Category: Stanford Cardinal

Second Half Surge Leads Cardinal to Sweet Sixteen

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By: Joe Lami

STANFORD, Calif.— The Stanford Cardinal defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 86-76 Monday evening to earn a trip to their eighth straight sweet sixteen.  In their final home game of the year, the Cardinal were able to turn a halftime deficit into a victory for the ninth time this season. 

The Cardinal struggled in the first half, finishing just 39% from the field and only 25% from three-point range.  Despite their poor shooting percentage, they were able to keep the score close at the half thanks to great free-throw shooting nailing 12 of their 14 shots from the line. The deficit would have been worse, but Stanford guard, Lili Thompson, was able to knock down one of her three three-pointers at the buzzer. 

Gioya Carter had an insane first half for the Sooners, scoring 16.  However, Carter was only able to add four points in the second to finish with 20 on the game.  Carter commented, “I had the jumpers that were going in the first, they just weren’t falling in the second”. She went on a span on not scoring of 19 minutes, including the final eight of the first half.

The turning point was when, Stanford guard, Lili Thompson ended the first half with one of her three three-pointers at the buzzer.  It brought the Oklahoma lead down to four from seven and brought life into the team.

The second half was a different story, as the Cardinal offense exploded.  Stanford finished the half shooting 65%, and had a stretch where it seemed like they weren’t going to miss.  Amber Orrange led the way for the Cardinal with 24 points, 13 of which came in the second half.  Orrange also became the 21st player in school history to score 1,400 points in her career.  She now sits tied for 20th place with 1,414.

Bonnie Samuelson and Lili Thompson each followed Orrange, scoring 19 each.  Samuelson scored all of her 19 in the second half, after going 0 for 4 from the field in the first.  Sophomore, Briana Roberson topped off the Cardinal double digit scorers with 13 points.  Monday marks the 13th time this season where at least four scorers hit double digits.  They are 13-0 when reaching that feat.

For seniors, Samuelson and Orrange, it will be the last time they ever play at Maples Pavilion.  With their amazing play, it continues a streak of seniors having outstanding games the last time they play at home. Stanford coach, Tara VanDerveer commented on this, “Before the game I told them it was Maples magic.  That every senior has a strong game in their last game.  Why not have a great game yourself”.

The Cardinal have the number one seed in the region up next, as they will take on Notre Dame in the regional semifinal on Friday.  They hope to upset the second ranked team in the country and continue their quest for their third national championship and the first since 1991.

Randle’s Career Night Against Rhode Island Pushes Cardinal Into NIT Quaterfinals

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By Matthew T.F. Harrington

STANFORD, Calif. — Chasson Randle and the Stanford Cardinal live to see another day, topping the University of Rhode Island Rams 74-65 Sunday night to advance to the quarterfinals of the National Invitational Tournament.

Randle, a senior playing in a do-or-die contest to keep his days in cardinal alive, scored a career-high 35 points to lead his team to victory. With his career-best night, Randle moved to 2,310 career scorers, nine shy of Adam Keefe’s 2,319 for second-best in school history. Randle is 26 shy of matching the school record set by Todd Lichti from 1985-189.

“I just want to keep winning to be real,” said Randle. “It’d be a great achievement, to be the all-time leading scorer but I just want to go out on the right note with this team. We didn’t achieve what we wanted to, to make the NCAA tournament but we’re granted an opportunity here in the NIT.”

It was a opportunity all the more significant because Randle’s father was in attendance at Maples Pavilion.

“My dad was here tonight,” said Randle. “So for him to be here and see that is special to me. Over the course of my career he’s probably been to 3-4 home games a year.”

The guard started the game red-hot, netting the first seven points of the game while hitting three-straight field goals. The Pac-12 All First-Teamer ultimately hit 9 of 16 shots total over 39 minutes, picking up three steals and four rebounds along the way.

“My teammates told me stay aggressive from the beginning,” said Randle. “I just tried to follow their advice. They told me they were going to lean on me. I just tried to will them to a win.”

Randle, one of the nation’s best free-throw shooters, also went 15-for-19 from the charity stripe.

“I’m kind of upset I missed those four free throws,” said Randle with a smile.

Fellow seniors Anthony Brown and Stefan Nastic scored 16 and 7 points respectively while Nastic pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. As a team, Stanford hit 34 percent of shots, sinking 18 of 53 attempts. The Cardinal went 2-13 from beyond the three-point line.

“Last game we shot pretty well from three, in this game we didn’t,” said Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins. “For the year we’re shooting over 38 percent from the three-point line which means we’re top-50 from beyond the arc so I never really worry about our ability to shoot the ball.”

Sophomore guard E.C. Matthews, a burgeoning star in the Atlantic 10, topped the Rams (23-10) with 23 points. Fellow southpaw sophomore Hassan Martin pitched in 16.

“I love his team,” said Dawkins of Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley’s squad. “I think he has a very good team. They’re young but they’re very talented. Both of those kids will be high-level players, not just in college. I think they have the chance to play at the next level.”

In total, both teams committed 56 fouls combined Sunday. The final total was aided mightily by Rhode Island’s 35.

“It was going to be a physical game,” said Dawkins. “I watched a lot of tape (of Rhode Island). They’re a very physical team. They’ve been successful with that brand of basketball. I know our guys would really focus and concentrate.”

Randle was the recipient of one of the contest’s nastier fouls when Rhode Island guard Jarvis Garrett delivered an elbow to his head with 4:33 left to play. “I’m not sure,” said Randle when asked if he thought the elbow was accidental.

Second-seeded Stanford (21-13) never trailed in the contest after building the 7-0 lead, but the Rams did keep the contest close. They scored 7 of the next 8 points to pull within one of their host. Stanford then went on a 23-14 run to build a game-high 13-point lead at 31-18. Over the final two minutes of the half, Rhode Island scored nine points while shutting out Stanford to head into the half down by only four at 31-27.

Stanford, aided by 35 trips to the charity stripe in the second half, once again built up the 13 point lead with just over a minute left in regulation. In total the Cardinal outscored the Rams 43-38 in the second half for the final 74-65 margin. The previous three contests between these two teams, all won by Stanford, were decided by five points combined.

By virtue of the victory and a first-round upset of top-seeded Colorado State, the Cardinal receives the privilege of a third-straight playoff contest at Maples Pavilion.

“It’s gratifying because we don’t have to travel,” said Randle. “We’re not on the road, we can sleep in our own beds. We’re fortunate enough to stay here.”

Stanford will welcome fifth-seeded Vanderbilt Tuesday night, with the winner advancing to a semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

Vanderbilt upset the no. 4 team St. Mary’s in Moraga to open the tournament then toppled the eight seed South Dakota State 92-77.

“I don’t know much about Vanderbilt at this moment,” said Dawkins. “I’ll spend lots of time when I leave here studying them, but I can’t say anything. I haven’t watched them play once this year. I’ll look at them starting tonight and study up on them. I know (Vanderbilt coach Kevin) Stallings does a great job. He’ll have some talented players ready to compete when they come in here.”

For Dawkins, the same will hopefully be said of his team Tuesday as they seek a second NIT title in five years after winning in 2012.

“The thing I saw in that team that I still see in this team,” said Dawkins. “They’re not ready for the season to be over.”

March Madness podcast with Michelle Richardson: Coach K and Duke crush San Diego State; Wichita St gets third round in two years

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by Michelle Richardson

Duke 68 S.Diego 49: Duke is just one of those schools you look at them and they’ll start off the season really great and you’ll be down for Duke but when it comes around time this is like the second season. When it gets around time to get into round 65 it becomes a second season. Duke head coach Mike Kryzezwski got his players to handle the Aztecs.

San Diego State played strong, they had 13 points from Winston Sheppard and 26 from Jahlil Okafor for Duke. JJ O’Brien with seven rebounds for San Diego and to Duke’s Justise Winslow’s 13 rebounds. I’m always a believer when it comes to basketball defense creates offense and if your getting a rebound and getting second chances and cleaning up the glass on offense and defensive rebounds that puts you in a better situation to be able to win.

Winslow he put on a show he had five assists he had one block on O’Brien that was just a tremendous snuff and like I said it’s Duke. Duke can’t have what happened to them last year when unknown Mercer who is in the Southern Conference. Last year they shocked the NCAA world by knocking out Duke in the first round.

Michigan State 60 Virginia 54: The Michigan State Spartans won by six on Sunday and their there to make a statement. The Big Ten is really making a statement with their number of teams. Michigan over UVA was huge and the Spartans got help from Travis Trice with 23 points and UVA’s Anthony Gill’s 11 points.

The top rebounder for Michigan Brendon Dawson nine and for UVA Darion Atkins 14 even though UVA had the top rebounder they just weren’t making the shots. The shots were not falling for UVA, blocks and steals in this one pretty much even but you have to remember that offense creates defense. Michigan St was just on point with points for averages and field goals.

Those three pointers got UVA and what can you say it’s Michigan State this is what they do. The Cavaliers went 30-4 this season their the first ACC Team to lose after going 9-0 in the tournament. This is the first time a ACC team has been knocked out after an 9-0 start. The ACC has got tougher and this was a great season for UVA but a tough loss.

Wichita State 78 Kansas 65: The pride of Missouri Valley Wichita State lived up to it’s name Shockers and they took names with a whopping win over the Kansas Jayhawks. The Shockers who are ranked number seven moved up on number two rank Kansas with a 13 point win on Sunday night. The win gets the Shockers into the Sweet 16.

Tekele Cotton lead all Shocker scorers with 19 points, Fred Van Fleet 17 points, and Evan Wessel hit four three points to tally up 12 points. The Shockers are now headed to the Midwest Regionals in Cleveland to face Notre Dame on Thursday. The win marks the second time that Wichita State will be in the third round.

Michelle Richardson is covering March Madness for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below:

Stanford Cardinal podcast with Matt Harrington: NIT game with Rhode Island could be a close call on Sunday

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by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–The Stanford Cardinal are trying to add another winning banner to their NIT record like they did last season and it was a big one in terms of the program you had with two players who really stepped up and had huge contributions and these are players that are going to be asked to come back next year and fill some pretty big roles.

It’s good to see Marcus Allen put up 22 points a career high who went 10-12 on shooting for the night, that’s pretty impressive hitting two threes that’s good for him. He’s going to be called upon to fill the role Chasson Randle once Randle is gone. Allen is expected to be one of the returning five in the guard position.

It’s going to be on his shoulders next season so it’s good to see Allen contributing with a big effort and the Reid Travis picking up a double double plus ten rebounds. He’s going to spot in for a departing player Anthony Brown whose going to be gone next year. Travis is going to have to fill that forward role with a different look from Brown.

Brown is a good three point shooter, a good defensive stopper when the ball is on the court, Travis in that game against UC Davis was a monster down there, he was a physical presence and he’s going to bang away in the paint and pick up some rebounds and some points there in the paint and that’s what he showed in that game and that was a good sign for the future of the Cardinal against UC Davis.

There was a little caveat it was Randle going for that 18 points and he’s 62 points away from heading into that number one spot for career points all time for Stanford. It was a meaningful game, it was an impactful game even though it was an NIT game against a team that Stanford normally plays in the first couple weeks of the season and it was good they had Davis early on the schedule.

The game with Rhode Island is going to be interesting on Sunday, the Rams are not a team that blows you away on paper. You start with two players that are averaging double digits in scoring and one of them is a bench player. You start looking at it and you start wondering what does this team have? You start seeing some of the teams that the Rams played and they faced Delaware and Kansas and they played them very close. So the game with Stanford is expected to be a tight ball game at Maples Pavilion.

Matt Harrington is a beat writer for Stanford Cardinal basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

Randle, Allen lead resurgent Stanford past UC Davis in the NIT

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Marvelous Marcus

By Morris Phillips

Of the various storylines entering the meeting of UC Davis and Stanford in the NIT on Tuesday, Marcus Allen’s had to be among the least.

First, there was senior guard Chasson Randle, attempting to put the finishing touches on his career at Stanford, universally hailed as quietly one of the best in the history of the Pac-12.  Could Randle eventually catch Todd Lichti and Adam Keefe at the top of the school’s career scoring list by leading the Cardinal on a deep run in March Madness’ secondary tournament?

And could Coach Johnny Dawkins coax a focused effort out of his bunch in a half-empty Maples Pavilion, loudly populated by UC Davis fans that had very determinedly made the two-hour drive to the game through mid-week, commuter traffic?  Stanford finished its season with losses in eight of 12 games to turn a certain, second straight trip to the NCAA tournament into a pumpkin of a NIT bid.  Historically, success in the NIT hinges on whether a team is engaged and desirous of the opportunity to continue to compete.

Also, UC Davis’ Corey Hawkins was competing for the final time opposite Dawkins, his godfather and a teammate of Hawkins’ father, Hersey, in the NBA.  The first four meetings didn’t go well with Hawkins missing a combined 23 of 28 shots in a pair of lopsided Stanford victories over UC Davis as well as a pair of games between Stanford and Arizona State, Hawkins’ home in his freshman season.  But with Hawkins’ father in attendance on Tuesday, the Big West Player of the Year figured to have a much better showing in what could be his final appearance as a collegian.

Piggybacking that storyline was the basketball conclusion of the full circle relationship between Corey, Hersey and Jim Les and his son, Tyler.  Jim Les and Hersey Hawkins comprised Bradley University’s heralded backcourt for the 1986 team that went 32-3 and won a game in the NCAA tournament.  Les, UC Davis’ head coach in his second season, inherited a team last season that already included Tyler, and soon thereafter added Corey, a transfer from Arizona State.

Still with all that going on–most significantly the presences of the high-scoring Hawkins and Randle–Stanford sophomore Allen stole the show.

Allen, presumed to be Randle’s heir apparent in Stanford’s backcourt of the future, scored a career-best 22 points in Stanford’s 77-64 win that sends them to NIT’s second round.  The Aggies’ turnaround season ended that saw them go 14-2 in the Big West only to lose in the semis of their conference tournament.  Meanwhile, Stanford advances to host Rhode Island on Friday or Saturday at Maples Pavilion.

“For our guys to bounce back from a tough loss and play the way we played—I’m just really proud of their character,” Dawkins said.  “I thought they really stepped up and showed how much they want to be in this tournament and how much they want to compete.”

“For us to win the game, we didn’t have to be perfect, but we had to be close to perfect as possible,” Jim Les said.  “We had some opportunities, some missed shots that we normally make that we didn’t make.  We had some defensive miscues that we made that we can’t afford to make against a good team that’s going to take advantage.”

Despite the presence of the Aggies’ numerous supporters, Stanford jumped out to an early lead, led by Allen and Randle.  The Cardinal took their first double-digit lead less than eight minutes in, and led 30-19 with 6:10 remaining before halftime.  The Aggies made a run at that point, with Tyler Les’ 3-pointer tying the game at 30 with 3:35 remaining.

Allen picked Stanford up to start the second half, scoring a trio of buckets in a run that put the Cardinal up 46-38 with 16:53 remaining.  At that point, Allen had already surpassed his previous career-best 14 points achieved March 1 against Oregon.  Allen made 10 of 12 shots on the evening.

Stanford, using their superior size and quickness in spreading the floor to create driving lanes to the bucket, extended their lead to 57-42 with 11:50 remaining.

Hawkins, who came in averaging 20.4 points a game while shooting 49 percent from three, finally posted decent numbers against Dawkins and Stanford.  He finished with 34 on 12 of 22 shooting, but most of it came after Stanford jumped out to their early lead and then surged after halftime.

“I told myself I finally wanted to play well against my godfather,” Hawkins said.  “I’ve come here a couple of times and haven’t played that well, so I told myself to go out and be aggressive.  I feel like I can compete with anybody.”

The Aggies fell in their first Division I post-season appearance in school history.  While the loss was disappointing, it doesn’t diminish UC Davis’ big turnaround season that saw them finish 25-7 one year after they were 9-22 in an injury-marred campaign.

The NIT is experimenting with a 30-second shot clock reduced from the standard 35 seconds and that helped Stanford speed up the more methodical Aggies.  Also, Stanford kept UC Davis from getting hot from distance where they missed their first five attempts and finished 9 of 24.

NCAA basketball podcast commentary: Cardinal wait for that call to go to the NITs

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by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–Those secondary tournaments in March don’t get a lot of buzz as their a lot of alumni boosters from the big schools who are clambering to go up in their gym to and it’s about marketing dollars. It all really depends on who ends up where in terms of the Pac 12 and to the big dance. They already have some teams on the bubble like UCLA or Cal to make the NCAA Tournament or not they might be on the outside.

At this point Stanford is firmly on the outside barring the end of their season. It’s going to be a question of how they want to get into this tournament to get the revenue. It will be decided at some point for the teams who won their conference for a season title and the championship team they’ll go onto the NIT automatically.

They’ll try and get into those schools and those mid major conferences where they ran the table on the regular season but knocked down on their conference tournament. Their the one and done championship tournaments and that will be about it. There should be room for a team like Stanford in the NITs when you start looking at the upsets from the smaller conferences.

They’ll be room for a team that had 19 wins and had some pretty significant wins, especially that win against Texas earlier in the year. This might give Stanford some life for a chance to play more basketball especially for these older players at the Cardinal the seniors who may have or may not have played their last game against Utah.

It makes sense for the NIT to take some Pac 12 representation, to have some sort of higher final team in the tournament and get people to watch it and get people to buy tickets for it. This might be a great chance for Stanford to get into the NIT and advance and see their star player Anthony Brown to try to put behind him probably his worst performance as a member of the Cardinal this year career putting together two points, 1-6 shooting in that 80-56 loss that knocked them out of the Pac 12 Tournament.

Matt Harrington covers Stanford Cardinal basketball and Matt is also covering for Michelle Richardson this week for NCAA commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

Stanford Cardinal Pac 12 Championship podcast with Matt Harrington: Cardinal gear up to face big physical Utah tonight at the MGM Grand

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by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–The Stanford Cardinal just got by in fashion over the Washington Huskies on Wednesday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a 71-69 victory. The win advances the Cardinal to face the Utah Utes on Thursday night. What a finish for the Cardinal for the win on Wednesday night who could have scripted a win like that for Stanford it was positively electric.

You couldn’t have scripted it any better as the Cardinals “Flame” Chasson Randle for his going away performance had ten points and it looked like the senior was going to go out on a down note and now I’m changing my script. Randle had a huge three pointer to win that game. It’s another case of when you think that Randle is out of the game, when you think he’s struggling all of sudden he hits the big shot.

I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger shot in his career at Stanford, so that was an incredible ending of a crazy game. It was a game where the Cardinal weren’t really in control of their own dynasty for the majority of it. It really did feel like Stanford was going to be on the wrong end and that this was going to be another game to chalk up for the season.

When you look at the stats Washington was on the free throw line five times and had only five free throw opportunities in the game and they were still leading by a couple of points that’s just crazy. You look at the three point shooting they finished 13-20 from the three point line and you look at all those stats and you start thinking this shouldn’t have been Stanford’s game.

It ended out working out for them in the long run, the Cardinal shot something like five percent it’s hard to figure out that five last minutes of play in game. It was really a struggle for Stanford in the game. It’s certainly not a performance that the Cardinal doesn’t want to repeat. In the next round they face the Utah Utes at the MGM on Thursday night.

The Utes are a team that will really give Stanford some challenges but it really felt like they snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat on Wednesday and it didn’t look like it was going on the right path and all of a sudden the final five minutes things start to turn. That last rebound by Marcus Allen and the three pointer by Randle that was a huge swing for Stanford.

Matt Harrington is the Stanford Cardinal beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com catch below on his podcast

NCAA basketball podcast with Michelle Richardson: Boeheim not going anywhere but rough going getting started over violations

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by Michelle Richardson

This is big time college athletics the program at Syracuse University will be impacted by the accusations of athletes accepting gifts and booster donations and head coach Jim Boheim is at the center of the conversation. The University is really disappointed in Boeheim and also the school had a huge colossal loss to NC State on Saturday in the middle of the storm of this high profile scandal.

Boeheim didn’t address the media after the game on Saturday and the assistant coach was left to meet with the media after the game when really Boeheim was the one who should have fielded questions right after the game. Boeheim was simply not there to answer questions and it’s good bet that was because he didn’t want to explain any particulars regarding the scandal.

I would be hoping that the university council told Boeheim that it was not in the school’s or Boeheim’s best interest to answer questions regarding the scandal to the media after the game as opposed to being childish and refusing to meet with the media after the game and I’m hoping it was at the advice of the council that he didn’t address the media after Saturday night’s game.

This is athletics and there are some things that I will hold Boeheim responsible for and there are things you can’t hold him responsible for. You can’t hold Boeheim responsible for boosters giving the players money because that’s what they do. Boosters give money whether anyone knows or doesn’t know about it. Whether or not it’s within the rule guidelines of the NCAA boosters to give money.

In the case of Syracuse they gave upwards to $8,000 reportedly, the boosters find ways to funnel the money to the students and they will do it no matter what. This is not something new with the Syracuse basketball program this is no surprise, this is no shock and awe. This has been going on for all of Boeheim’s 37 years at Syracuse and he’s most likely not going to be fired or replaced anytime soon.

Let’s call it what it is and Boheim needs to stand up and take responsibility for his actions you have 12 scholarships over the next four years. You can’t appear in the post season for the next five years, Boeheim is suspended for the first nine games of the ACC season for the upcoming fall season. The university will probably appeal that the treatment was too harsh but judging from the violations the NCAA will most likely stick with it’s ruling.

Michelle Richardson does commentary on NCAA basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to Michelle’s podcast below

Arizona takes care of struggling Stanford; Cardinal falls to No. 6 in the upcoming Pac-12 tournament

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McConnell

By Morris Phillips

With 137 college basketball games under his belt, as well as his undergraduate college degree earned in just three years, Chasson Randle could never be described as unprepared or inexperienced.

Yet, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that the Stanford senior leader appeared a bit rattled dealing with No. 5 Arizona, their sold-out McKale Center crowd and the gnat-like presence of Wildcats’ guard T.J. McConnell on Saturday afternoon.

In a game that Stanford had to win, they couldn’t even manage one lead.  And Randle needed to come up big, but more often looked spent, rattled and ineffective before fouling out with five minutes remaining.  Both circumstances had much to with Pac-12 regular season champ Arizona, who rolled to a 91-69 victory.

“You almost said to yourself, ‘This is going to be our day’ right after the first play,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said in reference to his team’s first basket coming just 19 seconds after the opening tip.

As anticipated, Stanford had their hands full just trying to score against stingy Arizona, who surely remembered that the Cardinal scored 82 points against them in a close-call win on the Farm in January.  The season-worst points allowed was out of character for the Wildcats, who have limited opponents to just 58 points a game. With McConnell hounding Randle, and Arizona’s big front line protecting the paint, Stanford was forced into one tough shot after another this time in shooting just 37 percent along with commiting 15 damaging turnovers.

After falling behind 21-8, eight minutes in, the Cardinal rallied to pull within 29-27 with six minutes remaining before halftime.  But the mental and physical fatigue of facing a bigger, formidable opponent may have already been showing as Arizona then surged to a 16-point lead at the break.

The final exchange of possessions before halftime said it all: Randle needed most of his ball handling tricks and more than ten seconds to get past McConnell and into the lane for a high-arching, short bank shot over a trio of defenders.  But Arizona’s Gabe York came right back, attacking the winded Randle in transition before burying a 3-pointer on the run, an answer that took less than five seconds to realize.

Coach Johnny Dawkins was already limited by the injury to and absence of freshman Michael Humphrey.  But foul trouble exacerbated things, forcing Dawkins to play his other young players for long stretches.  Needless to say, the attrition wasn’t the recipe to ending Arizona’s 37-game home winning streak, the nation’s longest.

“Those kids gave what they had, but in this type of environment and under these circumstances, it’s a little bit difficult,” Dawkins said.

Randle led Stanford with 16 points, despite missing nine of his 13 shots.  Stefan Nastic and Anthony Brown contributed 14 points each.  The Cardinal fell for the seven time in their last 10 games, erasing any NCAA at-large hopes they may have had.

Brandon Ashley led Arizona with 15 points, one of five Wildcats to score in double figures.

Two losses in Arizona dropped the Cardinal to a No. 6 seed in the conference tournament.  Instead of earning an opening-round bye, Stanford will open play on Wednesday against No. 11 Washington.  The Huskies provide their own unique challenge as a downtrodden team that’s capable of pulling an upset.  Washington beat ranked Utah on Saturday, the third time this season they’ve beaten a Top 25 opponent.

Stanford basketball podcast by Matt Harrington: Cardinal will need a wild victory upset over Wildcats to move up in the Pac 12 seeding

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by Matt Harrington

Saturday the Stanford Cardinal have a big test on their hands in their last game of the season in Arizona and the Pac 12 Championship confirms at this point that the Wildcats are the number one seed coming out of the Pac 12. Their going to be rolling onto the big tournament this month. They have a chance to take on the hardware in Las Vegas in the Pac 12.

It’s going to be a big test for Stanford and it comes at a very unfortunate time for the Cardinal, they’ve struggled in their last two games. Two games that were must wins in order to really have a chance in the NCAA Tournament and unfortunately they didn’t deliver on that. When you look at it how they did against Oregon falling short 73-70.

It was a little bit of an upset due to losing to Arizona State 67-62 on Thursday night that shot their chances of getting a bye in the Pac 12 Tournament and that definitely hurt there resume for the March Madness tournament it looks a little bit glum going into that game. One thing Stanford knows what their fate is going into the Pac 12 Tournament.

The Cardinal are looking at a silver lining here in this game against Arizona which for Stanford is really just a play game to go out and play your best game, doesn’t matter what the results are. Don’t feel the pressure that you have to win, Stanford already knows they fit in the Pac 12, they already know their going to be out of that first round bye for the tournament.

The Cardinal don’t have a lot of confidence for that the biggest consequences is just turning heads and pulling out an upset having the a victory over the number five team in the country would certainly help your chances. Stanford is very much on the wrong side of the bubble right now. It would take a win against Arizona and a pretty miraculous run through the Pac 12 Tournament especially if your looking ahead of what’s in store for Stanford in that first round.

After all that the Cardinal would match up against UCLA a team that really has had Stanford’s number, so tonight against Arizona is going to be a kind of a show me game, a players game, go out and do your game. See what happens and turn some heads but their isn’t a much of a consequence as there was for the last three or four games that Stanford was playing down the stretch.

Matt Harrington is a beat reporter covering Stanford basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to Matt’s podcast below