not many anyhow. The demeanor of Stanford has changed, but the beauty of their game and their strategy has not. With Jeanette, Jayne, Jill, Jayla, Joslyn, Jeka, and Jindy there is a passion for defense and for making life a living hell for their opponents. Stanford has down right demoralized opponents with their relentless defense. Stanford also appears to be the deepest 8 player team in the country with Tara remaining incredibly mindful of match ups and giving the big minutes to the right people.

The smile, this season, comes at the end of the game, and today you could see the stoic Pedersen, the bulldog Pohlen, and the bully Appel smile with a sense of complete joy Stanford fans came to expect from Wiggins on court. But this is just a sense of the difference between this season's Cardinal and last season's team. While in 08, there was much to prove, there was a sense that no matter what happened in the tournament, the career of Candice Wiggins would go down in the record books, an absolute monster of a star and All-American from her first day at Stanford.

In 09, however, adversity set in, and helped develop the fierce mentality the team called upon to start beating up on opponents. First, the season begins with a sub-100% Jayne Appel, the player expected to carry the team on her broad and capable shoulders from day one. Next, JJ Hones, perhaps the best floor commander in the country, goes out for the season with an ACL injury that has become all too familiar within the Stanford family. Then, the team endures one of the most difficult schedules in the country, battling Rutgers, Duke, Purdue, Iowa State, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Baylor to name just a few.

Injuries, on-court battles, and the graduation of perhaps the greatest Stanford Cardinal in history just could not stop what has turned into the next generation of Stanford excellence, and a team that is changing the shape and size of women's basketball.

Four years ago, Jillian Harmon never would have imagined that her key position was as a 2 guard who had the green light to shoot the three on a consistent basis. Last season, while Kayla Pedersen showed flashes of the skill set that eventually turned her into the starting wing at Stanford, she also was met with some critics who said she was too slow and wasn't ready for the college game - boy were they wrong. In October, Jeanette Pohlen was worried about how she would replace the offense of one of the most dynamic scorers in the history of the collegiate game, and in December she was trying to figure out how she could replace one of the most steady point guard options in Maples since Jen Azzi. Three years ago, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude looked to be the point guard of promise before an ACL took her down, and now she has emerged as a defensive stopper and a three point shooter who has come up huge down the stretch of what was at one point slated to be her senior season.

The Cardinal now start 5 players over six foot, a feat no WNBA team accomplishes. Still, they win games by beating teams down the court, stifling perimeter shooting, but of course owning the glass. The deceptive speed of Pohlen, the ability to do anything and everything of Harmon, the defense and surprising ball-control of Pedersen, the Wiggins-esque joy of Ogwumike, and the absolute stardom of Appel have created a team that Tara calls a bunch of cogs.

Stanford Cardinal - thank you, again, for an incredibly memorable season. Thank you to FSN to doing a tremendous job documenting it. Thank you to Tara for orchestrating it, in a way only Tara could.

Now, you special team, let's go do something even more special. Let's win a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

_________________
Some days are meant to be remembered.

[bricklayer]

I'm not even ready to right okie into the final four yet. Malone can be a pesky defender and wisdom-hylton and Campbell can bang with the sooners inside. Rayburn's a game changer off the bench and with howell gives them a serious outside threat. And kiki freeman went off against rutgers - something I didn't expect from what I've seen of purdue this year. I'm even taking vacation again tomorrow expecting that to be a good game!

[bricklayer]

great post, eyevolley, and LOL at the j's!

[njjosh]

[slats-59's]

[mekanos]

[Hoops9092]

its on sportcenter now

[bricklayer]

[kage]

So ... I was at this game.

First, the amount of red was sickening. Absolutely sickening. I felt like an island in my blue shirt amongst a sea of red.

On the fans and cheering, I feel like Stanford needs to change their GO ... STAN(ford)! cheer because it isn't working at all. The Go always sounds louder and the poor people on the other side can't seem to muster the air to shout the entire word.

As for the Iowa State fans, they have some really animated ones, including some guy in a yellow shirt that had some things to say about the reffing (). To give them credit, even while down by 10 or 20, they were loud and clapped to their fight song.

As to the game itself, ISU should have doubled Appel and played a zone as soon as she started scoring the first 6 points of the game and then kept going. At least make someone else beat you instead of letting Appel have her layup line. When they did force the ball away from Appel, Stanford's offense stuttered and their perimeter players weren't making many of the shots that they did take. By contrast, it seemed like Appel was making at least 80% of her shots.

While ISU may have been 30 in the nation in rebounding, they didn't ACT like it. Part of it is height on Stanford's side. Part of it is they weren't hustling after the balls. WHY? At least 30% of the balls were just hustle plays. Additionally, ISU was not holding onto the ball on their defensive rebounds which let Stanford have this ridiculous string of 3-4 possessions in a row.

ISU is supposed to be one of the better three point shooting teams in the nation. Again, I have to say, WHY?! Why not run your three point shot sets? They took very few from what I saw and when they did get on a mini roll they got it within 10. Then they moved away from it again.

ISU instead ran a lot of motion sets where they tried to get free people to the basket on their screens and of course, the stupidest plays where they passed to 32 and then just let her try to go 1 on 1 with Appel. It worked okay sometimes but most of the time, it just looked bad. Appel blocked her several times or forced her into bad shots. Additionally, while 32 went to work, her entire team stood around and watched. When 32 gets trapped on the baseline by 2 Stanford defenders, one of her teammates should have moved to get open on the three point line and within 32's line of sight instead of standing there and forcing 32 into some ridiculously bad shots against Appel that went nowhere.

Also, what exactly is the ISU coach doing in those huddles? Nothing, as far as I could tell. They went out with the same plan and went in with the same plan.

As for Stanford, they saw what was working and then did it again and again and again (FEED THE BEAST!).

For the first half, they basically ran the same play repeatedly. Outlet to 23 who runs up the court and passes near mid court to the guard on the right (the right side for the offense) wing near the three point line. Appel cuts across from high left to low right and establishes good position near the post. The guard on the right wing throws either a lob pass over the post defender if Appel is on the inside who then just does a layup to the basket or more likely just tosses a soft pass over her own defender to Appel who then curls in to the left and hooks it in with her left hand over her shoulder. I would cry if I weren't laughing but that's all they ran for the next 10 minutes or so because ISU stood around and watched as the post defender for Appel got owned over and over again on the exact same play.

When ISU finally ran some zone and Stanford was having trouble, Coach T had some good adjustments though after a few minutes. She started posting up Pederson in the high post area, switched the ball from side to side and let Appel get to work with varying success, and had Appel near the three point line on the left side who then passed to a guard and then apparently, Appel's doubler would get lost and chase the guard as Appel posted up on the right side near the post while the guard would pass it in. ... Then the doubler gets a big OOPS expression on her face as Appel curls to her left and lays it in again.

So. Good job, Appel! You are an absolute terror in the post.

Edit: Just to clarify... I clapped for Stanford but I was unimpressed with the game - excluding Appel's dominance of course - as a whole.

Also I can't help but think what if Cal had gotten the chance to play at Berkeley in ISU's spot facing whoever would have been the 2 for the regional.

_________________
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6329/lindseyhardingsig3oh2.jpg

[bricklayer]

@kage - the Iowa state fans are awesome! When they were here in november, when opponents went to the line they yelled things like "your shoe's untied!" then on the next shot "your socks untied!" and in a blowout "it doesn't matter anyway!" (not the game where they got blown out by Stanford. A game that they were blowing out someone)

[bricklayer]

Ooh jayne was the no. 8 top play. Although stu scott called her "apple"

[GEF34]

Stanford played a great game, that out-matched Iowa State inside and took advantage of the it. Jayne Appel played a great game, and she broke the school record for most points in an NCAA tournament game. Even though Jayne Appel took the majority of the attention because of her scoring, the rest of the Stanford players did well, they worked hard on defense, they came up with offensive rebounds and moved the ball well on offense and got Jayne Appel the ball in a position where she could do something with it.

I'm glad Stanford won and I look forward to watching them play in the final four.

[GEF34]

[bullsky]

_________________
"Don't do something until you get it right, do it until you can't do it wrong."
- Geno Auriemma

[hoopfan24]

I about sh*t when I saw Missy Barlow doing the game, ugh! But Jayne would not be denied.

See you in STL

Just got home, wanna go watch the tape.

It was fun winning at Haas

ISU has great fans, liked them a lot.

Chat later.