Baylor's Griner changed the game, maybe the sport - San Francisco Chronicle

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Baylor's Griner changed the game, maybe the sport - San Francisco Chronicle Apr 2nd 2012, 05:31 DENVER -- - Brittney Griner is The Changer. When you play against the 6-foot-8 Baylor center, whatever you're used to doing really well is almost sure to be something Griner is really good at taking away. Griner didn't put together a platinum stat sheet against Stanford on Sunday night, unless you read between the lines. She had just nine points and 13 rebounds in Baylor's 59-47 win over Stanford. Maybe disappointing, since this was Griner's coming-out party in terms of widespread national exposure - 19,000 fans at the Pepsi Center and a large TV audience. But consider Griner's one spectacular stat: Zero blocked shots in the first half. Griner is a shot-blocking machine. What happened? Stanford, especially superstar Nneka Ogwumike, opted not to challenge Griner. Early in the game Stanford guard Toni Kokenis beat her defender and cut to the hoop, but didn't even consider putting up a shot over Griner. Ogwumike, a devastating offensive player whose specialty is turning the low post into her operating room, never went near the hoop in the first half. That was a mistake by Ogwumike - and by coach Tara VanDerveer for waiting until halftime to clamp the jumper cables on Ogwumike. But more than that, it was a testimony to Griner, whose impact on women's basketball is just beginning to be felt. She is blowing up the women's game the way Wilt Chamberlain blew up the men's game 55 years ago. "Having Brittney in the paint, it changes everyone's game," Ogwumike said. In the second half Ogwumike shifted gears, started taking Griner to the hoop and was successful - but too late. But earlier? "I was definitely psyching myself out," said the seemingly unpsychable Ogwumike. On the other end of the court, Stanford sophomore Chiney Ogwumike (and rotating teammates) did a really good job on Griner, but Chiney had just four points and four rebounds. "I was so focused on making sure I took her out of her element," Chiney Ogwumike said. More than one coach in women's basketball has proclaimed Griner the greatest player in college history. VanDerveer and the Ogwumike sisters weren't willing to go anywhere near that far Sunday in praise of Griner, but they helped make the case for her greatness. VanDerveer, asked last week how her team would defend Griner, said with a figurative wink, "I'll think of something." And she did, using a well-conceived scheme of playing Griner tough, with a lot of strategic help. In the first half Griner took only five shots and had just five rebounds. She was taken out of her game. But she more than returned the favor. Nneka Ogwumike, one of the coolest customers ever in college ball, a relentless and physical attacker of the hoop, admitted she waited too long to get to what her game is about, and said, "It was difficult for us to figure out what we wanted to do on offense." The Cardinal were undone by their 2-for-17 shooting from the three-point line, but that was Griner-related. Her presence forces the other team to play near-perfect ball, and her already defensively talented teammates are able to play tighter on the outside, knowing Griner will clean up any blow-by mistakes. Really, Griner's impact is Chamberlainesque, but she has a chance to out-Wilt Wilt. Chamberlain played two varsity seasons at Kansas and never got an NCAA championship. As a junior in 1957, his team lost to North Carolina in triple overtime (after beating USF in the semis). The next season Kansas didn't make the tourney bracket because they finished second in their conference when Chamberlain missed a few games with illness, and only champions were invited to the dance. Chamberlain skipped out of college a year early, sick of the triple-team beatings and the opposing slowdowns without a shot clock. Griner seems OK with taking a beating on the block, and opponents can't hold the ball for 10 minutes without taking a shot. And, un-diva-like, she has already declared she will return for her senior season. Stanford, meanwhile, can only wish it had one more season of Nneka, who with Chiney formed the greatest sibling act in hoops history. Not only did they play well off each other, but they involved the rest of the team and infused VanDerveer's club with an unusually close bond. "Without Nneka, it's going to be a whole different puzzle to put together," VanDerveer said with a sigh. Nneka set the tone. She was Stanford's beacon of poise and controlled fury. So it was that Stanford, even in losing, bowed out of a great season with absolute dignity. "They beat us," VanDerveer said, "but they didn't beat our will. They got us tonight, but we didn't self-destruct. ... We didn't have people come apart at the seams." But: "We knew we had to play the perfect game." That's what Griner does. She changes everything. Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. sostler@sfchronicle.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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