On Wednesday at 7:00 PM PT on Varsity Network radio, #15 Stanford women’s basketball will take on Dominican in an exhibition game at Maples Pavilion.
On Dominican: The Penguins compete in the Pac West Conference at the Division II level. Last season they went 18-11 overall and 15-5 in the Pac West. For their level, they are a solid team. Their top returning player is sophomore guard Keyonee Neal, who averaged 12.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last season. Neal should be excited for the challenge to face Stanford and see if she can score in double figures.
Keys to the game: Stanford is going to win this game. It’s an exhibition. So, these keys to the game aren’t so much about keys to winning so much as they are things that Stanford should most hope to see. The whole purpose of this game is to shake some of the rust off, learn, and improve.
The first thing Stanford needs to do is work on getting Hannah Jump going by setting good screens for her. This is something that was an issue for them at times last season and I think really hampered their progress. This would be a great game to just work on running good sets that free her up for easy looks. Even if it’s against a DII opponent, it still wouldn’t be bad to smooth things out in that respect.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is see what they got in their freshmen. This would be a great chance to give Courtney Ogden, Nunu Agara, and Chloe Clardy a good run. Get the jitters out a bit, let them see some shots fall at Maples against another team, and develop a bit of a rhythm.
Finally, Stanford needs to take good care of the ball and just play a clean game. It can be easy to get sloppy in exhibitions like this. Stanford needs to play as clean of a game as possible, take Dominican seriously, and shake off any rust that they might have. If they take good care of the ball and just play good fundamental basketball, mission accomplished.
Prediction: Just for fun, I’ll say Stanford wins 100-33. I have no idea how to predict a game like this, but something of that nature sounds right. I got Neal getting going a bit for the Penguins, but that’s about all they’ll get out of this game. Great experience for them, though. Hopefully it makes them better for their upcoming season.
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