What a victory by A&M last week, knocking off the Lady Bears after three straight defeats. Bye, bye Brittney!
In four games, the Cardinal's only close call was a seven-point win over North Carolina in the Spokane Regional semifinals when their three-point shooting deserted them. The highlight was an 83-60 rout of hometown favorite Gonzaga in the regional final. Everything went right in the second half, and the Ogwumike sisters combined for 41 points and 26 rebounds.
Against Stanford, Texas A&M will have to do many of the same things they did against Baylor - namely get great play from their guards. The victory was a combination of stopping Sims from driving, minimizing their own turnovers, and preventing Griner from getting good looks. The problem is that Stanford is much more balanced than Baylor and perhaps more importantly against a team like A&M, they have more than one player who can control the ball. The Ogwumike sisters' athleticism and power inside plus Pedersen's versatility make it hard to create a strategy to beat this team, much less adjust to them at halftime.
Stanford -4
There's an old adage that "offense sells tickets but that defense wins championships." And in tonight's game between Notre Dame and UCONN in Indianapolis, Notre Dame is going to need their under-appreciated defense to pull off this upset.
Let's look at some interesting statistics and past history of Notre Dame this year against some of nation's best perimeter players. Remember the name Courtney Vandersloot of Gonzaga, arguably the best point guard in the nation? In her first round game against Iowa, she had 34 points, in her second round game against #8 UCLA, she had 29 points and 17 assists and in her Sweet Sixteen game against Louisville, she had 29 points. Well when she played Notre Dame earlier this season in Seattle, she only had 10 points.
What about Louisville's star point guard Shoni Schimmel who had been on a tear recently? She had 33 points in her first round game in the NCAA tournament against #2 seed Xavier and then had 18 points in her second round game against Gonzaga. Against Notre Dame this year, she averaged only 11.5 ppg and shot 9-33 (27%) from the field and shot 4-17 (23%) from the three point line. Those are staggering statistics and shows that Notre Dame's defense should not be undersold.
Tennessee's offense was terrible to say the least as Notre Dame held them to 32% shooting for the entire game. And Tennessee's superstar freshman Meighan Simmons struggled all night as she only scored 2 points on 1-11 shooting. You could see by her body language during the game that Notre Dame had finally done what most couldn't: rattle the freshman to a point where she essentially was non-existent for the entire game.
In three previous match-ups, against UCONN, Notre Dame has been held to 36% shooting or worse. I detailed in a previous post how dominant the Huskies have been defensively this season, and it was on full display against Duke. UCONN shot almost 60% while holding Duke to 25%. Duke trailed by 10 at the half before UCONN took over in the second half. They scored 22 of the first 25 points to win by 35 points. Notre Dame HAS to do a better job defensively if they expect to win. In all three match-ups, this year the Huskies have scored 73+ points while shooting no less than 43% from the field.
UCONN TEAM TOTAL OVER 67
In four games, the Cardinal's only close call was a seven-point win over North Carolina in the Spokane Regional semifinals when their three-point shooting deserted them. The highlight was an 83-60 rout of hometown favorite Gonzaga in the regional final. Everything went right in the second half, and the Ogwumike sisters combined for 41 points and 26 rebounds.
Against Stanford, Texas A&M will have to do many of the same things they did against Baylor - namely get great play from their guards. The victory was a combination of stopping Sims from driving, minimizing their own turnovers, and preventing Griner from getting good looks. The problem is that Stanford is much more balanced than Baylor and perhaps more importantly against a team like A&M, they have more than one player who can control the ball. The Ogwumike sisters' athleticism and power inside plus Pedersen's versatility make it hard to create a strategy to beat this team, much less adjust to them at halftime.
Stanford -4
There's an old adage that "offense sells tickets but that defense wins championships." And in tonight's game between Notre Dame and UCONN in Indianapolis, Notre Dame is going to need their under-appreciated defense to pull off this upset.
Let's look at some interesting statistics and past history of Notre Dame this year against some of nation's best perimeter players. Remember the name Courtney Vandersloot of Gonzaga, arguably the best point guard in the nation? In her first round game against Iowa, she had 34 points, in her second round game against #8 UCLA, she had 29 points and 17 assists and in her Sweet Sixteen game against Louisville, she had 29 points. Well when she played Notre Dame earlier this season in Seattle, she only had 10 points.
What about Louisville's star point guard Shoni Schimmel who had been on a tear recently? She had 33 points in her first round game in the NCAA tournament against #2 seed Xavier and then had 18 points in her second round game against Gonzaga. Against Notre Dame this year, she averaged only 11.5 ppg and shot 9-33 (27%) from the field and shot 4-17 (23%) from the three point line. Those are staggering statistics and shows that Notre Dame's defense should not be undersold.
Tennessee's offense was terrible to say the least as Notre Dame held them to 32% shooting for the entire game. And Tennessee's superstar freshman Meighan Simmons struggled all night as she only scored 2 points on 1-11 shooting. You could see by her body language during the game that Notre Dame had finally done what most couldn't: rattle the freshman to a point where she essentially was non-existent for the entire game.
In three previous match-ups, against UCONN, Notre Dame has been held to 36% shooting or worse. I detailed in a previous post how dominant the Huskies have been defensively this season, and it was on full display against Duke. UCONN shot almost 60% while holding Duke to 25%. Duke trailed by 10 at the half before UCONN took over in the second half. They scored 22 of the first 25 points to win by 35 points. Notre Dame HAS to do a better job defensively if they expect to win. In all three match-ups, this year the Huskies have scored 73+ points while shooting no less than 43% from the field.
UCONN TEAM TOTAL OVER 67
