UCLA came into this one on a four game slide, including a blowout loss to Liberty that cost Steve Alford his job. As is often the case, the Bruins played inspired in their first game under interim coach Murry Bartow. The quality play of the hosts and the absence of Daejon Davis proved to be too much for the Cardinal.
The Cardinal got off to a sluggish offensive start without their star point guard. Davis dressed for the game, and was a game time decision. He is still recovering from an ankle injury sustained last week against Long Beach State. Without him, the Stanford attack fell flat and they quickly found themselves in a 14 point hole.
After a timeout, Jerod Haase’s squad ripped off a 10-0 run to get it as close as 4. KZ Okpala led the way with 13 in the half, as well as 7 rebounds, but no one else could seem to get a shot to fall. The Cardinal made just 32% of their attempts in the first frame, and took a six point deficit into the break.
As bad as their offense played, the real issue for Stanford was interior defense. UCLA racked up 56 points in the paint on the night. They penetrated the Cardinal defense at will, and circumvented help defenders with lobs to the behemoth Moses Brown et al. Brown had 17 points on 8-9 from the field, and provided a major matchup nightmare for the visitors.
Just one game after career highs in points and rebounds, Josh Sharma was nowhere to be found. He was in constant foul trouble, and only saw 14 minutes of action. Stanford’s lack of rim protection was evident, as was their underwhelming performance on the boards. UCLA out-rebounded them 46-34.
Despite all of this, the Cardinal hung around in striking distance for much of the game. They kept it in single digits until late, when the Bruins finally built an insurmountable lead on a flurry of transition buckets. UCLA led by as much as 27.
Okpala paced Stanford with an impressive 22-10 line, and was the only Cardinal player in double figures. Isaac White added 9 on three late bombs. Cormac Ryan returned to action after missing three contests with an ankle injury of his own. He had a cold night, going just 2-11 from the field.
UCLA extends its home winning streak over Stanford to 13 games. The Cardinal play USC this weekend. The Trojans had just 7 scholarship players available today against Cal.
Comments
I'm still sticking to my prediction that Stanford will improve throughout the year
They also need everyone healthy as depth is an issue. Sounds like Daejon’s ability to create offense was missed last night.
By worldblee on 01.04.19 10:15am
I've lost faith in Haase
Think of where this team would have been last year without Daejon Davis. I watched that UCLA game and why is Ryan Cormac even on the floor? He can’t play defense, he can’t shoot, he can’t pass. Why isn’t Sheffield playing? This kid was a major contributor last year. Isaac Whyte? He’s there to shoot and it takes him half the game to even put up a shot.
Haase has the talent, but the execution is horrendous.
By Blackjoy on 01.04.19 4:55pm
did sheffield even play last year?
By brandtjl1 on 01.06.19 7:36am
It is too early to pull the plug on Haase
There are a lot of things not to like about Haase’s team this year. As a team, they are shooting 67% from the free throw line, which is a sign of inadequate practice and poor instruction. [Shooting involves three things: distance, direction, and trajectory. With free throws the distance remains constant. A shooting coach needs to analyze each player’s misses to see which one or both of the other two elements are causing the misses. Just shooting more free throws at practice without diagnosing the problems is never going to work.]
They are committing 15 turnovers a game, which can be indicative of many things: inexperience, players trying too hard, poor preparation. Lots of things. Right now, Davis is the primary ball handler and they all know that, so when he is out or on the bench, the rest of the team is trying to doo too much.
And the team is shooting only 33% from beyond the arc. (Statistically, if you can shoot 50% from inside the arc, you are hurting your team if you shoot less than 40%. from beyond the arc.) Again, this can be a sign of poor practicing and poor instruction. (Check out the Dirk Nowinski video on You Tube if you want to see how to teach someone to shoot threes.)
But this is a young team. [Sure, so is Duke, but ever since Coach K adopted the one and done philosophy and convinced his administration to let him admit virtually anyone, Duke is not a fair comparison.] So let’s see how Haase’s sophomores look in at the end of their junior year. The major problem with his predecessor Johnny Dawkins was that none of his players improved during their time on the farm. If Haase’s players suffer the same fate, then he should be let go, But if they get better individually, they will improve as a team.
But, for goodness sakes, get that free throw percentage up, please. It is simply embarrassing.
By SU74 on 01.05.19 9:53pm
The team isn't developing
My biggest issue is not with individuals, it’s with the team and the coaching. The defense against UCLA was atrocious. That’s coaching. The players don’t seem to have any clue about how to exploit matchups and where to go with the ball. The majority of the offense is passing the ball until Okpala a Davis can create a shot.
My standard is Mike Montgomery. Montgomery didn’t let a kid on the floor until that kid knew how to play defense. Montgomery’s teams had far less talent than what I see out there. MM ran plays. Specific sets to get specific people the ball in specific spots. Even Dawkins knew enough to feed Travis down low.
I don’t know what Haase’s philosophy is. I get the feeling he thinks you just get enough good players and then let them figure it out. That works if you can get them to play at their highest level. Haase isn’t doing that. Against Kansas, why in god’s name did he not foul to stop the guy from shooting a 3?
Haase was lucky to get Davis, probably wasn’t even recruited by Haase as I think Dawkins did it. Ask yourself, where would this team have been last year and this year without Davis?
Practically speaking, I agree. You can’t fire a coach after two years. But I honestly think the program is getting worse and I don’t’ see that it is going to get better. Dawkins at least got us some NIT championships.
I like Haase demeanor. He seems like a good guy. I don’t think he really knows how to coach a championship team let alone one that can win the conference. Until Haase puts an emphasis on defensive execution and learns how to exploit players like Sharma, this team is going nowhere…fast.
By Blackjoy on 01.07.19 12:43pm