Official Game Thread. OSU v Stanford Pac12 tourney

Bummer of a way to end the tourney. Didn't look sharp. Tough game against a great team. But what a great year. 29-4. Should be a 2 seed and will definitely host next week. Fill Gill!!

The turnovers for the game was 14.  Not bad, lower compared to other games.  The problem with a lot of the turnovers is the bad decisions passing the ball.   In particular just trying to force things when the play isn't there to be taken.   It wasn't just this game.  It has happened all year.  In this type of game every possession is going to be important.   You can't force things.  In this game,  they were careless with the ball and tried to force the ball into places where there isn't a snowballs chance in hell it would've gotten to the intended destination.   Must make better decisions going forward with passing the ball.

 McWilliams being out didn't help.  She plays good defense.  That being said, I figured Stanford would find a way to win the game.

Great run - through the season and into the Pac-12 tournament.
Hard to beat Stanford 3 times, and we honestly weren't that sharp (after the first quarter) tonight.

Some random thoughts:

First Stanford:
Hall-of-Fame coaches must be good at teaching flopping, for I too agree with an earlier poster that there several flops, and the refs even bought some of them.
Also agree that Stanford has perfected the art of the moving screen, or at least gets away with the random rear end or elbow impeding progress with relative impunity.
Apparently the refs were satisfied with calling one over-the-back on Stanford early, and then letting the rest go, because I saw a couple more.
OK, how is the celebrated "elevator play" not a moving screen? Once they showed a replay of it tonight, I am left to wonder.
We had no answer for Alana Smith - might be her coming out party......

The Beavers:
Tara was not going to let Sydney beat her 3 times, she game planned for that. We were unable to free her up, and I also would have liked to have run Snizek and Roberson into some solid screens and make them think about it. I felt like our bigs (a few attempts at taking charges aside) were shying away from contact, especially on the perimeter. 
That said, it felt like Sydney deferred to others a little too much for too long. And when her 3s weren't falling (legs after 3 games in 3 days) she drove into the teeth of tall timber. She also had little help. Kat Tudor - 0 points in the whole tourney, Katie Mac - 0 minutes in the whole tourney. 
I would have liked to have put Maddie Washington on Alanna Smith for a while, high motor, fouls to burn, fresh legs....
Mikayla will have to learn that when the shot clock is winding down, better to put something up quickly and take your chances with rebounding a clanger off the rim than start maneuvering for a better shot.
I would have liked to have seen even more aggression out of Taylor when she got some minutes out there, not much else was dropping, and she is one of the few who can create her own shot.
Gabby - an off hand layup might have been better against McCall......

All of that aside, the Beavers surprised thus far this year, and even did well in the tournament.
There is no shame in a close loss to Stanford, it will frustrate for a while since we were close, but at the end of the day, we were unable to ride the first quarter momentum and our shooting went cold. And kudos to Stanford for their solid win.

Hopefully this adds some fuel to the fire for NCAA Tournament time. 
A deep run will help salve the wounds of this loss......

Go Beavs!

In baseball you go 2-1 against a team and you've won the series so you feel OK even if you drop a close one on Sunday. Series sweeps are tough. 

Especially when the Beavers had a chance to tie the game 44 or get within one point.  Two turnovers at a critical point in the game.  Who knows what would have happened if the Beavers capitalized on just one of those chances.