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Tuesday, February 29 Updated: March 9, 4:23 PM ET Gearing up for the Bruins |
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(Editor's note: Stanford junior center/forward Carolyn Moos will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. For more on the Cardinal, visit Stanford's official athletic site.) Feb. 29, 2000 Thursday's game versus Washington State (a 78-73 victory) was not the best display of our team defense. In fact, there was no excuse for our lack of defense, and our rebounding was not where it needs to be in order to be successful.
When you scout a team, you learn what it likes to do on offense. The duty of our defense is to stop what the opponent does well and to put our will on them. We did not do this. However, it was a good team win and it was essential that we won in order to have any hopes for playing down the road post Pac-10 play. The game versus Washington (a 76-46 victory) was a better display of defense and we still need to work on our rebounding. It was a great team win. The point spread and the Huskies' lack of points really shows that we played better defense, took care of the ball and executed on offense. Again, it was a must-win for our team and we came out and played fairly well. We play UCLA next, and from the Bruins' perspective, I can imagine how much fire would be burning inside of me and the entire team after such losses (Oregon State upset the Bruins 75-72 last week, which also included an 89-72 loss to Oregon).
When you face disappointments, you either get disappointed and discouraged or you get motivated and focused. We are aware of what that can do for a team, but even more important is how we feel right now and how we are going to approach our game with UCLA -- with a given mentality. Maylana Martin and Janae Hubbard are solid players; they are fun to get ready to play against, and our posts are really focused this week and motivated to come out and play our game. Senior guard Milena Flores, who just recorded her 600th career assist, is a huge part of this team. As a point guard a team relies on that person for leadership and direction. Milena has done a wonderful job of this throughout the season. What she brings to the court is great vision, speed, competitiveness and leadership. She is amazing to have in order to break a press. |
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