The mental champagne was popping at halftime, as the Cardinal's 25-16 second quarter performance created a 10-point lead absolutely frothing with positive momentum.
The cheers of a surprisingly Stanford-heavy crowd reverberated through Portland's Moda Center at the heart of the Rose Quarter.
I sat at the media table next to some Gonzaga WBB scouts, who'd metaphorically crumpled their sparesly detailed NC State notes in favor of meticulously detailed pages of counter-Cardinal strategy.
Thinking two rounds ahead, I was wondering how the weather might be in Cleveland where the Final Four will be held, and I remembered how fateful it was that the upcoming solar eclipse's path of totality would slice through the city just one day after the national championship game.
Then came the 3rd quarter, and the moon crashed into the earth.
The Wolfpack went on a 28-10 run in the 3rd, fueled by Aziaha James who accounted for 16 of those 28. Meanwhile, Cameron Brink received FOUR personal fouls in just 5 minutes of playtime, fouling out once again. I agreed with just two of the calls. As a fan, it felt like the fix was in.
When Brink fouled out against Iowa State, Kiki Iriafen stepped up to save us. When Brink fouled out against NC State, no superheroes emerged. Iriafen was a force to be reckoned with against Iowa State from the first whistle. By contrast she had just 8 points at half on Friday and did not seem to be in rhythm or even particularly a part of the game plan. When Brink sat down in the Sweet Sixteen, momentum sat down with her.
Iriafen, a junior, would score 14 in the 4th quarter—though it was never close—notching 26 points and 10 rebounds overall, leading the Cardinal.
Brink ended her last Stanford contest with 13 points, 9 rebounds, 7 blocks, and 3 asists in 24 minutes in her hometown of Portland.
Hannah Jump, also a senior and playing her last game, went 3-8 from deep and 5-11 from the field to add 13 points. No other players scored in double digits.
Reflecting on the loss, Brink, Jump, and Iriafen spoke beautifully about the sisterhood they formed together this season. All questions of next year shifted eyes to Iriafen, the Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year, who Coach Tara VanDerveer hopes will be a model of growth for other Stanford hoopers. She added that Iriafen is and will be "the bright light, the leader, the inspiration for our young players."
On losing amazing graduating players like Cameron Brink and Hannah Jump, Coach VanderVeer made the following poignant remark in classic fashion: "We've lost great players... because we've had great players to lose."
Just as it's easy to forget how special playing in the Sweet Sixteen is, it's easy to forget how fortunate Stanford fans have been to have had talent so immense that the prospect of its loss sparks significant anxiety about the future. As we always have, we must simply trust Tara to build out another juggernaut.
With the departure of Jump and Brink (who was just named to Wooden Award All American team on Tuesday), I believe (please tell me if otherwise) no players from Stanford's 2021 National Championship run remain on the roster. The end of an era:
Normally the article would end here—short and sweet because I am SAD that I'm not flying to the FINAL FOUR this Friday—but no, an insane drama decided to unfold over the weekend.
On Sunday, NCAA officials revealed that the three-point line at the Portland Regional was incorrectly drawn: one side was 9 inches further from the basket than the other:
The error was caught ahead of NC State's Elite Eight matchup with the Texas longhorns, meaning Stanford's game was absolutely affected. Stanford shooting 5-25 from three in their loss stings all the more.
The incorrect lines likely explain why we saw Jump and Talana Topolo throw up some wildly uncharacteristic airballs. And while both teams played on both sides, it's easy to see how Stanford would be disproprortionately affected by this error: Stanford's offense revolves around bigs. NC State's offense revolves around guards. Defending the larger arc, Stanford's spacing stretches, and NC State guards have more leeway to make plays. This was already a bad matchup for Stanford (accoding to Coach VanDerveer in the postgame presser), and the mistake no doubt exacerbated the disadvantage. Coach was not happy:
Despite record ratings in the Elite Eight this year (e.g. 12.3M viewers for Iowa v. LSU), the simple business around women's basketball continues to be subpar, from the refereeing to the lines on the court themselves. Worse, Stanford fans had to endure watching two of the most repugnant programs in the country—U$C and UConn—face off in the name of supporting this sport we love. What an awful couple of schools. I hope they both fold.
On to next year. In Tara we trust.
--Fear The Me.