Tag: Jerod Haase

Northeastern Trails Close Throughout, Stanford Comes Out With 73-59 Win

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Photo credit: @StanfordMBB

By Alexandra Evans

PALO ALTO — The Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball team faced the Northeastern Huskies this afternoon, who traveled to the Golden State from chilly Boston.

Both teams were strong on offense and defense in the first half; almost no rebounds were missed on both sides. Stanford managed to exceed Northeastern in points by nine after the first 20 minutes. With Stanford’s six team fouls (compared to Northeastern’s four), Northeastern had three opportunities for free throws, all of which were missed. Northeastern’s Donnell Gresham Jr. made a three-pointer from the center of the court in the last three seconds. The ending score was 33-24 Stanford, who managed to keep a lead over the Huskies throughout the first half.

The second half commenced with fast-paced back-and-forth action. After a Stanford foul 18 seconds in, both teams took turns making each attempted basket in the first five minutes, bringing each of their scores up by more than 10 points.

Northeastern made numerous three-pointer attempts in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but none were successful until Huskies’ Bolden Brace notched one just after the 10-minute mark. Northeastern would then score three more three-pointers in the remainder (comprising part of their 59 points at the end of the match). Stanford only had two three-point shots, but managed to overthrow Northeastern with numerous two-pointers.

Almost three-quarters of the way into the second half (nearing the 14-minute mark), the Huskies only trailed the Cardinal by four points, and then only by two points at 14:30. Isaac White then made a three-pointer to bring the score to 60-55 Stanford at 14:45, then Michael Humphrey made both free throws after Brace was fouled.

A great block by (#13 S) prevented the Huskies’ Devon Begley from making a shot-clock beating basket. #13 then made a three-pointer with just under a minute left in the match, barely beating the shot clock.

The final score was 73-59 Stanford. Both teams finished with 36 rebounds (the only even statistic of the game).

Stanford forward Michael Humphrey and guard Daejon Davis shared their thoughts on the match in a post-game conference. Despite the win, both believed there is substantial room for overall improvement.

“In the middle of the second half [the whole team] got caught up in the emotions of the game,” Humphrey noted. “But all of us calmed down and ended the game strong, which is what we needed to do.”

“Northeastern is a great offensive rebounding team, but we can’t give up that many offensive boards. Especially with a team our size and our athleticism…If we don’t make the boards, we have a really good chance of winning.”

Davis added, “Any time we come out with a win, I’m always up, no matter who contributed and how we got it done. A win makes everyone feel good, but we, as a team, definitely have so many things to improve on. We can’t have that dip we had in the second half; we need to keep our energy up for 40 minutes. I am just waiting for us to put together a full game on both the offensive and defensive ends all the way through, with energy and effort.”

Coach Jerod Haase expressed excitement when Northeastern managed to score a buzzer-beating three pointer before halftime. Haase was curious as to how much effort the team would put into bouncing back and cultivating a lead in the double digits again. To him, this was the biggest testament.

“[Responses as such are] a very, very important step, when [the team] can believe that when things go a bit south, we can respond to that,” Haase contended.

Next up, Stanford will face the North Carolina Tar Heels on Monday, November 20 at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford Cardinal Men’s Basketball Resist Claws of Chico State Wildcats, Win 91-81

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Photo: @StanfordMBB

By Alexandra Evans

PALO ALTO–With eight days remaining until the regular season, the Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball team commenced with an exhibition match against the Chico State Wildcats on Thursday, November 2.

The Cardinal welcomes five new additions to the team this year:

Kezie Okpala of Los Angeles, CA (6’8”, 195 pounds)
Daejon Davis of Seattle, WA (6’3”, 175 pounds)
Isaac White of Adelaide, Australia (6’1”, 185 pounds)
Kodye Pugh of Baltimore, MD (6’8”, 205 pounds)
Oscar Da Silva of Munich, Germany (6’9”, 210 pounds)

The first half started off smoothly for the Cardinal as forward Reid Travis made a shot less than a minute in. Just before the 10 minute mark, the Wildcats trailed the Cardinal by 11 points.

Chico began to step up their game about 15 minutes into the first half; the Wildcats trailed the Cardinal by seven points. Keith Datu, a Chico forward, then made a three-pointer and the Wildcats were only down by four with 3:33 remaining.

The score was tied at 17:00 exactly, when Marcus Sheffield made both free throws after a foul just over 10 seconds later.

Just before the 18:00 mark, two Chico players tried to tip the ball from the rim into the hoop, but Stanford’s Josh Sharma got the defensive rebound, keeping the score tied.

Chico’s Nate Ambrosini shot a three pointer, giving the Wildcats a 33-31 lead.

The score was tied 35-35 at halftime, signifying a decline in Stanford’s defensive plays.

A slam dunk just under 30 seconds into the second half by Travis gave Stanford a 37-36 lead. Minimal, but a step in the right direction. Travis then made one free throw, one basket, and another free throw to give Stanford a 41-36 lead.
The first eight minutes of the second half were a scoring frenzy. Stanford kept the lead, though there were very few moments where Chico trailed by more than five points. Envision a lion (predator) chasing a gazelle (prey). Chico’s score represents the lion’s movement and Stanford’s score represents the gazelle’s. Over the course of these eight minutes, the lion got close enough to nip the gazelle’s tail off. After the eight minute mark, the gazelle uses every single ounce of energy in its system to outrun the lion, which it eventually escapes.

In sports terminology, Stanford kicked things into overdrive after the eight minute “no more than five points ahead” stint and stepped up their game substantially about nine minutes in. They brought the score to 63-48 in the blink of an eye. They eventually exceeded Chico by 23 points (86-63), Travis making a majority of the baskets. Stanford kept the lead, which never dropped below 10 points the entire last half of the second period.

The final score was 91-81.

Travis was, undoubtedly, the stars of the game. He and fellow Marcus Sheffield sat down with the media after the match.

“I like the way we attacked,” Travis said. “I felt that on offense we tried to do the right thing as far as getting to the paint, getting to the buckets. I did not like the way we did not distribute that in the first half. That was a big emphasis on the offseason.”

“I think it just clicked for us,” Sheffield said of the eventual 23-point lead. “We had a few guys step up and play hard, get a few stops, and we were able to run out and get some easy baskets.”

Head Coach Jerod Haase then stepped into the conference room.

“I like the way the guys responded in the variety of times that I challenged them,” Haase remarked. “Competing on the defensive end, sharing the basketball on the offensive end, they responded to the things I said, I liked that. Defensively, there were certainly a lot of teachable moments out there. The energy was not consistent. Chico State has good defense, we weren’t ready for it. It is definitely something we can work on.”

Expected growing pains are present among the team, especially with a number of rookies and with a few absences, such as Cameron Walker who is dealing with injuries off the court. However, if the team continues to work in tandem as they had in the second half, the season should progress smoothly.

Cal climbing in the Pac-12 standings after home win over Stanford

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–So what did first-year Stanford head coach Jerod Haase most desire on the occasion of his return to Berkeley, two decades after he was a freshman starter on one of Cal’s most memorable teams?

Certainly not the opportunity to reminisce.   For Haase, a few more made baskets would have been more like it.

Haase’s Cardinal survived a cold-shooting first half, but when their accuracy numbers grew worse after halftime, Cal ran away from Stanford for a 66-55 win at sold out Haas Pavilion.

“I think we are improving on our process and implementing our gameplan. I really do,” Haase said after his Cardinal shot 39 percent against Cal, below their 42 percent shooting on the season, which ranks last in the Pac-12.

“I really do think we are making progress, I just wished we played a little more efficiently and knocked some more shots down and all that progress will lead to success and success on offense for sure.”

So long ago was Haase’s brief career at Cal, he didn’t play at Haas.  Back then, the building was far cozier and named Harmon Gym.  Haase was spurned by Mike Montgomery at Stanford, but revered by Lou Campanelli’s staff at Cal. The whirlwind recruiting process brought Haase from his home in South Lake Tahoe to Berkeley in the same class as local star/legend Jason Kidd.

Haase’s response to being teamed with Kidd?

“I just want to know: If I beat him out, will I get to start over him?” Haase recalled.

Haase settled for a starting role opposite Kidd, just one of the things that wasn’t as he expected in his season as a Bear. Campanelli was fired half way through that season, felled by the caustic language he used to address his players. Two weeks prior to the coaching change, Haase’s father Gary passed away after a sudden illness.

And after just one season at Cal, Haase transferred to Kansas.  The now 42-year old coach has yet to speak publicly about the circumstances of his departure, and that stance didn’t change on Sunday night.

When asked if this was his first return visit to Cal since his days in a Bears’ uniform, Haase’s questioner, KRON sportsreporter Vern Glenn in his signature, upbeat style, offered the coach a path to say a few, positive words. But Haase didn’t bite, pausing briefly before simply saying “yes” to Glenn, and moving on to the next question.

Both Cal and Stanford are moving on as well, now halfway through the conference season.  The Bears improved to 6-3 in Pac-12 play, moving into a three-way tie with UCLA and Utah for third place behind conference leaders Oregon and 9-0 Arizona.

Ivan Rabb led the Bears with 25 points and 13 rebounds, his sixth, consecutive double-double at home.  Jabari Bird added 17, including back-to-back threes late that allowed Cal to increase its lead to 15.

After shooting just 37 percent in the first half, Cal’s accuracy sharpened dramatically as the Bears missed only six times (11 for 17) the remainder of the game.

“It hit us in the mouth early on, but we just were missing good shots, Bird said. “We kept feeding down low, Ivan got going, I got going.  It wasn’t too difficult, we really just needed to start making shots.”

The Bears (15-6, 6-3) continue their three-game homestand on Thursday when the Utah Utes visit Haas. If any two remaining games possess a swing effect for Cal, it’s the home-and-home with the Utes, who have the same record as Cal, and like the Bears, lack marquee wins, and currently project to miss the NCAA tournament.

Travis, Cardinal Overwhelm Cal State East Bay

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By: Ben Leonard

STANFORD, Calif. — Even for basketball players, finals week at Stanford is grueling.

Before overwhelming Division II Cal State East Bay 79-53 Friday night, Stanford had eight players with finals at nine o’clock in the morning, some pulling all-nighters to cram for their exams. The nearly two weeks off from games for finals period didn’t phase the Cardinal and junior forward Reid Travis, who recorded his fifth double-double of the season, scoring 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in just 22 minutes to pace Stanford.

“There’s definitely a lot of things we can work on, but I’m proud of the way we bounced back this week. We had a tough finals week, so definitely to refocus and have a game like we did tonight,” Travis said. “Defensively, offensively, we’re really starting to get our standards down and do everything we need to do to be successful in conference play.”

Stanford hadn’t played since falling 89-74 to No. 4 Kansas Dec. 3, and certainly showed some rust in the early going against the Pioneers (8-3, 0-0 CCAA). Stanford had been limited to five full practices during that time, taking several days off and only holding shootarounds on many occasions. After a dominant 18-3 run to start the game, the Cardinal (7-3, 0-0 Pac-12) lapsed on defense, allowing Cal State East Bay to cut the lead to 22-16.

But Travis and the Cardinal quickly became too much for the undersized Pioneers to handle. Led by eight points from the 6-foot-8, 245-pound forward, including a clean dish from sophomore guard Robert Cartwright for a thunderous dunk, the former McDonald’s American and the Cardinal surged to on a 15-0 run to take a commanding lead, never looking back.

Travis’ physicality, a product of an unmatched, almost excessive work ethic that ex-Cardinal head coach Johnny Dawkins in part attributed to his missing 22 games last season with a stress reaction in his left leg, paid off Friday, simply too much for the Pioneers to match. Only one of the Pioneers’ top six scorers was above 6-foot-5, presenting huge matchup problems for the lower-division squad.

Although they took just seven 3-point attempts, making one, Stanford dominated in scoring through the post, outscoring the Pioneers 42-20 in the paint and winning the rebound battle 42-30.

“Our identity is a team that gets the ball inside first by dribble or pass, hopefully gets some things in transition and on offensive rebounds, but we have to work from the inside out,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said. “Because it was working well and effectively, we didn’t have to go to the second part of that, which is shooting from the perimeter. As time moves on, we are going to have to shoot from the perimeter. We have to be more efficient than we have been from the perimeter.”

The Cardinal’s leader in 3-point scoring percentage, junior guard Dorian Pickens, made Stanford’s lone 3-pointer Friday in his only attempt. He was the only other Cardinal player to score in double-digits, scoring 11 points in 21 minutes on 3-of-5 shooting. The Phoenix native helped buoy a Stanford offense that shot 55.3% from the field (26-of-47 FG’s), even without contributions from one of their key contributors.

After starting all nine of the team’s previous contests, a familiar name was out of the starting lineup Friday: junior forward Michael Humphrey. The Phoenix native had seen his field goal percentage dip from nearly .500 to a meager .429 mark this season and his rebounds per game fall by two, which prompted Hasse to sit Humphrey and play him for just 12 minutes Friday, replacing him with senior center Grant Verhoeven.

“(The goal was) hopefully to light a little fire under Michael,” Haase said. “It’s not a secret, Michael isn’t playing his top performances right now. Grant has earned that right as well. He’s been a consistent performer and played well.”

Humphrey was effective in limited time, matching Verhoeven’s scoring total with seven points on 2-of-3 shooting and grabbing three rebounds.

On the whole, Verhoeven thought it was fairly solid showing for the Cardinal, albeit a work in progress before it takes on a talented SMU squad (8-3, 0-0 AAC) on Monday.

“It’s good to have a game like this where we can just focus on getting better, working on our offense and defense,” Verhoeven said. “There was a lot out there that wasn’t pretty on our end of the court, but we have a lot we can work on in these next couple days before our game against SMU.”

 

 

 

Cover Image: Stanford’s Reid Travis (22) scores against Cal State East Bay during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Stanford routs the Cal State Northridge Matadors 96-69

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by Jerry Feitelberg

photo by Jerry Feitelberg sportsradioservice.com: The Stanford cheer team takes midcourt with lots to cheer about as Stanford wins their first home game of the season over the CSUN Matadors on Tuesday night at Maples Pavilion

PALO ALTO- The Stanford Cardinal Men’s basketball team, showing no ill effects from the long trip home from Shanghai, routed the CSUN Matadors 96-69. Coach Jerod Haase, in his first season as head coach of the Cardinal, had his team playing aggressively. They played well on defense and ran the court at every opportunity. Most of last year’s team returned, and they showed how well a team could play with experience under their collective belts. Michael Humphrey and Reid Travis started at forward. Dorian Pickens, Christian Sanders and Marcus Allen, all guards, were in the starting lineup. The Matadors, coached by former NBA star, Reggie Theus, were no match for the Cardinal Tuesday night.

The Cardinal was playing the second game and the first game at home this season raced out to a thirteen-point advantage at the end of the first half. The visiting Cal State University Northridge Matadors jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. The Cardinal tied the game at seven with 16:24 left in the half. With the score 10-9 for Stanford, the Cardinal went on a 19-5 run to take a 29-14 lead. Reid Travis led the Cardinal with fifteen points. Marcus Allen and Dorian Pickens each had eight for theCardinal. The Matadors closed the gap to thirteen at the end of the half.  Kendall Smith led the Matador attack with thirteen. Dylan Johns added six for CSUN. CSUN shot just 37% from the floor while Stanford’s was at 41%. The Cardinal led 22-18 in rebounds, and they played great defense in the half. The Cardinal leads 47-34 after twenty minutes of play.

The rout was on at the start of the second half. Dorian Pickens started the half with two 3-point shots. Reid Travis scored a bucket to give the Cardinal a twenty-one point lead. Josh Sharma, the 7-foot center, and Marcus Sheffield were terrific in the half. Sharma ended the game with fifteen, and Sheffield added seventeen. The guys in Cardinal and White could not be caught. The Matadors trailed by thirty-one 85-54 and were done for the game. Stanford improves to 2-0 while the Matadors drop to 1-2.

Game Notes- After the game Reid Travis, who had nineteen in the contest, said the team “stayed aggressive.” Dorian Pickens had a short answer when asked about how well the team moved the ball. His reply was “great.”

Coach Jarod Haase said he “had a blast” watching his team run to a win. He said this about his players:”they are so willing to learn.” When asked what he liked and didn’t like about the game, Haase remarked:” I didn’t like the ebb and flow of the game.” However,”I liked the way we shared the ball.”

The Cardinal play Weber State at Maples Pavilion at 7 pm Thursday night.  They finish the homestand Sunday against the Colorado State Rams at 3 pm.

Attendance was a pitiful 2801.