Stanford v. St. Mary's

Our debut game against St. Mary’s was certainly a disappointment. After looking great in our exhibition game against Latvia and from watching this team every day in practice, we would not have predicted this outcome. First, we give great credit to a very good St. Mary’s team, which came out playing hard, going to the boards and executing their game plan well. They have a talented team that should enjoy a successful season.

There are several ways to analyze the St. Mary’s game. First, Stanford always schedules a tough preseason. We feel it is better to play tough teams early in order to learn about ourselves. From this game we learned that we need to work harder on our rebounding. Our team is learning both a new offensive and defensive system this season, and with so many new players it was obvious that there is a need to continue to improve our execution of both.

Second, this team is a work in progress; adjusting to the loss of Jamie Carey, our most valuable court leader and one of our most important offensive threats, will take time. This responsibility falls largely on the shoulders of freshman Susan King, who played well against St. Mary’s, but we know she is capable of being even better.

Third, Stanford was not the team we have been used to seeing every day in practice. We have 12 people on the team who are all capable of making a difference. Because we have so much talent, it will take some time to figure out what combinations of players work well together under different situations.

Finally, were we happy about the outcome? certainly not. But, sometimes you learn more from a loss than a win. We need to be more aggressive, to rebound and box out more earnestly, to take better care of the ball and to finish better when we get good shots.

Back to Insider Analysis Home