On paper the Buffs have no chance in this game with these players. However, JR Payne has beaten Stanford before with a less talented roster at Santa Clara than the Buffs have now.
Stanford is ranked #12 & #13 but the Sagarin NCAAW ratings have them higher than that. They are currently the 9th best team in NCAAW with a rating of 94.67.
There are multiple tiers of NCAAW.
In the top tier there are only two teams UCONN and Baylor this year. In the second tier are South Carolina, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Florida State, Maryland, and Washington. Stanford is in that third tier with the likes of Duke, Texas, Louisville and UCLA.
Colorado is playing with mid-major caliber players. Mind you these players would be stars in their own right at most mid-major conferences, and Colorado would be a perennial NCAAW tournament invitee, but the Buffs just do NOT have Pac-12 talent. For all the talk about the vaunted Sophomore Buffs class we all saw in the game vs. Cal what an elite Sophomore in this conference looks like. Kristine Anigwe was the Freshman Player of the Year last year, and is truly an elite player in this conference. Against USC, Arizona State, Cal and at times against UCLA our guards have really struggled with the length, athleticism and explosiveness of their match ups.
Against Cal at one point the Cal PG was just toying with KL and had her turned around multiple times and was crossing her over. KL is a great defender and gets a ton of steals but isn't able to be an effective on ball defender against Pac-12 level talent PGs. JR Payne recognized what the PG was doing to KL, and immediately in the Cal game put Caylao-Do in and that matchup completely went the way of the Buffs with Q in the game. However, PG wasn't exactly where Cal was beating the Buffs.
That's the problem. The Buffs effective players are limited in one capacity or another. KL is the Buffs best pure scorers, and one of the best pure scorers in program history, but really struggles to create for her teammates and is a defensive liability right now. The Buffs Bigs can rebound and play defense but not versus the Pac-12 talent like Anigwe or Stanford's Erica McCall. The Buffs shooters are talented but not Pac-12 talented. This Buffs team is a great NCAAW team, good enough to make the NCAAW tournament in most conferences.
However, the Pac-12 is the #1 conference in the country and the Buffs are in real danger of not winning a second conference game this season. The player talent just is not Pac-12 caliber at any position in terms of have sufficient length, athleticism, shooting touch, ball handling, and being a neutral or plus defender. Every player on this Buffs roster brings something to the game, but all players on this Buffs roster have limitations in their games that get completely exposed against Pac-12 talent. Against the great Pac-12 teams things can get ugly.
By the Sagarin ranking right now the Buffs are the 60th best team of the 349. The Buffs only have a 79.29 rating, below the 80.0 rating threshold of Big Conference Basketball (SEC, ACC, Big-10, Big-12, Pac-12, and Big East). They are about on par with Western Kentucky, Creighton, Drexel and a little better than Colorado State, South Dakota and teams like that. However, the Buffs aren't even on par with mid-major power South Dakota State right now.
With every tipoff we can hope for a Buffs win, but against Stanford it would take some exceptional coaching to even keep it competitive.
As JR Payne noted about Stanford, "They're good, big; they can shoot the ball; they're experienced. They have everything you want in a basketball team." The rise is real and this program under JR Payne is headed in the right direction. However, the Buffs do not have good players (by Pac-12 competitive standards), the Buffs aren't shooting well as a team (just the opposite in fact), and the Buffs aren't an experienced team (a complete absence of postseason play and "big game" experience of late). Everything points to a loss. Stanford just doesn't lose to mid-major caliber programs very often.
However, if the Buffs players don't just look for their own shot, if they play selfless team basketball, and a couple of bounces go their way at altitude anything is possible . Stanford doesn't always play perfect basketball and they very well might be looking past Colorado. The Buffs could steal one. Will they?
That's why we watch the games!
Sko Buffs! Play with heart, play with grit. Its games like this where you learn something about how much fight there is in:
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
http://www.buffzone.com/womensbasketball/ci_30726997/cu-womens-hoops-faces-tall-task-against-no
Stanford is ranked #12 & #13 but the Sagarin NCAAW ratings have them higher than that. They are currently the 9th best team in NCAAW with a rating of 94.67.
There are multiple tiers of NCAAW.
In the top tier there are only two teams UCONN and Baylor this year. In the second tier are South Carolina, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Florida State, Maryland, and Washington. Stanford is in that third tier with the likes of Duke, Texas, Louisville and UCLA.
Colorado is playing with mid-major caliber players. Mind you these players would be stars in their own right at most mid-major conferences, and Colorado would be a perennial NCAAW tournament invitee, but the Buffs just do NOT have Pac-12 talent. For all the talk about the vaunted Sophomore Buffs class we all saw in the game vs. Cal what an elite Sophomore in this conference looks like. Kristine Anigwe was the Freshman Player of the Year last year, and is truly an elite player in this conference. Against USC, Arizona State, Cal and at times against UCLA our guards have really struggled with the length, athleticism and explosiveness of their match ups.
Against Cal at one point the Cal PG was just toying with KL and had her turned around multiple times and was crossing her over. KL is a great defender and gets a ton of steals but isn't able to be an effective on ball defender against Pac-12 level talent PGs. JR Payne recognized what the PG was doing to KL, and immediately in the Cal game put Caylao-Do in and that matchup completely went the way of the Buffs with Q in the game. However, PG wasn't exactly where Cal was beating the Buffs.
That's the problem. The Buffs effective players are limited in one capacity or another. KL is the Buffs best pure scorers, and one of the best pure scorers in program history, but really struggles to create for her teammates and is a defensive liability right now. The Buffs Bigs can rebound and play defense but not versus the Pac-12 talent like Anigwe or Stanford's Erica McCall. The Buffs shooters are talented but not Pac-12 talented. This Buffs team is a great NCAAW team, good enough to make the NCAAW tournament in most conferences.
However, the Pac-12 is the #1 conference in the country and the Buffs are in real danger of not winning a second conference game this season. The player talent just is not Pac-12 caliber at any position in terms of have sufficient length, athleticism, shooting touch, ball handling, and being a neutral or plus defender. Every player on this Buffs roster brings something to the game, but all players on this Buffs roster have limitations in their games that get completely exposed against Pac-12 talent. Against the great Pac-12 teams things can get ugly.
By the Sagarin ranking right now the Buffs are the 60th best team of the 349. The Buffs only have a 79.29 rating, below the 80.0 rating threshold of Big Conference Basketball (SEC, ACC, Big-10, Big-12, Pac-12, and Big East). They are about on par with Western Kentucky, Creighton, Drexel and a little better than Colorado State, South Dakota and teams like that. However, the Buffs aren't even on par with mid-major power South Dakota State right now.
With every tipoff we can hope for a Buffs win, but against Stanford it would take some exceptional coaching to even keep it competitive.
As JR Payne noted about Stanford, "They're good, big; they can shoot the ball; they're experienced. They have everything you want in a basketball team." The rise is real and this program under JR Payne is headed in the right direction. However, the Buffs do not have good players (by Pac-12 competitive standards), the Buffs aren't shooting well as a team (just the opposite in fact), and the Buffs aren't an experienced team (a complete absence of postseason play and "big game" experience of late). Everything points to a loss. Stanford just doesn't lose to mid-major caliber programs very often.
However, if the Buffs players don't just look for their own shot, if they play selfless team basketball, and a couple of bounces go their way at altitude anything is possible . Stanford doesn't always play perfect basketball and they very well might be looking past Colorado. The Buffs could steal one. Will they?
That's why we watch the games!
Sko Buffs! Play with heart, play with grit. Its games like this where you learn something about how much fight there is in:
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
http://www.buffzone.com/womensbasketball/ci_30726997/cu-womens-hoops-faces-tall-task-against-no
