Category: Uncategorized

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Wednesday, February 26, 2014

TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona State used its mastery of the 3-point shot to near perfection Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena, as the Sun Devils earned a much-needed 76-64 Pac-12 men’s basketball win over Stanford.

Stanford never led in the game. It was Arizona State’s second wire-to-wire victory of the season, the other coming over DePaul on Dec. 6.

Jahii Carson led all scorers with 26 points, hitting 8 of 11 from the floor – including 2 of 3 3-pointers. Jermaine Marshall added 16 points, while Shaquielle McKissic added 10. McKissic and Carson each had four assists for ASU.

Addressing the media afterwards, Arizona State Coach Herb Sendeck laughed when the phrase “must win” was uttered.

“You guys are always the ones who tell me it’s a must win,” Sendeck said. “It will be midnight in about 30 minutes, and then we can talk about another must win (Saturday afternoon against California).”

The 9 p.m. MST tipoff time to accommodate ESPNU did little to help Stanford overcome a sluggish start. The Sun Devils (20-8 overall, 9-6 Pac-12) opened the game with an 8-0 run on 3-pointers by Shaquielle McKissic and Jahii Carlson, followed by an Eric Jacobsen layup, prompting Stanford (18-9, 9-6) to burn a timeout at 18:37 of the first half.

Arizona State hit 7 of 11 from behind the 3-point arc in the first half, and 10 of 19 on the night, including two each from Carson, Marshall, Bo Barnes and Jonathan Gilling.

“That’s what they do,” Cardinal Coach Johnny Dawkins said. “They’re a very good 3-point shooting team. They didn’t shoot it that well on the road, but they’re back home and feel better, they’re confident, and they shot the 3 well.

“It was definitely a bad start for us, but give Arizona State credit for playing a real good game,” Dawkins added. “I wish we could have played a better one ourselves. We didn’t value the basketball and turned it over too many times.”

Though the Cardinal would occasionally claw back, they sabotaged themselves by committing 10 turnovers in the first half, 15 total.

“We wanted to come in and limit their shooters, and I think everyone in their starting five except the two bigs shot 3’s,” Stanford guard Anthony Brown, who led the Cardinal with 21 points, said. “You’re not going to win when everybody is shooting 3’s.”

”We had a rough start with all those turnovers in the first half, which is not the recipe for winning,” Brown said. “Our defense wasn’t there tonight and that carried over to our offense with those turnovers. And (ASU) played much harder than we did in the first 20 minutes.

“We finally picked it up, but by that time it was too late.”

Dwight Powell sank a pair of free throws midway through the first half, cutting the Cardinal deficit to 14-10. But that was as close as Stanford would get, as the Sun Devils used 3-pointers from Marshall, Gilling and Caleen Robinson to spark a 25-14 run over the closing minutes of the first half.

“When you’re in a game like that and (ASU) is hitting on all cylinders, you have to hit your free throws and you have to finish and take care of the basketball,” Dawkins said. “I don’t think we did well in any of those categories.

“I thought we had a few good stops defensively. If you eliminate the 21 points (ASU) scored off of turnovers, it’s a different ballgame.”

ASU’s biggest lead came on a pair of free throws by Carson with 5:59 remaining, putting the Devils up 64-46. Stanford got no closer than nine points in the second half, when the Cardinal pulled to within 44-35 on a free throw by Brown at 15:31.

Chasson Randle and Dwight Powell scored 21 and 17 points, respectively, for the Cardinal. Josh Huestis pulled down a game-high eight boards as Stanford outrebounded ASU 33-30.

“Arizona State changed up the way they played in terms of not letting us post up,” Brown said. “Even when we don’t shoot well, we usually try to back it up with defense and keep ourselves in the game. If we don’t shoot well, we try to hit the offensive glass. We were outrebounded, and with our size, that adds to the recipe for losing.

“I still think about the turnovers, because most of them were unforced.”

Because of the Wednesday-Sunday schedule gap, the Cardinal flew back to the Bay Area and will fly out again this weekend for the trip to Tucson to face Arizona.

“We realize it’s a big game for us,” Dawkins said. “The Pac-12 is tough top to bottom and you have to go out there and compete. That’s what we have to do.”

“For us, we’ve lost every first game on the road,” Brown said. “We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and get ready for a fight against Arizona. That’s as simple as we can put it.”

(TAGS: Stanford,Arizona State,Pac-12,men’s basketball,Daniel Dullum)

By Morris Phillips

Of all the emphatic dunks enjoyed by  Arizona on Wednesday night–and there were a few–it may have been the one that missed that best summed up the evening for both the Wildcats and the easily-handled Cal Bears.

With just under eight minutes remaining and Arizona cruising to a 87-59 win, Nick Johnson got a point blank run at the rim and opted for the full windup.  But when the ball bounced high off the rim then away from the basket Gabriel York grabbed the ball and in one motion kicked out to point guard T.J. McConnell for a wide open three.

It went that way all night: when Arizona wasn’t converting their good looks they took advantage of the Bears on the offensive glass for second chance baskets.

“They were solid and a little angry having lost to us at our place,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said.  “They’re making shots now and at our place they weren’t making all their shots.  They’re playing really well right now.”

“You might make the argument that the game against Colorado and tonight’s game were the best back-to-back games we’ve played all season,”:Arizona coach Sean Miller said.

 Johnson best personified the turnaround with 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists.  In the first meeting Johnson’s sore wrist and off game led to 1 for 14 shooting–a career-worst.  This time he orchestrated the Arizona attack beautifully and got the best of Justin Cobbs in their head-to-head matchup.

The Wildcats used a big first half run to go up 16 and led 44-29 at the half.  Three minutes into the second half Arizona led by 20.  When Cal sliced the led to nine at 53-44 the Wildcats surged again.

Kaleb Tarczewski added 16 points for Arizona and McConnell and Aaron Gordon had 13 each.

Cobbs was Cal’s only double-figure scorer with 12 but he managed just two assists.

The Bears have dropped six of nine and will attempt to turn things around on Saturday afternoon at Arizona State.

 

 

By Tony Renteria

 Sacramento CA:  The Sacramento Kings coming of two straight wins invited the second place Houston Rockets into Sleep Train Arena and were routed by the score of 129-103.

Any headed way the Kings had made was lost in the first moments as James Harden(43 points on 11-20 shooting)  looked like he was a video game player blowing past confused King’s.  The Rockets opened up a huge first quarter lead of 42-17.  The game quickly became of game of garbage minutes for both teams as the Kings failed to even make a game of it.

The Kings were led by Rudy Gay and his 25 points but most of them came after the Rockets went into cruise control.  This game was really a true tail of two different teams, with much different paths.  The Kings wanted to slow the game down to let Demarcus Cousins 16 points work in the paint, but Harden keep his foot on the gas as the Rockets just simply out ran the Kings on their own court.

Houston headed to face the Clippers tomorrow, while the Kings go to face Lakers on Friday.

Note Jimmer Fredette contract is being bought out by the Kings who plan to release him very soon.  Fredette was no at the arena tonight

By Morris Phillips

The game separating the Bears and  Bruins near the top of the Pac-12 standings seemed a lot bigger on Wednesday night.

Hot-shooting UCLA dusted Cal 86-66 to strengthen their hold on second place behind Arizona.  Cal missed nine of their first 12 shots, turned in a ragged defensive performance and trailed by double digits for the final 30 the minutes of the ballgame.

“We want to stay in the conference race,” UCLA coach Steve Alford said.  “We had a chance tonight to put another team two games behind us with five left and we had a chance to get another road win.”

UCLA won for the seventh time in their most recent eight games and stayed within a game of Arizona atop the conference.  Cal fell for the fifth time in their last eight and once again fell behind early.

“They were certainly better than us tonight.  I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Coach Mike Montgomery said.

Jordan Adams led the Bruins with 28 points and Kyle Anderson added 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Adams made 12 of his 19 shots and had five steals.

Cal was led by Jordan Mathews with 16 points off the bench.  The Bears poisoned their effort by allowing 44 first half points and by shooting just 34 percent.

The Bears (17-9, 8-5) host USC on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

 

 

By Tony Renteria

Sacramento CA:  The Golden State Warriors(31-22) came into the Capital City to face the hosting Sacramento Kings (18-35) on the first game after the All-Star break leaving with an easy 101-92 win.

Sacramento came into the game shorted handed by two players,  DeMarcus Cousins who had to rest due to strained hip flexor and recently traded guard Marcus Thornton who is headed to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Jason Terry and Reggie Evans.

The Warriors went out to an early first quarter lead of 30 to 26 in a very ugly first quarter that was plagued by bad calls and turnovers.  Golden State opened the lead to nine points at the half.  The first half took over an hour and seven minutes to play as the turnovers and bad calls continued to slow the action at Sleep Train Arena.

The Kings outscored the Warriors by ten in the 3^rd quarter and took a one point lead into the fourth quarter but the Warriors offense was too much and the Kings failed to score with any rhythm and were lost the same ten point lead.

David Lee led the Warriors with 23 points, while Isaiah Thomas led the Kings with 26 Points.

By George Devine, Sr.

The midseason classic of the NBA surpassed the title of the late sportswriter Leonard Koppett’s book “24 Seconds to Shoot”. The New York Times scribe, narrating the foundation of the league, was illustrating the conscious desire for a fast-paced game, with the hope that most games would end in triple-digit scores. In a game where pride is the object, and the best from the league compete against one another, caution is thrown to the winds and the shot clock seldom goes into double digits. Not only that, but the evening is full of slam dunks and alley-oops all adding to the excitement for the crowds both in the arena and watching on television.

This time, after three losses, it was the East that won, 163-155,enjoying a 10-0 run at the end even though the West led by 18 at one point. A key player in the victory was Carmelo Anthony who achieved an ASG record with 8 from beyond the 3-point line, as part of his 30-point total. Kyrie Irving had 31 and contributed 14 assists; he was voted the MVP for the East. LeBron James had 22 points, 7 rebounds — all but one on defense — and 7 assists.

The West actually outscored the East in the first period, 44-42 and in the second, 45-34. But in the latter two quarters the East pulled ahead. One element was their perfect free throw record of 9-9, as opposed to the West’s 9-12. The East also dominated on field goals, scoring 60.9% over the West’s 51.2%. On three-pointers the East also led, 31.8% to 28.6%.

Paul George added to the East’s totals with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Marquette alumnus Dwayne Wade had 10 points, 1 offensive rebound and 4 assists.

For the West, Kevin Durant scored 38 points as did Blake Griffin. Durant had 10 boards as well. Stephen Curry had 12 points and 11 assists. Kevin Love had 13 points and 9 rebounds, all but one on defense. Chris Paul had 11 points with 13 valuable assists, and Anthony Davis scored 10.

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Warriors need to begin the second half of this NBA season with a good start and work on the consistency on this team. That wasn’t the case or the issue against Miami last Wednesday night at Oracle it was a nail biter right down to the buzzer beater by LeBron to win it for Miami.

The Warriors have to make sure that they stay in these games a little bit more and keep it close. They were down by 19 at one point to Miami and they still managed to come back and make it a game against the NBA champs.

The Warriors ended up losing it by one 111-110 on crazy three pointer by LeBron James at the buzzer. The Warriors don’t want to get down by 19 ever to anybody whether it’s the Heat or anybody else, whether it’s the best team in the league or the worse team in the league you want to keep it close at all times that’s what the Warriors have to work on or maybe they should take a 19 point lead themselves.

You have to give the Warriors a little bit of credit they were playing without any of their starting centers. Andrew Bogut, Jermain O’Neal, and they were a little thin up front and once these guys get healthy and when center Festus Ezeli comes back from his injury they’ll have a lot more defensive presence up front.

The Warriors are looking to have more depth up front to help them down the stretch, that will be a big factor as the Warriors go forward. In the second half the Warriors will look at the trade deadline coming up so they might be looking for a little bit of bench help. Their starting five is as good as anybody in the league but their bench is really bad.

During the course of the season the bench has gotten a little bit better with the addition of Jordan Crawford but their still struggling. You like to see Harrison Barnes doing a bit more off the bench, Draymond Green has been very good, he’s improved a lot this season and he was already pretty good.

Barnes is the guy you’d like to see and the Warriors expect to see a lot of him in the second half. Barnes has been all over the place, there have been a few games where he has come off the bench and has been a real spark plug for the most part. Barnes hasn’t really found his place in that offensive set coming off the bench.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, February 15, 2014

Unofficially, it was Anthony Brown Night at Wallis Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Wash., on Saturday.

Brown bagged a game-high 30 points for Stanford, leading the Cardinal to a much-needed 69-56 Pac-12 men’s basketball victory over Washington State.

Brown was sizzling all night, hitting 8 of 10 field goals (including 4 of 6 3-pointers) and sinking 10 of 11 foul shots. Chasson Randle helped out with 14 points and four assists. As a team, the Cardinal hit 18 of 41 for 44 percent, including 6 of 16 behind the 3-point arc, while handing Washington State its fourth straight loss.

Stanford (16-8 overall, 7-5 Pac-12) outrebounded the Cougars 32-29, led by Josh Huestis with 11 boards and Dwight Powell with seven.

Davonte Lacy and Que Johnson each scored 14 points for Washington State (9-16, 2-11), with D.J. Shelton adding 11 points. WSU shot only 31 percent from the floor (16 of 51) and was a dismal 9 of 29 from 3-point range.

The Cardinal opened the game with a 14-3 run and never trailed, as Brown hit 20 of his points in the first half. When Stanford went cold to start the second half, the Cougars tried to take advantage and cut their deficit to 49-44 with 9:17 remaining.

But that was as close as Washington State would get, as the Cardinal pulled away by sinking 9 of 12 from the free throw line in the last four minutes.

Stanford converted nine Cougar turnovers into 17 points, and had a 20-12 scoring edge in the lane.

Next weekend, Stanford hosts the LA schools. Southern California visits Maples Pavilion at 8 p.m., Thursday, while UCLA comes in for a 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon contest.

(Category Stanford Cardinal)

(TAGS: Stanford,Cardinal,basketball,Pac-12,Anthony Brown)

(category Stanford Cardinal)

By Daniel Dullum

Sports Radio Service

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Despite recent successes, Stanford’s road woes in Pac-12 men’s basketball continued Wednesday night at Hec Ed Arena in Seattle, where Washington came up with a big second half to stop the Cardinal 64-60.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Huskies (14-11 overall, 6-6 Pac-12) and was Washington’s first win since Jan. 25. C.J. Wilcox led Washington with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists, followed by Nigel Williams-Gross with 17 points, five boards and five assists.

With the score 62-60, Wilcox sank a pair of free throws with 4.1 seconds remaining to provide the Huskies’ final margin of victory. Moments earlier, Washington’s Desmond Simmons drew a charging foul on Stanford’s Chasson Randle on a possession that could have tied the game.

Simmons led Washington with seven rebounds in addition to making the top defensive play of the game. Reserve Mike Anderson provided 13 points off the Huskie bench.

Dwight Powell led Stanford (15-8, 6-5) with 18 points and nine rebounds, followed by Randle with 17 points – 13 of them in the first half – five rebounds and three assists. The Cardinal led 34-27 at halftime, but were plagued by 3 of 16 shooting from behind the 3-point arc.

A five-point spurt by Josh Huestis put the Cardinal up 46-41 midway through the second half, but Washington responded with an 11-6 run to tie the game at 52-52 on a floater by Williams-Goss.

After the lead see-sawed, Washington surged ahead to stay when Simmons drained a perimeter jumper with 2:22 to play. Wilcox sank a pair of free throws with 54 seconds remaining, giving the Huskies a 62-59 lead, and Randle hit 1 of 2 foul shots with 49 seconds to play for Stanford’s final scoring of the night.

Stanford completes its swing through the Northwest with a Saturday game at Washington State. Game time is 4 p.m.

Daniel Dullum covers MLB, the NHL and the Pac-12 for SportsRadio

(TAGS: Stanford,Washington,Pac-12,basketball)