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Message: [QUOTE="Rooster C., post: 5328743, member: 10168"] Stanford is now up. Last year was probably a disappointment to Stanford fans but considering a head coaching change, the departure of now WNBA players Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen, and also playing in a new conference, I think is was a pretty solid showing overall. Long time assistant's Kate Paye had a full plate of challenges for her first season at the helm to be sure. There were bumps in the road and if not for a key injury down the stretch probably would have continued with their NCAA appearances. They began the season ranked around #30 and finished it unranked as they ended the season at 16 - 15 overall and 8 - 10 in their first year in the ACC. In the final 6 regular season games things were really coming together nicely but losing in the first round of the ACC tournament by 17 points to Clemson followed by a home court loss in the first round of the WBIT to Portland was not a good ending to the season. Paye had a .516 win pct. overall and a .444 win pct. in conference games. She will have to improve on that record if they hope to get back to the "big dance" again this coming year. It will be difficult. What was lost: Stanford lost 2 starters E. Bosogna (6'2" F 12.2ppg) and B. Demetre (6'3" F 10.0ppg). What may hurt more is the loss of 2 other players to the portal : J. Harriel (rs Sr. 5'10" G 5.1ppg) to ACC opponent SMU and T. Heal (Sr. 5'10" G 8.0ppg) to KSU. What remains: Quite a bit, including 3 returning starters S. "Nunu" Agara (Jr. 6.2" F 15.8ppg)their leading scorer, C. Clardy (Jr. 5'9" G 10.2ppg) and T. LePolo (5'7" PG 2.6ppg). Also returning is a lot of good bench depth : C. Ogden (Jr. 6'1" F 5.9ppg), M.A. Stevenson (Jr. 6'2" F 4.4ppg), S. Ijiwoye (So. 5'6" G 3.4ppg), K. Umeh (So. 6'4" C 3.1ppg), H. Peterson (So. 6'3" F), S. Papadaki (Sr. from Greece 5'11" G) and L. Green (Sr. 5'8" G). Incoming Transfers: NONE Incoming Freshmen: Five players consisting of #8 H. Swain (5'10" PG), #12 L. Somfai (6'4" F), #21 A. Eschmeyer (6'5" F), #85 N. Ezike (6'2" F), and nearly ranked C. Amborn (6'2" W). Typical of Stanford you don't see many incoming/outgoing transfers and that continues although we're starting to see some cracks forming. And with the #3 ranked incoming class there was really no need to acquire transfers since combined with their returning players they have a full compliment of 15 on the roster. So the starting 5 are yet to be determined although the back court will most likely consist of returnees Clardy and LePolo along with key reserve Ogden. I expect to see a lot of freshman Swain and reserve Ijiwoye as well. So those 5 will make up Stanford's back court this year and next with only LePolo moving on after this season. There's only room for three more players to be added from the 2026 class and it makes sense for it to be guards (#99 J. Wheeler at this writing although #100 E. Ngenda is a finalist for them as well). I don't see Papadaki or Green getting any playing time. In the front court - and I use that term somewhat loosely here as Stanford tends to get "post players" who function more like wings and shoot beyond the arc as well as in the paint frequently - will be anchored by Agara - their leading scorer - and some combination of incoming freshmen Somfai and Eschmeyer along with reserves Stevenson, Umeh, and Peterson. Freshmen Ezike and Amborn will most likely not play much if at all. So not that much of a fall off with enough "bigs" to make up for the loss of Bosogna and Demetre ........in theory. Ogden or Stevenson may be able to up their scoring output as a replacement for Bosogna's loss but it may prove harder to replace Demetre's scoring and experience. Earlier I stated it was more of a challenge to replace outgoing production from Harriel and Heal (and to some extent Bosogna as well) and that's for a very good reason. They were all very good 3 point shooters. Some wins were solely due to one of them "going off" from beyond the arc. This has been a staple of Stanford's for awhile now - both above average 3 point shooting and above average ft shooting compared to most teams in their conference. I'm not certain how much of a difference there will be year over year but I expect some drop off. Stanford and coach Paye are well established roster wise for the next several years and beyond. Her recruiting has seen to that. Retaining your starters and core reserves (for the most part) helps establish continuity and players are all familiar with your system and what's expected of them. Having said that I see several problems. First off, they had a losing conference record and finished only 1 game above .500 and that was with 4 more experienced players on the roster than they will have this year. Yes, freshmen Swain and Somfai or Eschmeyer could prove to be amazing and change everything but they also could struggle as freshmen often do and result in a slight step backward. Yes, other reserve players could make that leap to the next level but that also doesn't happen to every player and if they were good enough already they would have been starting rather than Bosogna and Demetre. Coaches like to start Seniors and some Juniors with underclassmen being starters only when they're exceptional. Secondly, their upcoming non-conference schedule is challenging. Last year they lost at Indiana and LSU along with a bad loss to Ohio State at what was nearly a home court for them (SF). This year they play TN and Wash. at home as well as Oregon in SF. They also play at Gonzaga and travel to Vegas to play FGCU. They may go 2 - 3 in those games. Either way there are other important factors working against Stanford. I expect it to be a very exciting and challenging year ahead with opportunities to improve over the course of the season. I also doubt that they'll be much better than last year and more likely will have a slightly worse record but I wouldn't be discouraged considering how bright the future looks. If everything goes well they will be on the bubble again with an 8th or 9th place finish in the conference but more likely about 10th to 12th place finish at year's end. [/QUOTE]

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