Card Clicks: Stanford Opens Spring Football Practice

by Scott Allen on Feb 21, 2025 8:25 AM PST

The Stanford football team kicks off its first of two spring practice sessions today at 4 p.m. PST. | SF Chronicle

Six questions for Stanford football heading into spring practice. | Examiner

Freshman Austin Wilson, who hit his first career home run in Saturday's loss at Rice, went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI to lead Stanford to a 6-2 win in the rubber game of its season-opening series against the Owls. The Cardinal hosts Cal at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday. | GoStanford.com

The Stanford men's basketball team has lost five of seven games at Maples Pavilion since an upset win against Washington. | Jake's Take on Sports

Josh Huestis played well in Saturday's 69-53 loss to USC. | Daily Axe

Tara VanDerveer is a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. | Mercury News

Women's basketball senior Melanie Murphy, who played 2 minutes last weekend, has been unsure of her role since returning from surgery. | Examiner

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No consistency towards end of season

That’s what I think will ultimately be remembered most about this season. There’s absolutely no consistency, and yet here we are entering the final two weeks of the regular season. In fact, the Stanford men were probably much better at the beginning of the season and conference play than they are now. For a top-ranked freshmen class, they seem awfully pedestrian. A lot of basketball people say they see “potential” in Stanford, but you shouldn’t be seeing “potential” for freshmen ranked so high this late in the season — you should see results. What’s worse is that the men only won four conference games at home out of nine. Never being in both games against USC and failing to compete for 38 minutes of the UCLA home game is embarrassing.

It’s unfortunate to bring it up, but all this regression and failure to produce results (at home!) points to one thing — the coaching staff.

by RedOscar on Feb 21, 2025 6:04 PM PST reply actions

Absolutely correct -- the coaching staff needs...

to live in the weight room and drink kegs of Muscle Milk in the off-season, so next year they can box out the likes of Josh Smith, Derek Williams, and USC’s bigs. And while they’re at it, they should work on their free-throwing.

On a more serious note, I’ll come around to your way of thinking if these guys don’t play markedly better and more consistently as a team as they move through NEXT season.

This year there’s too much that’s new for all involved to reasonably expect great results — no matter how some recruiting site ranked them a year ago (the general worthlessness of those sites is a topic worthy of its own post).

by Cardinal&Orange; on Feb 22, 2025 2:25 PM PST up reply actions

I don't think anyone expected "great"

But I don’t think people expected anything less than being a good or decent team, or at the very least competitive. The team isn’t anywhere near that mark this season, and even if the frosh were overrated by scouts, they still should have been producing some sort of results or improvement, and that hasn’t happened. One look at Dwight Powell’s stats, our biggest man, will tell you that he’s clearly not progressed since the beginning of the season despite starting almost every game. Even discounting the play of the frosh doesn’t excuse the no-shows of Green towards the end of the season.

As it is right now, Stanford will have its third consecutive losing season in the conference, finishing eighth in the conference.

by RedOscar on Feb 22, 2025 3:36 PM PST up reply actions