Stanford Women’s Basketball hit hard by Exodus of talent
When I was a kid, my family used to always watch The Ten Commandments during this Easter season. Yul Brynner, who looked eerily similar to our free spirited barber, played Rameses while Charlton Heston played Moses. The Ten Commandments tells the story of Moses leading the Israelite people to freedom, hence the name of the Book of Exodus, the book in the Bible of which the story is drawn from.
Over the past few days, Stanford women’s basketball has been hit hard by a stunning exodus of their own: Freshman Lara Somfai, freshman Carly Amborn, sophomore Harper Peterson, junior Nunu Agara, junior Mary Ashley Stevenson, junior Courtney Ogden, and junior Chloe Clardy have all announced their intention to enter the transfer portal. And there’s a possibility even more will follow.
Agara was the leading scorer on the team last season, averaging 15.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while Somfai nearly averaged a double-double with 10.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. Somfai was a McDonald’s All-American. That’s two key players who the program would have loved to have had back.
On Tuesday April 7th, Ogden stated her intent to enter the portal, informing On3’s Talia Goodman. Ogden averaged 12.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game last season and was the number two scorer on the team behind Agara. Her 3-point shooting was crucial as it really helped stretch defenses and space the floor. Her departure is yet another major blow to the Cardinal roster. She’ll be entering the portal as a grad transfer after three years on The Farm.
On Thursday, April 9th, Clardy told Goodman that she’ll be entering the portal as well after three years. She too will be a grad transfer. Clardy averaged 12.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.0 steals per game last season. Her departure is yet another blow. She was a reliable scorer for the team and also was really active in passing lanes. Her perimeter defense will be missed.
Without giving away any details that subscribers pay access for, suffice to say, the Kate Paye era on The Farm has not gone well. Stanford missed the NCAA tournament two years in a row under her leadership and now has seen a mass exodus of talent with possibly more to follow.
Before all this news started breaking, I had already been told that it was tourney or bust for Paye next season. With next season’s roster projected to have far less talent, it’s hard seeing how Paye will get the Cardinal back to the tournament.
While this transfer portal era is a new world and poses challenges that previous coaches didn’t have to deal with, it sounds like a lot of these transfers, maybe all of them, could have been avoided with better leadership. It’ll be interesting to see what comes next for this Cardinal program. Five seasons ago they won a national championship. Now, they are being faced with the very live possibility of missing the NCAA tournament three years in a row. It’s truly a stunning fall from grace. Especially since Paye was the hand-picked heir apparent to the legendary Tara VanDerveer.
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