Category: Stanford Cardinal

by Daniel Dullum

The players don’t have to be reminded here that they don’t have a good stretch run and a good Pac 12 Tournament there’s no big dance it’s that simple. Like a lot of games Micheal Humphrey has had he’s had the hot hand he had a big 24 point night against UCLA on Saturday night. Humphrey also had a big night against Washington State on the road when he scored 26 points.

Stanford took care of UCLA on Saturday night and the Bruins are a usually tough hoe to game against and I quote UCLA head coach Steve Alford  saying Humphrey in that game “was a beast” and he said that the Bruins just couldn’t keep up with Humphrey in front and that’s terms coaches in the NCAA don’t use to describe an opposing player. That was a huge factor in that win and Humphrey finished up with 24 points against the Bruins.

Daniel does the NCAA basketball podcast for http://www.sportsradioservice.com join him for the latest below

 

By Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard

AP photo: Stanford’s Rosco Allen (25) is defended by UCLA guard Aaron Holiday at Maples Pavilion on Saturday night

STANFORD, Calif —

When Michael Humphrey is on, there’s nothing stopping him (except for the free-throw line!). For the lanky sophomore forward, Saturday was one of those days — and UCLA (15-14, 6-10) paid the price. Humphrey only missed two shots while scoring 24 points, helping the suddenly scorching Stanford Cardinal (15-12, 8-8) knock off the Bruins 79-70 in their final regular season home game. Rosco Allen also chipped in with 19 points and 9 rebounds to help carry Stanford to the victory.

Humphrey made 12 of his 14 field goal attempts in all kinds of traffic, but somehow missed all four of his free throw attempts. He didn’t even know why his hot shooting didn’t translate to the free throw line: “I don’t know why. I’ve been working on my free throw shot a lot. Pregame, I shot some free throws to try to get it right and it was working, so my shot felt right once I got to the line, but then it was all over the place….I’ll probably be in here with coach shooting a few hundred of them.”

Despite his struggles at the line, Humphrey exploited the Bruins down low, pulling down nine rebounds while helping the Cardinal outscore UCLA in the paint 32-18.

One of those moves in the paint helped put the game on ice for Stanford, giving them a 75-64 lead with 1:47 to play. Surrounded by a sea of three UCLA defenders with the shot clock about to expire, Humphrey went to his right and jumped off his left foot and nailed the off-balance jumper, whipping Maples Pavillion into a frenzy.

Humphrey said he had good touch on that shot today because he worked on a similar shot with assistant coach Tim O’Toole before the game on Saturday. The shot was part of a ridiculous second half for the Cardinal, in which employed stellar ball movement to shot 70.8% from the field to help close out the win.

Humphrey, a Phoenix native, had been playing like Jekyll and Hyde this season, with three games of 20+ points but also five scoring under five. His head coach, Johnny Dawkins, seemed excited about Humphrey’s future: “We’re just starting to see what he can become. Right now, when a player [like Humphrey] is still developing, these moments come every now and then. When he becomes the player we envision him becoming, you’ll see them on a more consistent basis.”

Despite the Cardinal’s best efforts, the lowly Bruins put up a good fight, only down 34-33 at halftime. Guards Isaac Hamilton and Bryce Alford, UCLA’s two best scorers, combined to score 23 points on 5 of 8 shooting from behind the arc, helping UCLA stay competitive. Dawkins had gameplanned heavily around stopping the duo, but he gave them credit for their creativity in finding a way to score. Without that hot shooting in the second half, the Cardinal would likely have found themselves squarely in the loss column.

The Cardinal is clicking at just the right time, winning its fourth game in five tries right at the end of the regular season, picking up its first home sweep of the year. Stanford will travel to Arizona play two more conference games before the Pac-12 tournament starts, and Humphrey believes the Cardinal are well prepared for the task ahead: “Everyone is really understanding their role in the offense, and it’s so great to play at home. I thought we had a really great crowd this weekend.”

 

 

By Matthew T.F. Harrington

AP photo: Stanford’s Dorian Pickens who scored a team leading 25 points goes for the bucket against USC on Thursday night at Maples Pavilion

STANFORD, Calif. – The Cardinal needed a win over visiting USC Thursday night to avoid slipping further towards the also-rans in the Pac-12 standings. Stanford received that win in emphatic fashion, running away with an 84-64 decision over the Trojans at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal have now won 4 of its last 5 contests.

Dorian Pickens was the star of the night, leading the Cardinal (14-12, 7-8 Pac-12) with 25 points on 8-for-10 shooting coming off the bench, hitting 5 three-pointers. The sophomore guard nearly missed out on a career high in points….after just one half Thursday. Pickens had 22 points, two off his career best, over the first 20 minutes.

“It’s nice to see a young player score 20 points in half,” said Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins. “He really had it going.”

The super-sub led the charge that turned a seesaw contest into a commanding lead by the intermission.

“He’s done a good job coming in to games,” said Dawkins. “We saw him do this when he starts too. It’s a natural maturation process for him.

“It makes no difference to me,” said Pickens on the difference between coming off the bench and starting, something he has done often this season. “The only thing is I’m on the court when the ball’s tipped off. Whenever I do come into the game I have the same mindset, be aggressive, shoot my shots.”

Pickens cracked his previous game-best 24 points against Texas earlier in the year by scoring 3 points in the 2^nd half.

“What I liked about him most was he took one shot in the second half,” said Dawkins. “As well as he was playing, he was still getting his teammates involved. He never forced his shots. That’s the sign of a mature player, a guy who understands the game.”

Neither team looked particularly sharp over the opening 5 minutes, going a combined 3 for 13 from the field for a Stanford lead at just 5-3. The two teams would trade leads 4 times over the next 4 minutes, finding Stanford ahead 18-16 with 11 minutes in regulation.

The Cardinal scored the next 8 points unanswered to lead by 10 and held USC to only 9 points over the final 10 minutes while scoring a blistering 17 points of their own to lead 43. Stanford held USC (19-9, 8-7) to 7 for 27 shooting (25.9%) over the first half to lead 43-25.

While the Trojans improved from the field in the 2^nd half, the Cardinal did as well. USC hit 16 of 27 shots while the Cardinal drained 14 buckets to maintain the grip on its lead. The hosts never saw their lead dip below 18.

“Defense was everything in the second half,” said Marcus Allen after his team allowed a season-low in points for USC.

Marcus Allen scored 15 for Stanford.  Rosco Allen struggled in the first half going pointless but 4 for 6 from the field and 7 for 8 from the free throw line in the 2^nd for 17 points. He missed most of the first half after falling into foul trouble early.

“I didn’t expect Rosco to sit out most of the first half,” said Dawkins with a laugh. “That was difficult. But I was proud of Rosco. When he did play in the second half he was very productive. For a young player to play 3,4,5 minutes in the first half and score 0, come back and score 17 in the second half says a lot about where his game is at.”

“It’s a next man up type of thing,” said Marcus Allen on Rosco’s absence. “He had two fouls which put him in a tough spot. Guys like myself, (Dorian) everyone stepped up. We came together and split our game.”

After toppling USC to pull within a win of 5^th place in the conference standings, the Cardinal now get the chance to distance themselves from 10^th place UCLA Saturday night. The Cardinal welcome the Bruins to Maples one win ahead of its SoCal foe in the playoff picture with 3 games left to play. Saturday’s match-up marks the final home game for Stanford before wrapping up conference play with a pair on the road then heading to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 tournament.

“We’re taking it one game at a time,” said Dawkins. “All we’re focused on now is our next opponent. But we want to have a winning record in conference.”

On the Stanford Cardinal basketball podcast Jerry and Morris Phillips go over where the Cardinal stand as they get ready to play host to USC on Thursday night and UCLA on Saturday night. The Cardinal after winning two straight dropped a rough game to the Washington Huskies last Saturday 64-53.

The Huskies DeJounte Murray led Washington with 25 points and the Cardinal had a hard time containing Murray. Rosco Allen led all Stanford scoring and is always dependable from the field but he and the Cardinal needed help from falling short in their second half of the game. Which team will show up on Thursday night the Cardinal are put the test as they return home for a two game homestand with USC and UCLA.

Jerry Feitelberg cover the Cardinal and Morris Phillips is the beat writer for the Cal Bears right here on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

AP photo: Washington’s forward Marquese Chriss (0) drives around Stanford’s Michael Humphrey and Rosco Allen center in Saturday’s game in Seattle

 

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, February 20, 2016

AP photos: The Washington Huskies Dejounte Murray (5) drives against the Stanford Cardinals Rosco Allen (25) center and Marcus Allen (3) right  Saturday night in Seattle, Murray led the Huskies in scoring with 25 points

Washington snapped a four-game losing streak at the expense of Stanford Saturday, as the Huskies defeated the visiting Cardinal 64-53 in Pac-12 men’s basketball at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

With the victory, the Huskies (16-11 overall, 8-7 Pac-12) kept their slim NCAA tournament hopes alive.

Dejounte Murray paced Washington with 25 points, followed by Marquese Chriss with 11 and Malik Dime with 10. Andrew Adams, the Pac-12’s leading scorer at 20.4 points per game, finished with eight points – all of them at the free throw line.

Defensively, Stanford did what it wanted to do, holding the Huskies’ top perimeter shooters – Andrews, David Crisp and Dominic Green to 0-for-18 field goal shooting.

Rosco Allen led the Cardinal (13-12, 6-8) with 20 points, but no other Stanford player reached double-figures. Michael Humphrey led Stanford with 10 boards.

Though the Huskies failed to score during a five-minute stretch early in the second half, Stanford was unable to capitalize. Matisse Thybulle’s three-point play with 13:41 remaining snapped the Washington drought and ignited an eight-point run that gave the Huskies a 40-35 lead at the 11:58 mark.

After the Cardinal pulled to within 40-39, Allen missed a layup that could have provided Stanford with the lead. Washington responded with another three-point play by Thybulle, a lob dunk by Dime and a driving layup by Murry, giving the Huskies a 49-41 lead – their largest of the contest.

The Cardinal pulled within four points twice, but could get no closer, as Washington built a 15-point lead in the closing minutes.

Stanford returns home to Maples Pavilion on Thursday to host Southern California. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m.

AP photo: Stanford’s Michael Humphrey goes for the dunk against WSU in Thursday night’s win 72-56

On the Stanford Cardinal basketball podcast with Matt Harrington the Stanford Cardinal (13-11) got  their second straight victory and the Cardinal’s Michael Humphrey had a career night last Thursday against the Washington State Cougars (1-13) with 26 points. The Cougars didn’t have a chance getting crushed on their home floor and the Cardinal got a key road victory.

You could only imagine if WSU didn’t have their leading scorer how much more the gap would have been on the final scoreboard. WSU’s John Hawkinson led the Cougars with 17 points for Thursday night. The Cougars took a 11-2 run to start the second half. The Cardinal pushed away and had 45 percent from the field and the Cougars finished with 44 percent but the real turn around was turnovers as the Cardinal took advantage of the Cougars capitalizing on 12 turnovers.

Matt Harrington does the Stanford Cardinal podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Michael Humphrey poured in 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Stanford Thursday, leading the Cardinal to a 72-56 Pac-12 men’s basketball victory over Washington State at Friel Court in Pullman, Wash.
Humphrey’s 26 points represented a career-high as he sank 10 of 15 field goal attempts. Rosco Allen added 14 points and nine rebounds, and Dorian Pickens scored 14 points for the Cardinal (13-11 overall, 6-7 Pac-12).
Josh Hawkinson led the Cougars (9-17, 1-13) with 17 points and 12 boards in Washington State’s 12th consecutive loss. Que Johnson added 14 points for WSU.
Stanford took a 35-24 lead at halftime, buoyed by 5 of 11 shooting from behind the 3-point arc. The Cougars, meanwhile, shot 31 percent from the field. Despite an 11-2 run to open the second half, the Cardinal soon reasserted themselves and pulled away.
While Stanford shot 45 percent (25 of 55) from the field, the Cougars were 20 of 45 (44 percent) and committed 12 turnovers.
The Cardinal continue their Northwest road trip Saturday when they visit Washington.

AP photo: WSU’s Connor Clifford shoots against Stanford Rosco Allen (25) during Thursday night’s game at Pullman

Listen to Daniel Dullum on the NCAA basketball podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

On the Stanford Cardinal basketball podcast the Cardinal 11-11 got some relief on Saturday with a 76-72 win over Oregon last Saturday after coming off a four game loss streak. The Cardinal who lost four straight to Colorado, Utah, Cal and at home to the Oregon State Beavers wanted badly to get back in the win column at home at Maple Pavilion.

The Cardinal got the relief they were looking for with a 76-72 win from an Oregon Ducks team that came into Maples after losing a 13 point thrashing to the Cal Bears the previous Thursday. The Cardinal controlled most of the game and had three players in double figures Rosco Allen (25), Dorian Pickens (16), and Grant Verhoeven (13).

The Cardinal get ready for a two game roadie and for head coach Johnny Dawkins whose job status is in the rumor mill needs these two wins at WSU on Thursday and in Washington on Saturday. Dawkins pulled off the impossible on Saturday with a win over Oregon and he has to do it again against the Courgars and Huskies.

AP photo of Stanford’s Michael Humphrey grabbing the ball away from Oregon’s Elgin Cook as Humphrey is congratulated by teammate Grant Verhoeven

Jerry Feitelberg does the Cardinal podcasts each week at http://www.sporstsradioservice.com click below for the podcast.