When last Thursday rolled around, Valentine's day wasn't exactly all chocolate and roses for Stanford basketball. The Cardinal has officially hit rock bottom in the topsy-turvy season. Stanford has been a team that has had a case of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Syndrome" all season, but as of late, you get Mr. Hyde or Mr. Make Me Puke.
The loss to Colorado was the cherry on top to what has been an abysmal month of basketball. Since a decisive win against UCONN in a packed Maples - where the students and fans were cheering on a team that looked like they would not only make the tournament but could actually be a contender - it's all gone sideways for Stanford.
Since that victory, Stanford has gone 3-5. Even the three wins were hard to watch and the best victory of the group was to a .500 Arizona State team. The other two victories were to the chum buckets of the conference in Washington and USC. I can live with the losses to Arizona and Utah and they have a combined 7 losses this season. Both are in the top-10 and are fighting for a high seed in the tournament. The other 3 losses are pathetic and have turned the basketball program from "Nerd Nation" to "Turd Nation".
Washington State and Colorado are two teams that will not play in a postseason game. Stanford should have been able to beat those teams if they combined their players to make one super-AVERAGE team. The average RPI of both programs is 120. Washington State lost to Idaho earlier in the season. Idaho has a higher RPI than Albert Einstein's IQ. You throw in the DePaul loss from earlier in the year and you've got a Stanford team that has lost to 3 teams with an RPI above 100. That looks absolutely atrocious on your resume come tournament time.
Now it is a team sport but a good team needs a leader. That leader for Stanford is Chasson Randle. Oh wait. It appears Mr. Randle has left the building. Randle was building on a very good Stanford career and was playing like a senior should play. He was scoring at will, playing smart, clutch basketball, and was willing his team to victory. He was (and still is) on the Wooden Award Watch for Player of the Year honors. In some circles, he was getting as much as 2nd-Team All-American watch. But in the last 4 games, Randle is averaging 13 points a game, is shooting 14-52 from the field (26%) and the best 3-point shooter statistically in school history has been 5-30! I don't think Chasson could play that bad if he were shaving points.
Now like always, I'll try to end on a positive note. Somehow Joe Lunardi of ESPN still has the Cardinal in his latest bracketology. Maybe he loves Stanford and is trying to will the voters to get us in. Stanford has a week to shake off the case of the stupid fouls and the billion points left at the free throw line this season to get ready for Cal. A home game against your rival in a must-win game. Randle and Co. better realize showing up on Saturday with their Mr. Hyde personality will have them leaving with a loss, a March Madness berth all but deflated, and a target on Johnny Dawkins back.
Comments
Seems like a pretty simple case of a team without much depth running out of steam.
Only 6 players played double digit minutes the last game, with three players playing less than 5. Stanford’s starters are on the floor a lot for extended periods of times. It’s a team that has a lot of talent, that clearly needs rest. Unfortunately, as the team nears the postseason, they’re going to rely on these stars more.
By Tim Eckert-Fong on 02.18.15 10:05am
Randle is spent, so is Brown
Too many minutes for those two because of a continued lack of depth. The only reason Nastic isn’t in a similar position is his ongoing propensity to get into foul trouble so his minutes are down. And don’t tell me about Verhoeven’s injury that guy is good for five fouls and not much else.
This is all about Dawkins. He has not recruited and developed enough quality to even field an 8-player rotation, much less the 9 or 10 you want. He plays too much man for a thin bench which means more foul trouble for the few bigs he has. The offense is about as no-motion as it gets. It is NOT a triangle offense which requires a LOT of motion (I had season tickets to the 90s Chicago Bulls, so I actually do know what a triangle offense looks like when it’s working). And the ongoing failures to run a half-decent play out of a crunch time timeout – well, enough said on that one.
Muir has got to get a new head coach. Maples is a ghost town. Lower bowl seats are still available for today’s game vs. Low APR U – that is pathetic, but that’s what Muir’s failure to fire Dawkins has done to the fan base.
By Cardman88 on 02.21.15 9:50am
A Pulse?
After beating the Bears at home, there is still some hope that Randle and his teammates can turn the corner and get invited to the dance. Losing to the Buffs in Boulder was one of the worst displays of basketball this team has produced all season; and I feared a loss to the Bears at home would merely complete their fall from grace. But fortunately I was wrong: the victory vs. Cal not only means a sweep of our cross-bay rivals, but a decent shot at recovering in the last four games and getting a 10 or 11 seed in the tournament. The mission: beat both Oregon schools next week and at least split the visit to the desert. Beating the Wildcats is almost mission impossible on their home court, so any victory that week will have to come in Tempe. That would give Stanford an 11-7 conference record (20-10 overall) and most likely a tie for 3rd place with Oregon in the Pac-12. That would also guarantee a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament. Go 2-2 down the stretch, and our post-season fate will depend on how far we get in the Pac-12 tournament. Go 1-3 or worse, and it’s NIT time.
I still have my doubts about Dawkins. At a university like Stanford with high academics standards, it should be easier to succeed in basketball than in football because you only need to find 7 or 8 smart athletes who can play at an elite level. In football, you need to find 25-30. The Cardinal men’s basketball team is so thin; and when Randle, Brown and Nastic graduate, we can brace ourselves for a fall to the bottom of the Pac-12.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 02.22.15 6:00am
Palo Alto altitudes and Denver
…not an easy test for the breath,
and the lighter air shot,
it’s a tough touch thang too
from threes n from two
that n heavy legs from the long grind
esp for a young visitor and
with Brown n Chasson still strugglin’ from deep..
wins don’t come cheap..
look.. it can’t help but seep
in that they played the tuff Dux
tough.. a good battle to the bitter finale
look.. it can’t help but seep
in that they played the tuff Dux
tough.. a good battle to the bitter finale..ah the Dawkins Doubters
what a team ! lotsa teamwork.. the 6th man ?..
Ha fuhghettabouddit !
you there in the stands
with your heft on yur hands
n yo mouff fulla quiche
look.. it can’t help but seep
in that they played the tuff Dux
tough.. a good battle to the bitter finale..ah the Dawkins Doubters
what a team ! lotsa teamwork.. the 6th man ?..
Ha fuhghettabouddit !
you there in the stands
with your heft on yur hands
n yo mouff fulla quichePS – Coach D
wasn’t in charge of player development
at Duke
under coach K
for years
for nada
look.. it can’t help but seep
in that they played the tuff Dux
tough.. a good battle to the bitter finale..ah the Dawkins Doubters
what a team ! lotsa teamwork.. the 6th man ?..
Ha fuhghettabouddit !
you there in the stands
with your heft on yur hands
n yo mouff fulla quichePS – Coach D
wasn’t in charge of player development
at Duke
under coach K
for years
for nada..but you kno
BBall better
fo sho
By maddogsfavsnpiks on 03.01.15 6:58pm
Palo Alto altitudes and Denver
…not an easy test for the breath,
and the lighter air shot,
from threes n from two
it’s a tough touch thang too
that n heavy legs from the long grind
esp for a young visitor and
with Brown n Chasson still strugglin’ from deep..
wins don’t come cheap..
look.. it can’t help but seep
’tween Dux n the Tree
a good battle to the bitter finale
look.. it can’t help but seep
’tween Dux n the Tree
a good battle to the bitter finale….ah the Dawkins Doubters
what a team ! lotsa teamwork.. the 6th man ?..
Ha fuhghettabouddit !
you there in the stands
with your heft on yur hands
n yo mouff fulla quiche
look.. it can’t help but seep
’tween Dux n the Tree
a good battle to the bitter finale….ah the Dawkins Doubters
what a team ! lotsa teamwork.. the 6th man ?..
Ha fuhghettabouddit !
you there in the stands
with your heft on yur hands
n yo mouff fulla quichePS – Coach D
in charge of player development
at Duke
under coach K
for years !
for nada ?
i doubtit…
look.. it can’t help but seep
’tween Dux n the Tree
a good battle to the bitter finale….ah the Dawkins Doubters
what a team ! lotsa teamwork.. the 6th man ?..
Ha fuhghettabouddit !
you there in the stands
with your heft on yur hands
n yo mouff fulla quichePS – Coach D
in charge of player development
at Duke
under coach K
for years !
for nada ?
i doubtit…..but you kno
BBall better
fo sho
By maddogsfavsnpiks on 03.01.15 7:12pm
^ Why's that format come out like that ? ^ - up above it's not the way i laid it out.. ^
By maddogsfavsnpiks on 03.01.15 7:16pm