Turning the page to NCAA WBB

[UConnCat]

We shall see but I remember an analysis leading up to the final 4 where it showed when Kianna was "on" they did well and their losses came when she wasn't "on" so I'm still looking to see how they adapt without her leadership. I hope you would admit that this is a challenge that say SC and UConn don't have for the coming year. All three are in great shape with returners but if you are trying to discern, this is a place to look at for me in thinking through a tight ranking 1-3.

Tara did call Kiana the "key" to the team.

Kiana played 40 minutes in both FF games. She shot poorly at the FF but she was important enough not to leave the court. She made the most 3-pointers for Stanford last season by a lot and was the team's leading scorer. Stanford returns a lot of talent but it's not obvious who will replace Kiana's leadership and scoring from the point guard position.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Of course Kiana was an important player. Many teams lose important players every year and keep on rolling. She is the ONLY player they lost. They are loaded. Very experienced team as well, I really don't think leadership is going to be a problem.

I don't think whoever ends up being their PG is going to "replace" Kiana's scoring. That will be accomplished by everyone else scoring a bit more at the other 4 positions.

 

[nwhoopfan]

We shall see but I remember an analysis leading up to the final 4 where it showed when Kianna was "on" they did well and their losses came when she wasn't "on"

Whoever did that analysis should be fired. Blatantly untrue. They only lost 2 games last year. Yeah she was off against Colorado (3-12), but against UCLA she scored 19 on 8-15 shooting, not an off game by any possible definition. So the theory is wrong 50% of the time.

The Stanford website has handy game logs for each player. Here are some not very good performances by Williams in their wins--1-12 against Washington, 5-15 against Cal, 2-7 against UCLA, 2-6 against Arizona, 3-13 against Oregon, 6-16 against Washington St., 7-18 against Oregon St., 5-14 against Arizona, 1-6 against USC, 7-19 against Oregon St. That's 7 wins against Tourney teams in which she didn't shoot very well. And then there's the Tourney itself--4-15 against Oklahoma St., 6-20 against Louisville, 4-14 against South Carolina, 2-6 against Arizona. She shot poorly most of the post season. The idea Stanford needed her to play well has very clearly been shown above to be completely wrong.