After a 2 week break from any competitive basketball, the Cardinal returned to action on Saturday night, taking on the Dartmouth Big Green at Maples Pavillion.
In a game that the Cardinal were expected to win, Stanford took care of business, winning 64-50. The game was probably one of the few games this whole year in which the Cardinal will be more athletic than their opponent, as Dartmouth featured a few shooters, one or two big men, and two decent ball handlers running the point, but not much else. The Cardinal used this athletic edge to their advantage, with Reid Travis patrolling the paint, and Rosco Allen stretching the floor as he always does.
Rosco finished with 17 points on 4 of 7 shooting from deep, while Travis ended the game with 14 points, including 6 from the charity stripe.
Johnny Dawkins was never really challenged coaching wise the whole game, and he was able to spread minutes around to most of the roster. Allen was one of two players to play the most for Stanford, logging 34 minutes, which was the same amount as Marcus Allen (no relation). Travis got 32 minutes, and fellow front court mate Michael Humphries played 27 minutes.
Stanford seemed to excel with their high-low post game particularly against Dartmouth, and Humphries seemed to be feeding Travis from the high post all game long. Dartmouth, who sat back in a 2-3 zone and rarely pressured the ball, had to scramble to cover shooters on the wings, which left Humphries wide open at the free throw line, where he could either score himself or feed Travis, who had no problem using his strength to score on Dartmouth's bigs.
Rosco Allen proved to be extremely valuable once again on Saturday, and his shooting really opened up the floor for Stanford. Dartmouth's forwards didn't really seem all that comfortable leaving their paint to chase Allen out to the three point line, which meant that the sharpshooter was often left all alone on the perimeter. If the Big Green did decide to cover Allen, it was often with a guard, who the 6-9 forward could simply shoot over, or use his large frame to get around.
The Cardinal led for the entirety of the first half, building up a lead of around 20 at halftime, and they were not challenged by Dartmouth at all in the first half. During halftime, however, the Big Green coaching staff must have made a few adjustments, as Dartmouth was able to go on a pretty big run and cut the Stanford lead down to 8 mid way through the second half. A big part of the run was Dartmouth putting a bit more pressure on the ball handler, forcing Stanford to pass the ball early, and Stanford's reserves would often run the shot clock all the way down passing around the wings, not being able to deal with the ball pressure. Dawkins soon put his starters back in, however, and Stanford had no problem building their lead back once again.
It was a nice win for the Cardinal, and a solid tune-up for DePaul, who should be a solid tune-up for Texas, but Stanford's scoring from the bench was almost nonexistent, which has to be worrying for Dawkins and his staff. Of course, a multitude of injuries have already hurt the Cardinal, just 7 games into the season, and has affected their bench depth, but when conference play starts, and in their game against Texas, the Cardinal reserves better be able to step up and help carry the load, or we could be looking at another long season on the Farm.
