Category: Stanford Cardinal

Stanford Cardinal podcast and commentary: Dawkins will be watching non-conference schools to draw reference for Pac 12 play

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by Matt Harrington

STANFORD–The Stanford Cardinal (7-3) host the UAPB Golden Lions (3-10) on Monday night at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal are coming off an overtime win against the Texas Longhorns (10-2) 74-71 in an upset win that was played in Austin last Tuesday the Cardinal’s last game. A big performance by Chasson Randle who scored 22 points, Anthony Brown led Stanford with 25 points in that game. The win was the statement of this season so far to this point.

Arkansas is coming in Monday night with that 3-10 record and it’s one of those games that’s going to be hard to get out of bed for in a sense. Stanford had struggled a little bit with Denver which they won 49-43 earlier in the year they were trailing for most of the game in that one. They just beat Loyola Marymount (3-6) 67-58 who didn’t have as strong of a record as some of the Pac 12 teams their going to be playing. The one thing that head coach Johnny Dawkins always says as he lines up teams in the non conference schedule that play a similar style to other Pac 12 teams it will be interesting to see what kind of school Pine Bluff is going to be to a Pac 12 school.

Washington State (5-6) and Washington (11-0) are coming to Maples on the weekend of January 2nd and 3rd it will interesting to see how Stanford does for the start of Pac 12 conference action. Also it would be interesting to see what school that Dawkins uses as a model for Pac 12 play as they head into conference play especially against a team like the Huskies coming to open. The Huskies might have the same style as the Cougars in time for Stanford to get ready for Pac 12 play.

When you look around the Pac 12 right now Stanford and the bottom five and their records after non conference play which is a whole lot different when you see schools like Oregon State and Utah above them. It’s going to be a strong conference. It was really a case of BYU where it was frustration where the shots were falling in the last minute Randle hit a couple of threes to tie but Stanford lost it 79-77. The Cougars knew that game was winnable, Randle didn’t get to the line much and shot two out of three free throws in that game.

The Cardinal are a team that are going to live and die by the free throws, they work really hard on the free throw shooting when they go to practice and in warm ups. If your missing the free throws it is going to hurt you and that will be a key role in scoring points. Brown didn’t have a strong game against Texas, it was one of those things that their guards produce now. The game against Denver Randle has only nine points scored. The Cardinal struggled for most of the game and found a way to pull it out and get the victory.

Against BYU with Brown he struggled and they weren’t able to find the victory, the Texas game however Randle and Brown combined their 47 points that was the difference right there. You know the Cougars Tyler Haws is going to hit you with 15-20 points and he got 24 and maybe he would get ten on another night. So it’s about the production level from the guards, Randle was on that BYU game with the 24 points and it looked like Brown was struggling a little bit who finished with six points.

Listen to Matt’s analysis of Stanford below on his podcast. Matt Harrington covers Stanford basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NCAA Bowl games commentary & podcast: Way too many bowl games diluting the product

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by Michelle Richardson

Please let it be known if your team isn’t anything great your team probably had at around a .500 schedule and I’ll be honest I grew up in the 70s and we didn’t have this many games. So for the NCAA to play bowl games beyond Christmas you can be just an average team and you can get in somebody’s toilet bowl. It’s sad but I can appreciate that some of these kids get to play a little bit longer, but to me it really dilutes the product.

Your just playing to be playing these games why don’t you just play king of the mountain and throw it up in the air it’s really diminishing. It used to be about the Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl, Peach Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. Those were the bowl games that you had to be a part of. There were only about five of them and then after that that was it and now it’s like way too much. I do understand for the mid majors I do understand it.

Two weeks of this utter garbage football I must say the Central Michigan-West Kentucky game was a tough fought game as W.Kentucky got by 49-48 for the win. If it wasn’t for the two points West Kentucky would have lost that game on Wednesday. It was all Central Michigan in the fourth quarter of the game and they fell short at the final gun now that was a bowl game. West Kentucky was up by 40 points and then the game was tied up.

Were simply not getting the best product and it used to be when you were kids New Year’s eve and New Year’s day that’s what you did you sat and watch college football because these were nothing but the best games. That’s pretty much how it is now with a lot of extra games to watch before that if your that much more of a football junkie God bless you. Please watch and watch until your heart’s content, but there are fans who are getting disappointed in the utter commercialization of what it’s suppose to be.

NCAA and the conferences it’s kind of spinning to an end but yet you can’t pay the athletes, your getting off on a non-profit status because of everybody wants to make a buck. Please understand all these schools of the athletics department they fall under the university’s non-profit 501-3 status. They are non-profit, you have all these extra bowl games and in defense of those of you who have not been to a bowl game and you buy your tickets through Stub Hub the schools do not get any part of that money.

Schools are forced to buy a certain amount of tickets to feed a bowl game, a lot of times schools end up losing money because they want to be in the bowl game. Yes, that’s true they lose money in going to a bowl game, so they’re not all making money their losing money so why do we have so many bowl games if were actually losing money? I would gladly take that money and give it to the student athletes not to the football players and not just to the basketball players but all the student athletes.

Hear the rest of the podcast with Michelle by scrolling down and clicking below, Michelle Richardson does NCAA commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Stanford: Well-rounded with various interests heading into Foster Farms Bowl

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foster farms

By Morris Phillips

The Foster Farms Bowl is a meeting of also-ran 7-5 teams, but make no mistake, Stanford and Maryland, come from quite different places.

First off, Stanford is in its backyard, playing in Levi’s Stadium on Tuesday for the first time in the history of their program.  As the home of the Pac-12 Championship game for the foreseeable future, the Cardinal want to feel comfortable right away at the NFL facility that’s just 15 miles from campus.

Stanford’s prospects for a quick recovery from their first subpar season under David Shaw will be made clearer in the coming days, as quarterback Kevin Hogan and others will decide on returning to school for another season or declaring for the NFL draft.  Hogan is on schedule to graduate this spring, and could declare as he’s projected to be a late round draft pick, but he has another year of eligibility remaining.

Big wide receiver Devon Cajuste and All-American offensive tackle Andrus Peat are others considering leaving the Farm early.  Cornerback Wayne Lyons appeared to tip his hand by accepting an invitation to NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, a showcase for draftees.  But Coach David Shaw said Saturday that Lyons merely wanted to keep his options open and had not yet made a decision on declaring for the draft.

Not only has the NFL noticed Stanford, but so have the odds makers, who have the Cardinal 13-point favorites over Maryland, an Eastern seaboard transplant that took its lumps in an inaugural season in the Big Ten.  While Stanford lost five, each time to ranked teams, Maryland was blown out by new conference mates, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State.

Defensive back William Likely is about a clear cut an NFL prospect as the Terrapins have.  CBS Sports theorizes that Likely would have to score a fourth defensive touchdown this season just for Maryland to give Stanford a compelling game into the fourth quarter.

Stanford’s Ty Montgomery continues to hold out hope that he can be cleared to play in advance of Tuesday’s kickoff.  But the closest thing the Cardinal has to an offensive star hasn’t played since being injured in the Big Game against Cal a month ago.  Montgomery’s status is key: Stanford’s offense has been tepid all season and the 6’2” receiver gives them a legitimate big-play threat.  If Stanford can score some points, Maryland could be left pressed to beat the nation’s second stingiest defense.  Still, Shaw seemed resigned to having his team ready with or without Montgomery.

“I don’t have a feeling one way or another,” Shaw said. “It’s 50-50.  If he has a setback tomorrow, he can’t play.”

NCAA bowl games commentary: Utah State stops UTEP with third bowl game victory; TCU has edge over Ole Miss

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by Michelle Richardson

New Mexico Bowl Utah State 21 vs.UTEP 6: This was not one of those bowl games where you ask yourself “who are they?” when asking about the Utah State Aggies who beat UTEP 21-6 on Saturday. Aggies quarterback Kent Myers threw for five completions in 12 attempts for 68 yards and was picked off once. Myers ran for a 48 yard keeper in the first quarter for a touchdown and Nick Virgil carried for three yards in third quarter to help the Aggies on offense.

Utah State had a better ground game than their air attack. UTEP went in to visit Utah St with a record of 7-1 now 7-2 and this is the third straight year that UTEP has gone to a bowl game but for Utah State this is the third straight year they’ve gone to a bowl game and won it. The last time UTEP won a bowl game was in 1967 in the Sun Bowl. Utah St definitely had a good program and they definitely had some good players. The Miners were just outplayed in this game on Saturday and were outmanned by Utah St who won 21-6 with only scoring a field goal in the first and the fourth quarter.

TCU (11-1) faces the Ole Miss Rebels (9-3) on New Years Eve Chick-Fil-A-Bowl: First of all TCU head coach Gary Patterson is a very much deserved winner of the Walter Camp coach of the year award. Nobody expected TCU to play the way they did this season and I’m here to tell you that TCU was robbed. The Horned Frogs were robbed and they were dropped from this first round of the playoffs. You don’t drop from being number three all the way down to number six.

You shouldn’t be taking it out against TUC because their conference doesn’t have a conference championship game. That has nothing to do with their play on the field. The Frogs got robbed and Ohio State and I understand there’s a lot of Buckeye fans out there and love the Buckeyes but I’m sorry they don’t belong in the Final Four. Also TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin was a Heisman Trophy winner or strong candidate as well.

This is Boykin’s junior year and this is his audition for an NFL combine and he’s basically auditioning for next year and will be the top Heisman candidate. I expect TCU to play Mississippi State very tough. Ole Miss doesn’t have all of us necessarily fooled but everybody watching them at the beginning of the year because they were setting the ACC on fire and they were just running the table.

The Bowl games are the most exciting part of the season: In football you have week 17 coming up in the NFL and the college bowl games. I’ll be honest with you there are still too many bowl games, I’m sorry but I’m tired of seeing these watered down bowl games. I liked the old school when you had about five bowl games and they all meant something. I get it that you want everybody from every conference but it’s just too saturated.

I’m sorry no more bowl games, do not add anymore bowl games because you got a stadium in your backyard. This is a very exciting time to be a football fan and the NCAA is going into the bowl games. Sit back and relax, quit listening to the pundits, quit listening to espn analyst Mel Kiper quit listening to everybody and sit back and enjoy the game. Enjoy the effort put out by these young men.

Michelle Richardson does commentary on the NCAA each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NCAA commentary: Ducks Moriota gets Heisman shoots for Rose Bowl, Navy coach sets win record; Notre Dame women wear “I can’t breath” shirts

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by Michelle Richardson

Mariota’s next goal to win the Rose Bowl: Congratulations to Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota for picking up the Heisman Trophy this past weekend. He was the landslide winner this is well deserved he’s played hard. He would have got the Heisman last season but he got hurt. Moriota got the award for the best player in college football, they did a good job in giving him the publicity.

Moriota got justice because of the whole west coast bias thing he got elected for the award and he did a great job and he’ll represent really well. He has a shot to win the Rose Bowl if you look at Florida State and Oregon their pretty even. The ACC and the Pac 12 aren’t seen being very different as far as competition they’re pretty even as far as a level of competition.

The Pac 12 was not strong the stronger teams besides Oregon was Arizona and UCLA, when you look at the ACC FSU, North Carolina, Duke, Georgia Tech, and Navy are strong teams. So really out of the whole conference three teams in general were kind of strong neither came out of a very strong conference. FSU barely won some of the games, yeah but they won, that’s the bottom line they managed to make something out of nothing.

Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo sets record for most wins: The game between Navy and Army is the Super Bowl for these two teams for all of these players who all go and serve their country after they graduate. Very few will come after their service and play in the NFL. So this is really their big game which Navy won 17-10 to hand Navy head coach Ken Miumatalolo the lead for most wins by a Navy coach at 56-35. Miumatalolo passes former Navy head coach George Welsh who held the record.

The game started off with a block punt and a defensive touchdown this game was what it was suppose to be those young men took all of everything from it. For Navy in passing quarterback Keenan Reynolds went six for eight passing for 77 yards, was sacked once but threw for a touchdown. Army’s quarterback A.J. Schurr no Christmas for him in this game, he didn’t do as well going 1-3 for 20 yards was sacked twice and no touchdowns.

Reynolds also had 26 carries for 100 yards where he ran one in for a touchdown, Navy running back Chris Swain had nine carries for 47 yards. With Army you had running back Larry Dixon carrying 14 times for 90 yards but he didn’t score either. For Navy Jamir Tillman caught two passes for 48 yards and one touchdown and for Navy Dixon went one for 20 for no touchdowns.

Notre Dame women wear “I can’t breath” shirts during warm ups: I was really surprised that Notre Dame came out and wore the “I can’t breath” T-shirts to honor the late Eric Garner the New York resident who was choked to death by New York City policeman Daniel Pantaleo. The first college team to wear the t-shirts were the Georgetown men who did it earlier this week. I can understand Georgetown because it’s in Washington D.C. very close to New York City where those players are coming from.

I can fully understand why Notre Dame and Georgetown did it, Georgetown has a legacy from their former coach John Thompson who walked off the court to protest Prop 49. I was very proud of what Notre Dame did and I just am surprised that the Notre Dame women did that. The young ladies went to coach Muffet McGraw and talked to her about wearing the shirts in pre game warm ups and they got the okay.

McGraw has players that are from those areas and she is very close to being from Ferguson Missouri being from Lafayette Indiana. This resonated with all of her players I want to applaud the women at Notre Dame for taking that stand and it kept growing and growing. The fact that the collegiates really let you know the magnitude of this movement.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Brown Leads Charge in Cardinal Comeback Over Denver

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By Matthew T.F. Harrington

STANFORD, Calif. – Despite trailing the opponent for most of the game, the Stanford Cardinal topped the visiting Denver Pioneers 49-43 at Maples Pavilion. Starting the game on the bench after showing up late to a morning practice courtesy of a wrongly set alarm clock, guard Anthony Brown had a game-high 17 points for the Cardinal while tying for the team-lead in rebounds with 6.

“Anthony’s been a terrific player for me throughout his career,” said Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins. “Let me go on record as saying, he’s a fifth-year senior, and that’s the first time he’s been late for anything. It was very difficult for me as a coach, because we have policies in place but he’s never been late to anything before.”

“I think he was trying to make up for that,” added Dawkins when asked if Brown’s play was a result of trying to rectify his late arrival. “But he’s also a winner. He realized we needed it. Anthony’s always had the ability to step up in those moments when things may not be going as well for us.”

On a poor shooting night for both sides, the Cardinal hit just 14 of 44 field goal attempts, but limited the Pioneers (4-5) to 17 of 43 for the victory in Stanford’s first game since November 30th.

“The timing was off, the rhythm,” said Brown. “That’s something you can’t really simulate in practice. That’s more of a game situation.

The Cardinal (5-2) has now won the first game back from the winter break for finals in eight consecutive seasons.

“We were a little rusty,” said Brown. “We haven’t played in two weeks. We have the longest break in the country. That contributed. Denver’s also a good team. They have shooters. Any time you have shooters you have a chance to win.”

The Pioneers’ Princeton offense and perimeter shooting dominated the game early, with the Summit League side connecting on three of their first four shots (all three-pointers) to take a 13-2 5:44 into play. The Cardinal struggled to find its shooting touch going just 1 for 6 over the same span.

Stanford’s defense turned the tables on its Rocky Mountain rivals, limiting the Pioneers to just one field goal over the next nine-plus minutes. Stymying the visitors, the Cardinal cobbled together a 13-2 run, capped by an Anthony Brown three-pointer to tie the game 15-all with 6:25 left in the half.

Brown’s trey marked the last Cardinal field goal before the break. Rosco Allen hit a pair of free throws, the only two trips to line for either side in the entire first half, but Denver outscored the hosts 10-2 for a 25-17 lead at the mid-way point.

“Possessions are of a premium,” said Dawkins. “Being down by 11 to them is like being down by 20 versus most teams because they’re not going to come down and quick-shoot it and have a lot of possessions in the game. You really have to focus in.”

Stanford star guard and potential Pac-12 Player of the Year Chasson Randle went bucket-less over the first half, going 0 for 5 from the floor. One game after scoring a combined 69 points, Stanford’s starting five collected only seven with Stanford hitting 6 of 17 first half shots. Brown topped the Cardinal with six points off the bench in the first.

“I give them credit,” Dawkins said of the Pioneer defense. “They did some things well defensively that caused us to shoot a low field goal percentage than we would have liked. Some of it was also rust. When you don’t play for two straight weeks, there’s no way you can simulate that in practice.”

The Cardinal slowly chipped away at nine-point deficit, outscoring Denver 15-9 to pull within one point with just under nine minutes to play. Stanford took its first lead of the day after guard Robert Cartwright drained a three with 8:05 left to play. Brown then stole the ball on Denver’s next offensive possession, going end-to-end to convert the lay-up through a Nate Engesser foul for a 36-33 edge.

The scoreboard again tilted in the Pioneers favor after Jalen Love and Marcus Byrd hit back-to-back three’s before Stefan Nastic’s basket put Stanford within two at 39-37.

When the Cardinal needed him most, Randle delivered. The senior hit a floater through a Bryant Rucker foul, then converted on the three-point play to put Stanford up 40-39 with three and a half minutes to go.

“Chasson didn’t have his best stuff offensively tonight,” said Dawkins. “But he still ran our team. As a point guard you’re judge on winning, and we still won.”

Randle then hit another two free throws for a three-point lead with 150 ticks of the clock left.

“Coming down the stretch, he closed the game out hitting all the free throws we needed him to make. A lot of times, a player will get into that situation where things aren’t going well for him from the field and that snowballs into his entire game. I don’t think he allowed that. He showed a lot of maturity out there.”

In total, Stanford went to the charity stripe 12 times in the second half, making 7 from the line.

Stanford continued its scoring run with Nastic hitting a jumper for the Cardinal’s eight-straight point before Denver’s Brett Olson hit a jump-shot to pull the pioneers within four at 45-41 with just over a minute and a half to play. Denver hit just one more basket while sending the Cardinal to the line four times. The Cardinal converted on all four shots for the final 49-43 margin of victory.

The Cardinal won’t have to wait long for its next contest. Stanford looks to continue to emerge from its two week sabbatical by turning in a strong performance at home Wednesday night when Southern California foe Loyola Marymount University comes to the Silicon Valley for another non-conference affair.

NCAA Playoffs commentary: Baylor coach says their the true champs; Bowl rankings; Boise State underrated team

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by Michelle Richardson

Baylor and TCU share co-champion honors: Big 12 Commissioner and former Stanford Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby awarded TCU and Baylor Universities with co-champion awards as each team ended up with similar records at 11-1 and 8-1 in the Big 12 and Baylor head coach Artie Briles was arguing with Bowlsby at the end of the game that Baylor should be the Big 12 champs not TCU simply because Baylor beat TCU during the season for TCU’s only loss.

Matter of fact TCU’s head coach Gary Patterson has more reason to be upset than Briles, TCU was number three in the bowl rankings. How do you drop from three to six? How do you go from the defending national champions, then go undefeated and become number three? That doesn’t make any sense for me.

Because #3 FSU was undefeated, it doesn’t bother me if you get it by one point or a half a point Florida State won. FSU won and FSU should be in front of Alabama #1 and Oregon #2, they didn’t volunteer for this type of schedule and FSU remained undefeated in the regular season. FSU went undefeated (13-0) in two seasons and if you want to know how difficult that is in college football it’s very, very, difficult.

CFP rankings #1.Alabama, #2.Oregon, #3.FSU, and #4.OSU: Games and teams that are selected are done partly because of politics but also TV plays a big role in these selections. You have the big day coming up New Year’s day for the bowl games, you have Ohio State, Alabama, and you know how football crazy they are.

You have the ACC, the two coasts the South Atlantic, you also have a incumbent Heisman Trophy winner and the next Heisman Trophy winner. You got two former SCC former coaches in Urban Myer the head coach at Ohio and Alabama head coach Nick Saben in this first playoff game ever. This is exciting and better than the old bowl format and this is all about television ratings.

TCU is a better team but they aren’t a second showing, this one thing about TCU every year they get rejected for the bigger bowls but eventually will get the national attention that will make them stronger. Paterson is going to come back next year and TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin who has one more year left. Honestly Boykin is up for the Heisman Trophy.

Boise State (11-2)28 vs. Fresno State (6-6) 14: I can’t wait for the bowl selections and Boise State they went 11-2 and they’re 11-1 in the Mountain West. The Broncos are doing what their suppose to do, their only loss was to Ole Miss and Air Force. That’s not bad, that’s not a bad season they beat everybody else pretty handedly.

Boise State needs to jump up and play with the real big boys in the power five conferences. People were upset because they didn’t face anyone in the Pac 12 this season although they have Arizona in their last game on Wed Dec 31. Let me explain to you the Broncos would never get an invite to be in the Pac 12. To be a member of the Pac 12 conference you must be a research one institution.

That means your school must hold an academic level to do top level research and at Boise State that’s not what they do. The Broncos are not a research one institution. So they are never ever going to get an invitation to the Pac 12. The Broncos do what they do and they do it well, they ran the Mountain West Conference overall for the year and they were 26th overall in passing yards and the Broncos had a very successful season.

Michelle Richardson does NCCA commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Stanford Commentary: After nearly 15 days off Stanford men are looking forward to going back to work

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by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–It’s been since November 30th when the Stanford Cardinal faced DePaul and took a 87-72 shellacking, the Cardinal are up for their next game almost after a half month layoff as they face off against Denver at Stanford on Sat Dec 13th. This kind of rest is a good thing and a bad thing having that kind of rest.

Just based on the way that the Stanford roster is currently built they had former players Josh Huestis who is in the NBA Development League with the Oklahoma City Blue and Dwight Powell who is currently with the Boston Celtics. The Cardinal are looking for new fresh talent, in particular Reid Travis has been in the starting five the whole season.

There trying to get these freshman acclimated to Pac 12 play and their looking at a guy like Roscoe Allen who was hurt and is averaging (9.5 ppg) this season but missed the entire season last year and mixed the Sweet 16. He’s trying to get acclimated to NCAA basketball. It’s a gift and curse the team got a little bit of rest, probably the team would like to have it later in the season not early when your trying to get your rhythm.

Basketball is a touch sport if the shots are not going in the only way to get better at it is to start working on them and head to the gym and get that game situation and unfortunately the Cardinal haven’t had that kind of an opportunity to get into the championship and get into that game competition.

The good news is they really loaded up their pre season schedule early and they’ve been all over the place and they’ve played some big teams. They played Duke and they have got their first win and their first loss of the season. This is something they want to get out of the way early plus you want your season on track.

This is the time of the year when it’s student first and athlete second this is the time of the year where there is a lot going on with school. The students are working on finals for the semester. At Stanford it’s not exactly the easiest school to get through, so it’s nice for the team to get a little rest focus and hit the books and get ready again in just seven more days.

Matt Harrington covers Stanford basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NCAA Commentary: Bo knows the door Nebraska fires coach; Cal misses the bowl; Top ranked women’s hoop polls

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by Michelle Richardson

Pelini shown the door at Nebraska: To be honest I’m torn by the decision that Cornhuskers Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst’s made to fire head coach Bo Pelini who had brought back success. Pelini leaves Nebraska with a record of 9-3 (5-3 in the Big 10). This is the most success they’ve had since former head coach Tom Osborne left.

I also understand why too Pelini was really never a good fit even though he was a good coach, he’s one of those Youngstown boys he’s an Ohio guy. He was good but Nebraska just didn’t fit well with him. The players are not generally happy about this. Don’t think Pelini won’t get another job.
It was time for the Cornhuskers to go another direction but Pelini didn’t do a horrible job.

Pelini kept the Cornhuskers relevant there’s something more going on that’s not being talked about internally in Nebraska. This is kind of leading to their struggle, Pelini always had the team in the hunt and they have always been competitive under him. I honestly wish him luck and there will be a lot teams wanting to interview him.

BYU (8-4) 42 vs. Cal (5-7) 35 no bowl for Cal: The blame for this loss lays at the feet of Cal and going cheap in looking for a head coach. You want to be in the big time but you don’t want to spend the money on a big time coach. Cal head coach Sonny Dykes did a great job at Louisiana Tech but he was not ready to come to Berkeley or the Pac 12.

Dykes definitely wasn’t ready for the Pac 12, Cal is just a laughing stock of the Pac 12. They really are and Dykes is not the right fit. Basically when he was hired he was another guy who not ready to make that jump. Cal needs to decide if they want to be competitive or not and I can understand if you have student athletes who have bad academics blah, blah, blah.

The school is trying to become competitive, the Pac 12 is trying to become part of the Big Five. Cal is going to have to spend the money to get the right coach. If I were running Cal I would be looking to hire a coach who is coming from an NFL system and what I mean by an NFL system I mean coming from the NFL. Simply put Dykes is not a good fit for Cal football and now the team is going to miss their second straight bowl game opportunity.

Women’s top rated basketball teams: The AP Poll has rated South Carolina as the top women’s team in the country and the USA Today poll has rated Notre Dame as the number one rated women’s team for this week. I’ll be honest with you South Carolina should be number one in the USA Today poll too. This is a team to beat do not drink the Kool Aid on UConn.

South Carolina and head coach Dawn Staley their time has come and So Carolina is the team to beat but that’s why they play the game. All I know is everything I see from South Carolina Staley has molded this team and she is getting the best and the brightest. She has got the number one blue chipper in the country who is also a native of South Carolina.

The AP top ten is South Carolina, Notre Dame, UConn, Tennessee, Stanford, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Duke, Kentucky and Maryland. Maryland just got knocked off this week they might not be in the top ten for long but maybe this is why their in the top ten right now. Just note that this is going to be a great season for the Gamecocks women. Their definitely going to earn their stripes.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Cardinal ruin Bruins’ season again, play spoiler in Pac-12 South race

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Friday, November 28, 2014

Stanford went to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, Friday looking to have some fun and have a say in who represents the Pac-12 South in the upcoming conference football championship game.

And you can’t blame Stanford if they feel right at home in the Rose Bowl, since Friday marked their fourth visit to the famed stadium in the last three years.

While the Cardinal’s chances for a third consecutive conference title were dashed some time ago, Stanford closed out its regular season playing like champs while hammering No. 9 UCLA 31-10.

The Cardinal win helped Arizona slip in and take the Pac-12 South crown, after the Wildcats upended Arizona State 42-35.

Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan had a fine day, completing 16 of 19 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns while running for two more scores.

Devon Cajuste and Michael Rector were on the receiving end of Hogan’s scoring strikes for Stanford (7-5 overall, 5-4 Pac-12), as the Cardinal came up with their seventh consecutive defeat of UCLA (9-3 overall, 6-3 Pac-12).

While Hogan enjoyed one of his best days of the season, his counterpart, Bruins quarterback Brett Hundley didn’t fare quite so well. Hundley threw for 146 yards — the third worst passing game of his 39 career starts — and left the game with an injured throwing hand.

Playing without the services of injured wide receiver Ty Montgomery (shoulder), Hogan still completed his first 12 passes. In the final minute of the first half, Hogan put his agility to good use, escaping the Bruin pass rush and tossing a 37-yard touchdown pass to Cajuste with 40 seconds left in the second quarter.

That drive capped a remarkable first half for the Stanford signal caller, who was 14 of 15 for 189 yards and two touchdowns in the first two quarters.

Stanford outgained the Bruins 436 yards to 262 and had the ball for 38 of the 60 minutes.

UCLA Coach Jim Mora has yet to defeat Stanford or Oregon in his first three seasons at the helm.

Now, the Cardinal will wait a few days and see what bowl game they land in, and who they’ll face. Same for UCLA, which thought it was headed to the Pac-12 title game and a possible College Football Playoff berth and will participate in neither.