On Dec 3 Milford Husky said the Haley Jones effect would the race to Pat close. Now, with Tara and her team turning on the afterburners this year there is no “may” about it.
Back in November looking at the Stanford schedule and the rankings I projected Stanford losing to the following teams during the season: Baylor, Oregon, Oregon State, AZ State(twice), Cal maybe once(remember their ranking then), and Tennessee(barf!). I also expected them to only go one or two deep into their conference tournament and only to the elite eight.
We all know what’s happened so far. Their win against Baylor was scary, especially in comparison to our loss(albeit on a very off night for us). We are lucky Gonzaga was able to ambush them. So I think Geno and the team will have to work hard to cut Tara’s lead in half this year.
As for next year, it should be quite a battle. Very possibly Tara will pass Pat before Geno can overtake her. As for the Jones effect, I believe as next year goes on we will see the “Griffin Effect” take over. As I said in another post a while back, Aubrey has only just begun her organized basketball career as compared to Haley and the other prospects/commits. Because of her still relatively large upside potential, I think she could end up better than my neighbor. So this and the the next and ensuing years should be fun to watch!
