Author: jeremy2878

By Jeremy Harness

Once again, Stanford is making a deep run in a postseason tournament.

The Cardinal, one year removed from their improbable trek into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, are making the most of their opportunity this season, even though they are not in the Big Dance.

They moved on to the semifinal round of the NIT tournament Tuesday night by beating Vanderbilt, 78-75, at Maples Pavilion. Stanford will move on to New York’s Madison Square Garden and face Old Dominion, who defeated Murray State in their own quarterfinal Wednesday night.

Anthony Brown, who has made huge strides this season, led the Cardinal with a season-high 26 points while making nine of his 15 shots from the field and also pulled down eight rebounds to help keep Stanford’s season going.

Meanwhile, Chasson Randle, who was Stanford’s leading scorer this year, chipped in with 16 points on six-of-15 shooting, while Stefan Nastic had 12 points and seven rebounds.

Vanderbilt, however, kept the game close with its 3-point shooting in the second half, and the Commodores actually had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds. However, freshman Matthew Fisher-Davis, who had hit a 3-pointer with 28.8 seconds left to narrow Stanford’s lead to 77-75, misfired on a deep 3, and Stanford escaped with the victory.

The Cardinal are slated to play in the semifinal game on Tuesday, while Miami will play Temple, who routed Louisiana Tech in their quarterfinal Wednesday night.

The last time the Cardinal was in the NIT, they won the entire thing in 2012.

By Jeremy Harness

STANFORD – Sunday’s game at Maples Pavilion was, in a lot of ways, a microcosm of how Stanford’s entire season has gone thus far.

The Cardinal started off strong in the first half but hit a snag before roaring back in the second half to take the lead. Then a back-breaking turnover by Chasson Randle and a trio of free throws made by Oregon in the final minute of a tie game sent the Cardinal reeling off the court after a 73-70 loss that planted them in fifth place in the Pac-12 standings with two games to play in the regular season.

In other words, Stanford (18-10, 9-7 Pac-12) is once again a middle-of-the-road basketball team that is capable of a big splash early but has yet to show that it is a top-flight program under coach Johnny Dawkins, who has been rumored to be on the hot seat for the past two years.

Meanwhile, Oregon (22-8, 12-5 Pac-12) continued its upward trend, winning its fourth straight game and is on its way to cementing its third position in the Pac-12 with one game to play before the conference tournament starts.

The Ducks’ game plan on Sunday was to turn high-scoring guard Chasson Randle into a distributor and dare someone else to beat them, a strategy that worked wonderfully for Oregon at the tail end of the first half.

Randle only had five points and three shots in the first 20 minutes, and the rest of the team struggled to knock down shots with any consistency. Stanford shot only 36 percent from the floor while making only one of their seven 3-point attempts.

While the Cardinal misfired from the field late in the first half, Oregon was afforded the opportunity to get back into the game, and the Ducks grabbed the lead late in the half and led 36-30 at the break.

Early in the second half, the lighting on one side of the arena, as well as most of the scoreboard, had the power go out, and at the same time, Stanford began to rally. While Oregon’s offense slowed down, the Cardinal found the range from behind the arc, as Randle awoke from his slumber to score five points in the first five minutes of the half to help bring the game to a 44-44 tie.

Randle finished with 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting, and his ability to maneuver with the ball in traffic kept the Stanford offense on track for two reasons: either he was able to finish at the rim, or his highly-contested layups allowed for several offensive-rebound opportunities, on which the Cardinal repeatedly cashed in.

The comeback was complete when Stefan Nastic’s three-point play gave Stanford the lead back, 47-44 with 13:44 left.

Oregon was driven by Joseph Young and Elgin Cook – each of them finished with 21 points – as well as Dwayne Benjamin, who had 15, and each had a hand in keeping the Ducks in the game and giving them the lead back in the final two minutes.

After tying the game on two Nastic free throws, Stanford had a big chance to once again seize control with 47 seconds left, as they trapped along the baseline and created a turnover.

The Cardinal could not get the final breakthrough, though. On the ensuing possession, while working off the pick-and-roll that had been instrumental in their rally, Randle threw a bad pass right to Benjamin, who was fouled before he could rise up and dunk.

He made one of his two foul shots, giving the Ducks a one-point lead with 14 seconds left while Stanford had the last shot for the victory. However, Randle’s last weave through traffic was not successful, and Young was fouled and made both of his free throws.

The loss was sealed when the Cardinal, with no time-outs left, could get the ball out of the backcourt with three seconds left.

By Jeremy Harness

Jason Day channeled his inner Michael Jordan on Friday.

Day, who beat J.B Holmes in a playoff in last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, made a big charge on Friday, in spite of being in a less-than-optimal condition.

Just as Jordan once led his team to victory in the NBA Finals with the flu, Day woke up Friday morning with a flu that had him seriously thinking about not playing at all. However, he said that once he hit the course, he began to feel better but still did not eat anything until well after the round out of fear that it would not stay down.

And much like the case in Jordan’s leading the Chicago Bulls over the Utah Jazz in 1997, Day’s performance completely masked how he was feeling, as he turned in a nine-under 62 at Monterey Peninsula Country Club to vault him right back into the thick of things.

“I didn’t think I was going to play, especially 30 minutes before my round because I was feeling pretty awful,” said Day, who is currently tied for 14th and is only three shots behind after struggling to an even-par opening round on Thursday. “(But) just once I got out there, I started feeling a little bit better. (But) now my goal is to really try and rest up and get some energy and have a good one (Saturday).

“My putter was hot today. I hit a lot of good shots off the tee and into the greens, and then holed a lot of putts.”

Brandt Snedeker, who is known for his deft putting touch, made his own surge, hitting all 18 of his greens on his way to a bogey-free 67 and found himself tied for the lead as the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am heads into the weekend.

“For me, everything revolves around my short game and putting,” Snedeker said. “I’m putting well, and that bleeds into every part of my game. I worked really hard on that, because the end of last year, I was playing great and putting terrible, and not getting the results I felt like I deserved.”

However, while Snedeker and Day are obviously trending in the right way, John Daly took a considerable step back on Friday.

The long-hitter, these days known better for his colorful golf attire than his game on the course, bogeyed two of his first three holes at Monterey Peninsula. He fought back on the back nine with a pair of birdies, but a damaging bogey at the 17th hole sent him into the clubhouse with a one-over 72, one day after shooting a seven-under 65 at Pebble Beach.

Just as the score indicated, Daly’s statistics in each of the two rounds this week have been completely different. Although he hit more fairways Friday than was the case in the opening round, his distance was significantly shorter off the tee, resulting in fewer greens hit and, thus, creating fewer birdie opportunities.

Daly is still in the hunt, but he is now six shots off the lead and is currently tied with 12 other players for 37th in the tournament.

By Jeremy Harness

Apparently, the sting of losing in a playoff days earlier didn’t last very long at all for J.B Holmes.

The Kentucky native, who fell to Australia’s Jason Day on the second playoff hole of last weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open, is off to a blistering start at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He is tied with Justin Hicks for the lead after shooting an eight-under 64 at Pebble Beach on Thursday.

The good vibes started immediately for Holmes, who is only more than three years removed from brain surgery. He began his day at the 10th, holing out from the fairway for an eagle, and he was off and running from there.

Of course, the conditions are more than optimal for scoring, as the local temperature was around 75 degrees with little wind issues, and it is expected to be in the high 70s throughout the weekend, which is highly unusual for this time of year and had most – if not all – players almost in a state of shock.

“The weather was awesome, so it was a lot of fun to be able to play this golf course with not a lot of wind and nice temperature,” Holmes said. “It was just a good day all around.

“Any time you get great weather and be able to play a beautiful place like that all day, you’re thinking, ‘This is perfect,’ and even if you don’t hit a good shot, the weather and this view is pretty amazing.”

Another notable is John Daly, an immensely-popular player who had struggled with his game in recent years but has pulled it back together lately, is right behind Holmes and Hicks with a seven-under 65.

“I love plying this golf course,” Daly said. “It’s just great to be able to come out here and not have to survive the (usually bad) weather and survive the golf course.

“But we’ll just see what happens (from here).”

Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson, who made his season debut last week at the Farmers after a six-month hiatus from the PGA Tour, is two under par after the first day and has a real shot at making the cut, a week after missing the cut by one stroke in La Jolla.

By Jeremy Harness

For the rest of the Pac-12, it is time to recognize that it’s not all about Arizona and Utah, that Stanford looks like it will be right in the thick of things for quite some time.

The Cardinal are making a bigger case for themselves with seemingly each game, as they followed up their victory against Cal with a resounding 72-59 victory over defending NCAA champion Connecticut Saturday night at Maples Pavilion.

With the win, Stanford has not won seven of their last eight games, including three straight contests, and are currently 13-4 overall and 4-1 in Pac-12 play.

Chasson Randle continued his stellar play this year by scoring 23 points, including hitting four of his eight 3-point attempts, to go along with five assists.

The Cardinal moved the ball well throughout the night, and as a result, they got plenty of open looks and were rewarded with 10 made shots from behind the 3-point arc.

In the process, Stanford held Ryan Boatwright, who is currently on the list of potential Wooden Award finalists in the preseason, to only seven points on 3-of-12 shooting

However, it wasn’t all pretty for Stanford. Late in the second half, Stefan Nastic took an elbow to the face while defending a driving layup, and although he was immediately bleeding from his nose and mouth, he quickly returned to the game.

Stanford will soon find out where they are really at in relation to the top of the conference. The Cardinal’s next opponent is none other than No. 10 Arizona at Maples this Thursday.

For the meantime, the Wildcats have established themselves as the best team in the Pac-12, doing so with a convincing home win over No. 8 Utah, a game which saw them roar back after being down in the first half.

By Jeremy Harness

Stanford is quickly showing college basketball that last year’s NCAA Tournament run may not have been a fluke.

The Cardinal are quickly emerging as a threat in the Pac-12, and that grew even more after they downed No. 21 Washington in overtime, 68-60, at Maples Pavilion. With the win, Stanford is off to a 2-0 start in the Pac-12 and have two quality wins on their resume, which could prove crucial should their name come up for possible seeding in the big dance.

Prior to opening conference play, the Cardinal was coming off a huge win on the road over No. 9 Texas, so the confidence of this team is obviously very high.

This was a far cry from a month ago, when they were struggling to beat teams such as Loyola Marymount, and the thought was that the Cardinal, fresh off a Sweet Sixteen appearance in last year’s NCAA tourney, would return to the middle-of-the-road team that has been all too familiar in the Johnny Dawkins era.

To keep the momentum going, Chasson Randle scored 24 points on 9-of-21 shooting, to go along with five assists and three rebounds.

Neither team shot the ball very well overall, as the Cardinal squeaked by with a 39 percent performance while the Huskies shot 38 percent from the field.

The game was knotted at 28-28 at halftime, but Stanford emerged from the locker room and opened up a seven-point lead in the first four minutes of the second half. However, it took just as much time for Washington to tie the game back up, as two free throws by Shawn Kemp, Jr. evened things up at 37-37.

From there, it was a back-to-back affair, as the game saw a total of five lead changes in the final 10 minutes of regulation. Stanford trailed for the final two minutes but was able to battle back and send the game into overtime on Chasson Randle’s layup with two seconds left.

In the overtime period, it was all Stanford, as Washington could not find the bucket at all during the extra period – the Huskies were 0-for-3 from the field, as all of their four overtime points came from the free-throw line.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal only missed one shot in overtime, and that proved to be the difference.

By Jeremy Harness

STANFORD – After having to rally from behind to down a lesser opponent four days prior, Stanford had to do it again Wednesday night.

The Cardinal (6-2 overall) had a slightly better first half this time around than the 17-point half they experienced against Denver on Sunday, but they came back to win in the same fashion, coming back with a flourish in a 67-58 win over Loyola Marymount at Maples Pavilion.

This time, it was senior guard Chasson Randle, who had been stuck in a shooting slump that was highlighted by a nine-point game against Denver that saw him go 2-for-14 from the field, who led the Stanford resurgence.

He got it back together on Wednesday, scoring 20 of his 31 points in the second half by primarily attacking the basket. In the process, he was 9-for-19 from the field and made three of his eight 3-point shots.

It didn’t look good early on, though. Stanford fell behind by as many as 12 points in the first half, thanks in large part to a Loyola Marymount (3-6 overall) team that shot 50 percent from the field in the half, including making four of their nine shots from behind the 3-point arc.

Meanwhile, coach Johnny Dawkins was so in need to find a combination that would work for his team that 11 guys saw the court for the Cardinal.

It certainly didn’t help matters when center Stefan Nastic found himself in foul trouble, picking up two infractions in the first five minutes of the game that forced him to the bench early.

Despite all of that, the Cardinal were able to rally and found themselves with a very-reasonable four-point halftime deficit.

Stanford had been waiting for Randle to break out of his slump, and after scoring 11 first-half points, he really came alive in the opening minutes of the second half, scoring eight points in the first seven-plus minutes to put Stanford ahead by a pair.

Nastic also sprung back to life in the second half, after being held down by his foul trouble in the early going. After scoring only four first-half points, he scored 11 in the closing stanza to go along with five rebounds and a pair of assists.

However, the Lions did not go away quietly, as they continued to shoot the ball well and twice took the lead back.

After Simon Krajcovic converted a three-point play with 7:51 remaining, LMU led by a single point. After Randle knocked down a pair of free throws, the Lions never saw the lead again.

The Cardinal turned up the intensity on defense and, after committing six first-half turnovers, only turned it over twice in the second to maintain the lead.

It won’t get any easier for Stanford, as they hit the road to face BYU (8-3 overall), a team that has won four of its last five games, on Saturday before moving on to Austin to face No. 9 Texas, which will be by far its toughest challenge before heading into Pac-12 play in two weeks.

NOTES: A 38 percent free-throw shooter entering Wednesday night, it’s pretty safe to say that foul shooting isn’t quite freshman Reid Travis’ forte right now. That was on display in the second half, as one of his free throws ended up as an airball. To his credit, he made sure to catch some rim on the next one, as he hit the front rim.