TheBootleg.com®
Posts of the Week
Each
week, we will highlight a few entertaining and/or informative
posts from the previous week. Please keep in mind that it is hard
to keep track/prioritize all posts so we would welcome input from
all Booties. You can make a "Bootie Selection" post as
a response to any post that you deem worthy or you can email a
link (to the nominated post) to me at lars@thebootleg.com.
Below are the posts that
made this week's list:
Poster: tmf
Subject: Thoughts on Possible Replacements
Date: 12/07/01
Head Coach: Long Winded. Hard to find another man in America
who is better qualified and knows where all the bodies are
burried. Watching his relationship evolve with TL and Old Union
will be worth its weight in gold.
Recruiting Coordinator: Hulk (sorry Chad)
Offensive Coordinator: Irish Guru (although his handle is a bit
distrubing given the current events)
Defensive Coordinator: Genuine Realist (But only if we all coan
monitor the communications between head coach and DC).
SID: Clearly LW will only take the job if Lars and ME97 come on
board to pump the program.
New team mascot: Half empty glass
Final caveat: Where would LW put him on his list of the top 10
coaches in the conference. As I recall the list from several
years ago, Bob Toledo was at or near the top!
Poster: BigJohn43
Subject: Thoughts on the team (longish)
Date: 12/13/01
Living in Atlanta, this is going to be the toughest year to
follow Stanford hoop in memory with this idiotic KRON deal. The
UT game was the first I could even get my hands on and I have
been traveling for the past two weeks so I just got a chance to
watch it.
Way back when I used to post quite frequently, but living in
Atlanta I don't have any inside contacts and the general analysis
is usually performed quite capably by others. After watching this
game though I had a number of different takes so I thought I
would write a longish post on the team. Here goes…
Tony G: Seems to have improved his shooting and confidence with
the ball a bit, but fundamentally he still is what he is. He is
steady enough to keep us in games we should win, but he isn't
athletic enough to match up with top point guards. I don't think
Monty wants to play him, but I am not sure he has much of a
choice.
Chris H: I liked what I saw. He is a better athlete than Tony,
but my worry is that he is not dramatically better. With a year
under his belt I could see him starting, but right now he isn't
enough of an upgrade as a raw athlete over Tony to make up for
the typical swings in performance of a freshman.
Julius B: We need JB on the floor because he is the only
legitimate quick exterior defender that we have. I think his
primary problem is that he is always looking for his own
opportunities to score rather than running the offense. He is
probably our 3rd or 4th offensive option most of the time he is
on the floor, but he seems to put up an awful lot of shots. IMO,
if he would just focus on his defense and using his quickness to
create opportunities for his teammates he would be our starting
PG. I don't know if Monty is telling him something different or
if he just cant execute, but his defense is so much better than
Tony that he would probably start if he could just not be a
negative on the offensive end.
Casey J: I don't think the Casey was forcing things at all,
despite what the announcers were saying and what I read here. He
is doing just what he did last year but couple of things are
going wrong. First, I just think that he is a bit off. All
players go through slumps and this is one of his. I also think
that when he used to penetrate the Collins twins where very good
at cutting when their man left to double and getting wide open
dunks. Our current players aren't quite as good and Casey
sometimes gets stuck trying to force up a shot where last year we
would have had a dunk. Bottom line, CJ is a great player who will
bounce back and lead us this year. I am not worried at all.
Josh C: Wow. In the preseason people were looking for him to put
up CJ type freshman numbers and I thought that we were expecting
too much (CJ has out performed even his McD hype). This kid can
do that and more. I love the way he moves without the ball and
cuts for easy buckets. Imagine how good he is going to be after a
year in the weight room.
Matt L: Completely lost his confidence on offense. Combine that
with his poor defense and you have a player who is going to spend
a lot of time on the bench. He probably could use a red-shirt
year.
Justin D: It always confuses me why people think that a player
can fix a bad shot in college. These guys have been playing
organized hoop for 10 years by the time they get to college. If
they haven't fixed there shot by then, what makes you think they
ever will? There may be a lack of coaching, but if the average
person on the bootboard can tell there is something wrong then an
coach will be able to as well. The difference between JD and
Madsen is that JD also doesn't finish well around the hoop. Every
once in a while he uses his athleticism to make a great play, but
the poor play in between is just painful to watch. I think that
JD needs to get pissed off and get aggressive and physical. I
don't know if it is in his nature, but what we are getting now
isn't going to cut it.
Rob L: Wow. Reminds me a bit of C-Bo as a frosh: loads of
potential that we have to find a way to get out of him. Why isn't
this guy starting over JD? Better rebounder, better shooter,
better finisher, better passer, stronger hands and stronger
underneath. About the only thing JD has over him is more
quickness to match up with PF type players. Imagine how good Rob
could be in the conference with 20 minutes of PT now.
Joe K: There are a lot of things to like in his game. He is big
and strong, has some nice moves and plays with a lot of intensity
and heart. He clearly doesn't have the upside of JD, but we
should find 5-10 minutes a game for this guy if for the energy
level alone. FWIW, easily the best 4th big man in the conference
if not the country.
Curtis B: I liked a lot of what I saw. He has clearly gotten a
lot stronger but hasn't lost his quickness off the floor. I agree
with MM that we need to find more ways to get him the ball. Maybe
it would happen if JB would stop shooting it quite as much. I
think that LW nailed this one though. Despite nice numbers, he
simply doesn't attract the double teams and free other people up
like the Collins twins did. Could be a very good player by next
year though if he can stay healthy and keep getting stronger.
Overall there is a lot of talent here. Our PG situation is tough,
but a lot better than UCLA for instance. Unlike the last couple
of years, this team is likely to continue to improve and the
season progresses. The conference title and a deep run in the
tournament are more than realistic possibilities.
Poster: Mike Thometz
Subject: Re: calling all Booties in San Diego!
Date: 12/10/01
This Bootie was there. The first two games were nerve wracking
with Stanford falling behind towards the end of the game and then
pulling off great rallies to win. The first game was 28-24 and
then 29-25 before Stanford closed them out at 31-29. The usual
suspects played well but Ashley Ivey was the deciding factor IMO
and her play was excellent. Her serving was especially damaging
to Nebraska and she played some very good defense.
The team appeared very composed and confident but they were
clearly elated by the victory. These women seem to the outside
observer as all the things that we expect out of Stanford and
make one proud to be a Stanford alum.
There were probably 1000 Nebraska fans there and I would estimate
500 Stanford fans. Nebraska was seated in large blocks which made
their cheering louder. The Stanford fans were spread out through
the audience. The tickets were sold as a two day package. They
have been selling to the local volleyball community for months.
There were not that many tickets available this week and all were
in the top seven rows. Those seats appear to be over 50%
occcupied tonight. However, I am sure there will be many vacant
seats on Saturday as I would imagine the Neb fans will not show
in numbers. Parking is easy and free in a staff garage which will
be unused on Saturday.
There has been minimal publicity and promotion by Stanford for
attending this Championship. The local papers have concentrated
on Arizona which has four starters from the San Diego area and
Stanford had not gotten much ink that I have seen.
LSJUMB and the Dollies were outstanding and the long postgame
concert by the band was worth the price of admission.
A nice touch is that the teams are available fifteen minutes
after the game to sign a team poster with pictures of all the
players. The players were very friendly, the parents are all
there, the coaches and the staff are there, and the fans enjoy
the opportunity to talk with the team and congratuate them.
(Leland was in town on Wednesday and was at a reception for the
team although I did not see him tonight.)
Saturday will be an outstanding confrontation. Too close to call
although on a neutral court I think Stanford wins 3-2 with a
fifth game score of 15-11.