UCONN VS. Stanford
Date: November 12, 2017
Nationwide Arena
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Time: 1:30
TV: ESPN
TV: ESPN
No. 1 UConn Huskies No. 9 Stanford
0-0 0-1
Prior Meetings
H: 3-1; A: 1-4; N: 6-2
12/29/88 L 53-72 A
2/20/93 L 54-68 H
12/28/93 L 75-94 A
4/1/95 W 87-60 N
12/21/97 W 94-78 N
3/27/05 L 59-76 N
11/22/07 W 66-54 N
4/6/08 L 73-82 N
4/5/09 W 83-64 N
12/23/09 W 80-68 H
4/6/10 W 53-47 N
12/30/10 L 71-57 A
11/21/11 W 68-58 H
12/29/12 W 61-35 A
11/11/13 W 76-57 H
4/6/14 W 75-56 N
11/17/14 L 86-88 A
Overview
H: 3-1; A: 1-4; N: 6-2
12/29/88 L 53-72 A
2/20/93 L 54-68 H
12/28/93 L 75-94 A
4/1/95 W 87-60 N
12/21/97 W 94-78 N
3/27/05 L 59-76 N
11/22/07 W 66-54 N
4/6/08 L 73-82 N
4/5/09 W 83-64 N
12/23/09 W 80-68 H
4/6/10 W 53-47 N
12/30/10 L 71-57 A
11/21/11 W 68-58 H
12/29/12 W 61-35 A
11/11/13 W 76-57 H
4/6/14 W 75-56 N
11/17/14 L 86-88 A
Overview
This is UConn's opener for the 2017-18 season and once again they are playing a top 25 team. They return 4 starters. Usually that is a good thing. In this case, it's a great thing. Of the four returning starters, three of them are pre-season AA's in Samuelson, Williams and Collier. Crazy. The fourth on any other team would be a superstar because of her stats in Kia Nurse. And they will plug in a dynamic and improved point guard to run the team in Dangerfield. Oh yeah, they have a possible post season AA in Azura Stevens. Wait, did I forget the No. 1 rated freshman coming off the bench. This could be a special season. I'm just excited to see it start. I'm not sure Stanford will be.
Stanford is coming off their first game of the season, a 21 point loss to No. 5 Ohio State. In this game, they just looked a step slow and were just destroyed on the boards. Both of those issues will be amplified against UConn. They lost 2 bigtime players from last season in McCall and Samuelson. They do return McPhee, a terrific guard and Smith, who I like to call Stewart light. They do start a seasoned team with 3 juniors and 2 seniors but not players that had a lot of minutes last year. And their bench is extremely young.
2016-17 MPG 30.0, FG% .686, 3PT% .429, FT% .827, PPG 20.6, RPG 9.1, APG 2.3
2016-17 MPG 28.6, FG% .581, 3PT% .167, FT% .730, PPG 14.1, RPG 8.4, APG 5.2
2016-17 MPG 30.1, FG% .487, 3PT% .467, FT% .855, PPG 12.9, RPG 2.2, APG 3.8
5 Crystal Dangerfield
5'5" Sophomore Guard
2016-17 PPG 23.9, FG% .406 3PT% .317, FT% .600, PPG 6.2, RPG 2.2, APG 3.8
UConn Bench
23 Azura Stevens
6'6" Senior Forward/Guard
10 Molly Bent
5'9" Sophomore Guard
2016-17 MPG 9.3 FG% .303, 3PT% .333, FT% .625, PPG 1.1, RPG 1.2, APG 1.1
25 Kyla Irwin
6'2" Sophomore Forward
2016-17 MPG 7.8, FG% .462, 3PT% .353, FT% .714, PPG 2.4, RPG 1.4, APG .5
3 Megan Walker
6'1" Freshman Guard/Forward
4 Mikayla Coombs
5'8" Freshman Guard
2 Andra Espinoza-Hunter
5'11" Freshman Guard
34 Alexi Gordon
6' Freshman Guard
11 Alana Smith
6'4" Junior Forward
Vs. Ohio State 24 minutes, 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks
12 Britanny McPhee
6' Senior Guard
Vs. Ohio State 34 minutes, 24 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals
13 Marta Sniezek
5'8" Junior Guard
Vs. Ohio State 33 minutes, 3 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals
22 Alexa Romano
5'10" Junior Guard
Vs. Ohio State 3 minutes, 1 turnover
5 Kalyee Johnson
6'3" Senior Forward
Vs. Ohio State 6 minutes, 1 rebound, 3 fouls
Stanford Bench
21 Dijonai Carrington
5'11" Sophomore Guard
Vs. Ohio State 23 minutes, 6 points, 5 rebounds
15 Maya Dodson
6'3" Freshman Forward
Vs. Ohio State 26 minutes, 7 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks
Vs. Ohio State 26 minutes, 7 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks
4 Nadia Fingall
6'3" Sophomore Forward
Vs. Ohio State 11 minutes, 8 points
10 Allysa Jerome
6'2" Freshman Forward
Vs. Ohio State 17 minutes, 8 points, 2 rebounds
Game Analysis
It's always difficult to do an analysis when you have so little info to go on when looking at the opponent. Stanford played one game and has pretty much a new team even though they start 5 upper classmen.
They lost 2 of their top 3 scorers and another starting guard. The replacements really don't have a lot of experience and they are extremely young off the bench. That being said, I did get a good look at them against Ohio State and not much will change against UConn.
I really like two of Stanford's players. Britanny McPhee is a terrific guard. She can shoot the three, get by the first line of defense and pull of for a jumper and can also get all the way to the basket. They will need her to score often. Alana Smith, a 6'4" forward, has terrific skills. She can hit the outside shot and can post up most defenders. And she is a terrific help side defender.
They start Marta Sniezek at the other guard position. She is a solid player, but not a real threat on offense and a little slow on defense. The other two starters really struggled in their opener. Kaylee Johnson only played 6 minutes in that game. She did have two quick fouls, but Tara must have seen something that kept her on the bench. The final starter, Alexa Romera, played only 3 minutes. I have no idea what is up with that. Will she get more minutes against UConn? Maybe. Or Maybe she is not long for the starting lineup?
I do like their young players, but playing their second game of their careers against this version of UConn is just not fair. Maya Dotson is going to be a terrific player. She is long, lean and has a nice outside shot. She played nice defense as well. Sophomore Dejonai Carrington is the only guard off the bench and with limited minutes for Romera, she will see minutes.
UConn will put a lot of pressure on Stanford from the opening tip. I can see Nurse using her terrific defense to slow down McPhee. The usual UConn help defense will confuse and intimidate the Stanford offense.
Can the Stanford defense slow down UConn? Doubtful. Can the improve their rebounding and keep UConn off the offensive boards? More doubtful.
Final Prediction
This version of the Stanford Cardinal is not in any position to challenge this UConn team. Not enough offense, not enough rebounding, not enough defense. Just not enough. UConn is going to be sky high in their opener. Can they control their adrenaline? Maybe not early on, but expect them to roll after a few minutes.
Yes, the Stanford one game winning streak against UConn will end. This will be more like the four games previous to that where the Huskies won by 10, 26, 19 and 19 points. Maybe even more.
I'll take a stab and say UConn by 34+ points.
Not by 34, but a definite win. BTW Bent and Irwin are sophomores not freshmen. Must have forgotten to edit the cut and paste from last year? Also, Z is a redshirt junior and not a senior. My guess is that Stanford gets a lot of three point shot opportunities. We have traditionally been soft on defending the three. I don’t think they make enough to keep up with our fast paced offense.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chuck! I did forget to change the year the players are in school. Z is listed as a senior on UConn's roster, so I went with that. I don't think that Stanford will get that many open threes. They are not quick enough to drive and kick and UConn's guards and forwards are too quick on the defensive end for them. And they only went 5-16 against Ohio State. I was very unimpressed with Stanford in that game.
ReplyDeleteThe last time they played Stanford used a lot of very high screens successfully that freed their guards to either drive the lane and dish off or shoot the 3 if UConn went under the screen. This game should tell us a lot about how good Dangerfield's defense has gotten.
ReplyDeleteUnimpressed with Stanford first game,sure they will improve as the year goes on. Also Tara usually comes up with a good defensive plan against Uconn
ReplyDeleteAnd whoever starts out well for Stanford will see a lot of Gabby as the game progresses
ReplyDelete