Category: Stanford Cardinal

by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–The Stanford Cardinal are on a huge winning streak right now they’ve won two straight and won seven of their last eight. They beat Cal for the first time in seven years at Berkeley and the Cardinal are running red hot right now. Their going to be a force down the stretch and you look at where the teams rank in terms of the statistics you have average points Oregon is number one 76.5, Stanford is number three at .73.6.

You look at Oregon on defense their 74.5 and Stanford is going to get their chances to score on Sunday night when they face Oregon, their two evenly matched teams. Their second and third in rebounds, second and third in three pointers, seventh and eighth in field goal percentage, their evenly matched teams all the way down to Oregon star player Joseph Young.

Young who just passed Chasson Randle in the scoring race for the Pac 12 leader. Young is averaging 19.9 points and Randle 19.4 it’s going to be an evenly matched game. The thing that the Cardinal have going is that they have a little of their swagger back this past week. Oregon is red hot their right above Stanford in the standings.

If the Ducks beat Stanford on Sunday their going to lock up a first round bye in the Pac 12 Tournament and third place in the standings, it’s a pivotal thing for both teams, it’s going to be an evenly matched game. It’s going to be a must watch game, it’s going to be a big game in terms of looking at the playoff picture in the Pac 12 and March Madness.

The depth that Oregon has scoring, it’s going to be a challenge for Stanford if Oregon has really staked a claim as one of the top teams in the Pac 12. Some people have ranked Arizona a little bit higher than Utah just based upon the recent string of games. Oregon has proven their a dominate team when they started looking at the 11-5 record.

So it’s going to be a struggle for Stanford to hold Oregon from scoring and Oregon is the high scoring team in the Pac 12. So you know that Oregon is going to put up points. The key for Stanford is to come back and to put up points of their own. Oregon will give you that chance to score. Stanford has to be productive don’t count on the players who are running red hot right now.

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

By: Joe Lami

The Stanford Cardinal have been struggling of late, but defeated No. 7 Oregon State on Thursday night 69-58 for their biggest road victory of the year. Oregon State was coming in strong, riding a 21-game home winning streak and tied for the first in the Pac-12 standings, but it came to an end with No. 19 Stanford’s huge victory. The loss for Oregon State doesn’t officially mark the end of their chances of winning the Pac-12 title, as a victory over Cal will accomplish their first regular season title in school history.

The Cardinal had five players get into double figures, with Lili Thompson leading the way with 13 points. Stanford finished the night shooting 42% from the field, while holding the Beavers to just 36%.

After the big win, sophomore Erica McCall called the team the party crashers. The game shouldn’t have been a big surprised though, as it is the Cardinal’s 29^th consecutive win over Oregon State.

Oregon State was handed their second conference loss of the season, and they have already won more games than any other team in school history with their 25-3 record. The Beavers coach, Scott Rueck, mentioned that facing Stanford for the first time this season had a lot to do with the loss. “It was a perfect storm for them, Stanford played great”.

Brittany McPhee was the only scorer who showed up for Oregon State, as she finished on top of all scorers with 24 points.

The Cardinal finish up their regular season, with the finale in Eugene, as they take on the Ducks on Sunday.

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

By: Joe Lami

Going into halftime, the Stanford Cardinal were trailing the Cal Bears 32-23 in what looked like the start of another disappointing loss. However, the Cardinal were able to turn it around in the second half as they completely shut Cal down to earn the 59-47 victory. Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer commented on the second half, “Our second half was really special.”

Cal struggled during the second half and finished the night shooting 27%, going just 15 of 55. Cal head coach Lindsey Gottlieb commented, “You can’t win a lot of games shooting 15 for 55. There’s real no way around that. Stanford’s too good to not score for long stretches of time”.

The Bears were able to dominate most of the first half. After trailing 15-11, they were able to string together a 19-2 run, which included 15 straight, to storm ahead going into halftime.

The stars came out to play for the Cardinal, as Amber Orrange led Stanford with 19 points. Lili Thompson finished right behind her with 18. Britney McPhee was the next highest scorer with nine points.

Mercedes Jefflo led the Bears with 14 points, going 6 of 16 shooting. Gabby Green followed with ten points. Britney Boyd, who is highly regarded as one of the top players in the county and is actually a consideration for a top pick in the WNBA draft finished with only six points with multiple WNBA scouts in attendance.

It won’t take long for Cal to have their chance at revenge as the Cardinal host the Bears in the backend of rivalry week on Sunday.

by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–The 79-59 loss to the Utah Utes (19-4) Thursday in Utah was a game that the Stanford Cardinal (16-8) had on the schedule they knew that that game was going to be a struggle. Utah is 10th in the nation. There a top ten team and their a force come March come April. The Utes are going to be a three seed or a four seed.

Utah is a force, the thing that was evident following that game was they had the blue print to beat Stanford, they knew exactly what to do. The Utes eliminated Chasson Randle so he’s not going out for 20 points and they stopped him from scoring in the final six minutes of the game which is just crazy to think about.

Your talking about shutting down the guy who could very well be the Pac 12 player of the year. The Utes also got the Cardinal’s Stefan Nastic out of the game pretty early with foul trouble. When you force Stanford to their depths they’ll struggle a little bit they don’t have the scoring depth that Utah has or the scoring depth that Arizona or UCLA has.

The Cardinal don’t have that guy off the bench like other teams they don’t have a ASU player like Jordan Bachynski or a couple guys like that from UCLA that can come off the bench and put up ten or 12. So that was what was really going on in that game on Thursday was Utah they used the right strings to pull and they pulled it to beat the Cardinal and big too.

When you look at the Big Three for Stanford your looking at Randle, Nastic, and your looking at Anthony Brown. When you see what their total contribution was in that game you look at Randle’s ten points, Nastic’s seven, and Brown led the team with 15. Brown was the only one who was able to stay on the court and be productive with 15 points in that game.

It was Utah following the blue print getting Nastic out with with foul trouble and he’s prone to get into foul trouble. The Utes were contesting Randle and keeping him off the boards and keeping him from distributing the ball. Randle only had three assists and three turnovers and that is what the Utes applied high pressure on Randle in order for him to turn the ball over.

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

By: Ben Leonard

STANFORD, CA–

The USC Media Guide says right front and center that “Youth Will Be Served.” Eleven of the Trojans’ fourteen players are either freshman or sophomores, and they sure looked young when they were served 70-62 by a struggling Stanford squad, one that has lost its last two games, including one to lowly Washington State. As star guard Chasson Randle put it, the Cardinal has “faced some adversity in the past couple games” but Stanford had “to fight through it…no matter if the shots are falling” or not.

The Trojans were up six points at half time, and controlled most of the game, yet couldn’t handle the heat of the second half. USC lost another heartbreaker Sunday, just three days after loosing on a buzzer beater from Cal’s Tyrone Wallace. The Trojans dropped to 1-10 in Pac-12 play, while the Cardinal moved to 7-4 in-conference.

The Trojans’ ridiculous first half shooting was difficult for the Cardinal to overcome, at least for the first period. USC made an absurd 57.1% (8-14) of their three-point attempts in the half, clearly an aberration given they had shot a lowly 30.7% from long range coming into Sunday. This incredible effort, coupled with a poor shooting first half, put the Cardinal down 39-33 at half time.

Guards Jordan McLaughlin and Katin Reinhardt led the way in the period for the Trojans, each scoring 14 points in the period. Head coach Johnny Dawkins lauded both McLaughlin and Reinhardt, calling them a “terrific young players” that are “going to have really good Pac-12 careers.” The Cardinal simply could not match the precocious Reinhardt, McLaughlin, and the Trojans’ shooting prowess in the first half, making just 4 of their 14 attempts from long range in that time.

The Trojans clearly could not carry this same level of success into the second half, and dropped off significantly, getting outscored 37-23 in the second half. As Dawkins put it, his team made some adjustments, “clos[ing] out a little longer [and] mak[ing] sure they couldn’t catch and shoot it” in an effort to break up the Trojans’ “comfort level.” After making these adjustments of “press[ing] up a bit and go[ing] over ball screens,” his very defense was very “active, g[etting] a lot of deflections.”

Marcus Allen led the way for the Cardinal in the second half, scoring 6 of his 10 points in the period. As Randle put it, Allen was the “spark plug” that “did it for us (Stanford) on the boards and finishing at the rim.” Adding in his eleven rebounds, Allen picked up his first career double-double.

Allen is certainly not known for his rebounding ability, listed at just 6’3″ and 190 pounds. Even Allen said that he “didn’t know [he] had that many rebounds.” Allen’s surprise performance certainly buoyed the sinking Cardinal, as Randle put it,”getting the guys energized [and] hyped up” despite their recent struggles. As Dawkins put it, Allen has been “getting more comfortable in his role, finding out what he can accomplish out there…once he puts it all together, he has a chance to have a terrific career for us.”

Stanford finally took a 44-43 lead with 13:49 left in second half on Chasson Randle’s impressive drive-in layup, swinging the lead and momentum in the Cardinal’s favor. Randle was more impressed with “the win” than his 8-8 effort from the free-throw line, making up for a game that Dawkins called not “his best.” Randle did score 17 points for the Cardinal, but only had 4 of his 12 attempts from the field. Dawkins called it a “team win” in which “guys stepped up,” especially relishing seeing “Marcus [Allen] get a double double.”  Dawkins noted that the energy level was up from the UCLA game, in which the Cardinal “didn’t play with the level of intensity that I (Dawkins) like.”

The Trojans were down only four points going into the final minute of the game, but Randle certainly “kept fighting.”After a replay review that gave USC the ball, his steal on a poor, freshman mistake pass with just over a minute left and the Cardinal up 65-61 sealed the victory, allowing Stanford to run out the clock and take free throws. Anthony Brown was fouled by Elijah Stewart with 33.5 seconds to play on a three point attempt, knocking Stewart and the Trojans out of the game.

Notes: Dawkins reflected on the passing of longtime UNC head coach Dean Smith, who passed away late Saturday night. Smith won two national championships at UNC, and recruited Dawkins out of high school. According to Dawkins, Smith trul helped them (his players) become men…sometimes we lose the fact that we’re mentoring young men.” Smith was an “example of how it should be done” and will certainly “be missed.”

The Cardinal will travel to Salt-Lake City to take on the Utah Utes on Thursday. Randle noted that if the Cardinal keep up the same effort that “helped us (Stanford) win this game…we’ll be alright.” If the youthful Trojans tested the Cardinal, the #13 Utes will certainly be a major step up.