The defending champion Stanford Cardinal have only one extra impediment to competing for his or her first repeat title: the Connecticut Huskies, the group that has received extra back-to-back championships than another in Division I girls’s faculty basketball. Stanford returned all however one starter from its title group, however it’s going to want its veterans to carry out at their greatest in opposition to the Huskies — particularly, the sophomore phenomenon Paige Bueckers.
The Huskies and the Cardinal each had overwhelming assist from their crowds through the spherical of 8. Connecticut successfully had home-court benefit in Bridgeport — only a stone’s throw from Storrs — whereas Stanford performed in Spokane, the place the teammates and twin sisters Lexie and Lacie Hull grew up and led their highschool to 2 state championships.
In Minneapolis, Connecticut will seemingly have the louder cheering part because of Bueckers, who performed at Hopkins Excessive College within the Minneapolis suburbs. The Cardinal haven’t performed with out the followers on their facet within the event up to now, and in what seems to be to be a decent recreation, that assist may give the Huskies an edge.
Stanford’s 6-foot-4 Cameron Brink and Connecticut’s 6-foot-5 Olivia Nelson-Ododa are each athletic publish gamers who transfer properly across the basket to attain and rebound, block photographs, and, particularly in Nelson-Ododa’s case, discover their teammates to facilitate a fast offense.
In addition they each get into foul hassle typically, every averaging 2.8 fouls per recreation. Essential for each groups, then, will probably be retaining their greatest publish gamers within the recreation and capable of play freely. Each Stanford and Connecticut are able to making use of intense defensive strain, and Brink and Nelson-Ododa will each have to remain affected person as they maneuver for open seems to be across the basket.
Standford, which enters the sport with the longest energetic successful streak of any Division I girls’s group — 24 consecutive victories — has the dimensions benefit. Even its guards are tall and might discover photographs in opposition to probably the most diligent defenders, as Texas found within the spherical of 8. As a result of Connecticut is simply as expert, the Cardinal might want to exploit no matter mismatches they will discover — even 6-foot-1 Haley Jones versus the 5-foot-11 Bueckers.
If Jones and Bueckers guard one another throughout Friday’s recreation, it may make for among the finest pairings of the event. Each are exceptionally expert as facilitators and scorers, making performs on nearly each a part of the courtroom.
The Stanford and Connecticut coaches, Tara VanDerveer and Geno Auriemma, are the winningest and second-winningest coaches in girls’s faculty basketball historical past. The Huskies personal the sequence by a big margin, however this recreation will nonetheless supply one other alternative for 2 of the game’s most essential coaches to compete on its greatest stage.
