by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–The Stanford Cardinal victory over the Washington Cougars at Maples Pavilion on Friday night was an interesting game because it was a reversal of what Stanford had done from last season in Pac 12 play where they rode their starters and marquee players for the first couple minutes of the game and they couldn’t hit a shot to save their lives earlier in the game. The Cardinal were 1-10 from the field to start the game.

Chasson Randle scored only one point in that early part of the game, by the end of the game it was a blow out for the Cardinal winning 71-56. Stanford later went on for the route so it was kind of a role reversal and the reserves came in and played a big role. They stepped up and the Cardinal were playing their first game without Reid Travis which was a huge loss for them.

Reid is the Cardinal starter five player and leading rebounder and the question was how the Cardinal were going to adapt to a new starting five and a new starting unit and how were some of these bench players going to step up too to expanded roles. They really passed the test the Cardinal got 71 one points in Pac 12 play. 71 points in conference play which is quite an accomplishment when your talking about a starting five that really weren’t rolled out for the entire non conference schedules. It was quite an accomplishment for Stanford to get the W there.

It’s been a string of solid games for the Cardinal you have to go all the way back to the upset win in Austin Texas. Really the last three games have been the best the Cardinal have played their entire season the Cardinal are putting together one heck of game of basketball. They have won three games in a row now, it’s really a confidence builder. Against Pine Bluff they had an advantage scoring the Cardinal have to get a little bit of rest.

Against Texas it was the Randle and Anthony Brown show, against Pine Bluff the Cardinal were draining threes, things are looking pretty healthy on the farm right now. The last three games there was a slow start against the Cougars but it was also a weird start time at 12 noon on a Friday afternoon which isn’t exactly the norm for college students. Really the last three games have been the best games that Stanford has been playing all season.

This is really the weird time of the year for college athletics because it’s mostly about bringing in the alumni, the students this time of the year are going back to the four corners of the world where they came from their on winter break so the campus seems a little bit like a ghost town. This is strange welcoming back the old alumni when I was out there at Maples there were more older fans, more alumni, more young professionals, more people who are deeply rooted into Stanford and into the program.

It’s a little bit of the weird period because it’s the start of conference play and everyone wants to go for it and you want to be excited for it and you want to be ready to go. The student energy isn’t there because the students are back home wherever they come from. So it’s a weird timing in the college basketball schedule the energy is sucked out of them a little bit with the students going home for the break.

Matt Harrington covers Stanford basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com scroll down to hear the podcast with Matt