After Stanford's 59-47 loss to Baylor in the national semifinals on Sunday, which made it the fifth consecutive Final Four for the Cardinal without a national championship, Stanford star Nneka Ogwumike said the team was too pre-occupied with the length of Baylor star Brittney Griner
"I think we were too worried about her," said Ogwumike. "In reality attacking her wasn't as hard as we thought it would be."
"I was definitely psyching myself out," she said. "In the second half I just started attacking. I was like, okay, this isn't that bad. I think I did a really good job of not being scared of going in there."
Ogwumike, an athletic 6'2 post who most analysts think will be the No. 1 pick in the 2012 WNBA Draft, was able to use her athleticism to score 22 points on Griner, but she needed 23 shots to do it.
While she had played against Baylor's 6'8 star in AAU ball, there's no way to prepare for the fully developed player Griner has become in college.
Stanford, despite having the second most athletic front-line in college basketball, was so intimidated by Griner's size that they double-teamed her the entire game, leaving several Bears guards wide open within 15 feet of the basket.
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