by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–Last Sunday Stanford (13-5) just couldn’t close out the game against the Arizona Wildcats (17-2) at Maples Pavilion and the Wildcats have had those difficulties a lot this season. Looking at the past games there are games that Stanford just held on barely for wins or they were leading late in the game and they went overtime and lost in overtime or won in overtime.

It’s a case of the Cardinal to close out the game even in the final ten minutes of the game and being able to stop any runs to be able to hold onto a lead. It was a surprise that the Cardinal was able to hang in there as much as they did. It’s hard to say if they limited the guys with 19 points holding the Wildcats Stanley Johnson to 19 points.

It was an accomplishment for Stanford it was definitely a good and a bad game and you look at it and you say this was a game that they left points on the board and they could have won it. But the Cardinal also say they now belong after that great battle with Arizona. The Cardinal say they can win the Pac 12 and they had a couple of fouls in this game.

The Cardinal could have used a couple of rebounds that could go the other way and you win that way. The Cardinal are looking at that game saying that they can win the Pac 12. They believe they can take it to Utah, Arizona, or UCLA and they believe their one of the premier teams. The Cardinal have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder and nobody has given them any national love.

Stanford’s Chasson Randale has been named for the John Wooden Award mentions but other than that your not seeing Stanford popping up in the AP Polls or the USA Today polls. They’re hanging with other teams that are way up there in the top Ten. They have that chip on their shoulder but it was also a chance for Stanford to build confidence and establish being one of the big elite teams in the Pac 12.

The game for Sunday morning against Arizona State is an early morning start at 9:00 AM PST so somebody better tell Anthony Brown that, Anthony who failed to set his alarm clock a couple of times and missed a shoot around. There was a game earlier this season against Denver where he missed the morning shoot around, and he was taken out of the starting line up that night and came in off the bench and lead the team with 20 points.

More Matt Harrington covers Stanford basketball listen to the podcast below listen on Stanford basketball right here on http://www.sportsradioservice.com