On Sunday at 6:00 PM PT on ESPN, #2 Stanford women’s basketball (29-3), the top seed in the Spokane Region will take on the Kansas Jayhawks (21-9), the 8th seed in the second round of the NCAA tournament at Maples Pavilion.
Last time out: On Friday, Stanford defeated (16) Montana State 78-37 in the first round. The highlight of the night was Fran Belibi’s dunk.
RECAP: (1) Stanford WBB cruises past (16) Montana State in first round
On Kansas: Despite losing in the quarterfinals of the Big XII tournament to Oklahoma, Kansas still found a way to make the NCAA tournament rather safely and justified their presence in the tournament by smoking Georgia Tech 77-58 on Friday. The Big XII is a competitive league and Kansas has shown that they clearly belong in the tournament.
The Jayhawks are led by junior guard Holly Kersgieter (13.5 points & 4.8 rebounds) and junior guard Zakiyah Franklin (12.0 points & 4.0 assists), who both form a really potent back court. In the paint, they have forward Ioanna Chatzileonti (9.9 points & 5.6 rebounds), who is a sophomore from Greece. The Jayhawks have some legit pieces and are not a team that should be taken lightly. Knowing Tara VanDerveer, she is taking them VERY seriously.
As a team, the Jayhawks average 72.0 points per game on 43.5% shooting from the field, 33.7% shooting from 3-point range, and 75.3% shooting from the foul line. As a team, they average 39.5 rebounds, 13.0 assists, 8.1 steals, 5.8 blocks, and 17.1 turnovers per game. They also average a +1.1 rebound margin and a -1.0 turnover margin per game.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is contain the Jayhawks’ backcourt. Kansas will look to get Kersgieter and Franklin going and test Stanford’s backcourt, which doesn’t have Kiana Williams from a year ago. Stanford’s back court has made tremendous progress over the course of the year and will need to rise to the occasion again tonight.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is dominate the glass. Kansas is not a great rebounding team whereas Stanford has been dominant on the glass all year long. If they’re dominant again tonight, they should be able to win with little trouble.
Finally, Stanford needs to take care of the ball. This was something that Tara VanDerveer emphasized after Friday’s win. You can get away with a little sloppy play against a 16 seed, but an 8 seed can make you pay. Stanford has to make sure they have good possessions and aren’t allowing Kansas to get free points off turnovers.
Prediction: I got Stanford winning this game. They’re the better team and they’re at home. I think Kansas will put up a real fight, but Stanford will still come out on top: 75-57 is how I see this one playing out.
To connect with CardinalSportsReport.com on Twitter, click here.
To connect with Ben Parker, click here.
