The Stanford Cardinal have ascended to the #1 spot in the national polls by being efficient on both sides of the ball. The Cardinal are sporting an offensive efficiency rating ranked seventh in the nation and a defensive efficiency rating ranking sixth in the nation. Continuing these trends will be key for Stanford on their quest for a third national title under Tara Vanderveer.
As we can see from this Team Stats report pulled from Just Play, Stanford is fourth in the nation in scoring margin, out-dueling their opponents by an average of 38 points per game. Seeing this wide margin of victory may make you think Stanford is shooting the lights out. The Cardinal are shooting the ball at a 47% clip which is good for 34th in the NCAA with an EFG% of 53%, which ranks 28th nationally. These numbers are very good but not necessarily great. There is room to improve as Pac-12 play continues after the holiday break.
The Stanford Cardinal have been extremely efficient on the offensive side of the basketball. Offensive efficiency is calculated by taking the number of points scored divided by the number of possessions, then multiplied by 100. This calculation gives the number of points a team will score on average per 100 possessions. As stated earlier, Stanford is ranked seventh, scoring 117.4 points per 100 possessions.
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Defensive efficiency has been just as important for the Cardinal, as they rank sixth in the NCAA, allowing 69.2 points per 100 possessions. This is calculated by dividing the opponents’ points by number of possessions and multiplying that number by 100.
Stanford has had a very efficient start to the season. If Stanford continues to improve as the season rolls along, they will be tough to beat come tourney time and certainly a favorite to cut down the nets.
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