Today at 12:00 PM PT on ESPN and Varsity Network radio, #3 Stanford women’s basketball will welcome #25 Texas to Maples Pavilion. Both teams come in at 1-0 having won their opening games decisively. Stanford will honor their 2021 national championship team after the game.
Last time out: Stanford defeated Morgan State 91-36 on Thursday, in an afternoon game that celebrated Veteran’s Day. Francesca Belibi was the top scorer for the Cardinal with 12 points and 4 rebounds.
RECAP: #3 Stanford WBB shuts down Morgan State
On Texas: The Longhorns have been one of the better teams in women’s college basketball over this past decade. They’re always dangerous and never a team you can take lightly. The Longhorns’ top scorer from a year ago Charli Collier (19.0 points & 11.3 rebounds) is in the WNBA now, so they’re going to have to find out how to fill the huge void left by her departure.
Senior guard Joanne Allen-Taylor is the top returning scorer from last season as she averaged 12.1 points per game last season on 38.0% shooting from the field, 35.6% shooting from 3-point range, and 76.1% shooting from the foul line. She’s going to have to take on a more expanded role this year if the Longhorns are going to have the type of success that they want to have.
As a team, the Longhorns averaged 68.9 points per game last season on 40.3% shooting from the field, 32.2% shooting from 3-point range, and 70.2% shooting from the foul line. They averaged a +2.2 rebound margin, 12.3 assists, 8.0 steals, 3.2 blocks, and 13.7 turnovers per game. Their opponents averaged 62.6 points per game on 42.3% shooting from the field, 30.7% shooting from 3-point range, and 72.1% shooting from the foul line.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they have to do is win the battle inside. With Collier gone, the Longhorns don’t have the same interior presence they did a year ago and Stanford needs to capitalize on that. Cameron Brink should have a block party inside and Francesca Belibi should be able to do her thing as well. If Stanford wins the battle on the glass and is able to get going in the post, they should win this game with little trouble.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is take care of the basketball. They had 21 turnovers against Morgan State on Thursday. If they are hovering around the same number against Texas, the Longhorns have the pieces to really make them pay for that. Turnovers also kill momentum and offensive flow. So, ball security is something that needs to be improved for this game.
Finally, Stanford needs to defend without fouling. Ball security was the first area that Tara VanDerveer addressed as an area of improvement on Thursday and defending without fouling was the other. Stanford sent Morgan State to the foul line 25 times. That’s way too much. Stanford has to be more disciplined on defense and force Texas to score on them from the field. Stanford’s length, depth, and size makes it tough to do that, which is why getting to the foul line is going to be a key for all opponents that go up against them.
Prediction: If the Longhorns had Collier, this would be a much more interesting game. With her gone, it’s hard seeing Texas have a real chance of winning. Especially with the game being on The Farm. Stanford 75 Texas 48 is how I see this shaking out.
