by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–One thing I wanted to point out about Saturday’s game against the Cal Bears at Maples is anybody against Stefan Nastic and there have been games this season where the Cardinal have struggled mightily he provides a big strong physical presence.At Haas Pavilion the CSU Bakersfield game where Cal ultimately lost 54-51 and it was because Bakersfield had this big center that nobody could stop.

All it was in that game was feed Aly Amhed the CSU center the ball underneath the net and just put it up and he had his way with the Cal defenders and that’s the guy I’m keying on tonight the big man for Stanford with the way Nastic played against Colorado for 24 points. He would have had an offensive outburst probably more if he didn’t get into foul trouble.

It’s the same song and dance now, Nastic is great but stay out of foul trouble this is going to be a favorable match up for him Saturday night. Another Cardinal Anthony Brown for the first time since he’s come to Palo Alto he didn’t put up double digits and he had a poor showing with eight points against Colorado last Sunday.

Brown is going to come out Saturday against Cal and try to atone for that at Maples and being closer to his dorm he’s going to be shooting around 14-16 points. He might surprise everybody and go for 20 and he’s playing extra motivated and there is definitely a good chance he could put up 20 points. I’m going to go with the two senior leaders and exclude Chasson Randle because he’s like the old watch that’s ticking he can get you 12-14 points and he get you some great offense.

It’s not to say the key is on Randle because he’s an older player and that’s he always going to be performing. Randle is one of the most consistent guards in the entire league. He may not get his points spread out when he starts being cold and he’s in a hurry but you don’t have to worry about Randle’s performance against Cal.

The concern is what is Nastic going to do down low because he’s got this favorable size and he’s a big physical guy he knows how to work his way to the basket in a mismatch he knows how to exploit it and look for Nastic being the difference in the game against Cal. The Cardinal’s Marcus Allen is developing he’s been kind of the missing piece in terms of adding another scorer in that starting five. When you look at what head coach Johnny Dawkins would normally run out there there’s three set positions Randle, Brown, Nastic and Reid Travis is the second power forward and after that it’s wide open.

Matt Harrington covers Stanford basketball listen to his podcast below on http://www.sportsradioservice.com