Preview: Stanford Women's Basketball welcomes Cal State LA to Maples for exhibition
On Wednesday, October 29th at 7:00 PM PT, Stanford women’s basketball will welcome Cal State LA to The Farm for an exhibition game. This will be the first opportunity we will get to watch this Stanford team face off against live competition and the only time before the regular season.
On Stanford: Stanford is coming off a season in which they went 16-15 overall and 8-10 in the ACC. They missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in 40 years, losing in the first round of the WBIT to Portland in overtime by a final score of 68-69. Stanford is bringing in a star studded freshman class that features Hailee Swain, Alexandra Eschmeyer, Carly Amborn, Lara Somfai, and Nora Ezike. Stanford is hoping that a mixture of that freshman class along with the returning players will yield a team that gets back to the NCAA tournament and makes a deep run.
On Cal State Los Angeles: The Golden Eagles compete at the Division II level and frequently play exhibitions against Division I opponents as they are pretty strong for their level, going 18-10 overall and 13-9 in league last year. Stanford defeated them 91-70 in last year’s exhibition in game that was surprisingly close as Stanford led 48-36 at halftime. The Golden Eagles played an exhibition at SMU earlier this week on Monday, losing by a final score of 48-85.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, given this is an exhibition, the main thing they need to do is make sure they take care of the ball, avoid silly fouls, and play a clean game in that way. The whole purpose of these exhibitions is to run your offense, get into a good rhythm, and play good fundamental basketball.
Secondly, Stanford needs to make sure they get everyone a chance to touch the ball and make a shot. You never know when people are going to be called upon to make plays in the regular season and if they’ve seen the ball go through the hoop, even in an exhibition, that can really help them gain confidence down the road.
Finally, head coach Kate Paye should experiment with different lineups tonight. See what works and what doesn’t. Games like this are as much a benefit to coaches as they are to players. It gives them a chance to try new things and see what different combinations look like on the floor. Ideally, we should see a lot of different combinations out there.
Prediction: Given Stanford on paper is better than last year given the freshman class, I’ll say they win by 51 points in this one: 100-49.
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