Author: Haley Murphy

Senior guard Drew Shiller might have put it best when he said, “We haven’t won on the road, and a good team goes out and wins on the road. We haven’t accomplished anything yet when all we’ve done is win at home.”

So, as Stanford hits the road for the longest stretch of its season – four games – the team looks to accomplish something. Victory, that is. The Cardinal (10-9, 4-3 Pac-10) will spend the weekend in Arizona, meeting the Wildcats (10-9, 4-3) today and Arizona State (14-6, 4-3) on Saturday.

Stanford and both opponents are part of a five-way tie for second in the conference, so the significance of these games won’t go unnoticed.

“The opportunity is there, and if we go out and compete every game like we do at home, we’ll have a pretty good chance to win,” Shiller said. “With four road games coming up here, and Arizona is obviously tied with us right now, it’s a huge game, we just have to put our best foot forward.”

“We just have to start playing better on the road,” he added.

Head coach Johnny Dawkins agreed with his co-captain, but emphasized that opportunity comes one game at a time.

“I look at it as an opportunity,” Dawkins said. “If we want to do anything special, we have to go out and prove that we can win on the road. So, [it’s important] for our kids to understand the importance of each one of these games, take them one at a time, just give our best effort. We’re starting to grow up, we’re starting to mature in a lot of ways, and I think we’ll really see it [in] the way we compete on the road, so we’re excited about this trip and the opportunity we have.”

In a season riddled with injury, growing up has already been important for the young Stanford team. Most recently, sophomore Jack Trotter slid into a role in the post left wide-open by the loss of junior Josh Owens and injured sophomore Andrew Zimmermann.

“I think you have to give [Trotter] a lot of credit,” Dawkins said. “We needed guys to contribute more than they thought their roles would probably be, and he’s one of the guys that had to do that especially… I’m very proud of him.”

Arizona, though, has experienced a similar growth spurt to get to 4-3. The Wildcats have only one senior in guard Nic Wise and one junior in forward Jamelle Horne, making the roster among the youngest in the country. Wise uses his experience well, averaging 15.3 points per game, 1.84 steals and nearly 4 assists per game, and Horne consistently adds another 11.2 points and 6.5 rebounds to Arizona outings.

But, the Wildcats are led by one of their youngest talents: freshman forward Derrick Williams heads the team in scoring (15.6) and boards (7.1), and boasts the conference’s second-best shooting percentage at 58.9 percent.

Dawkins knows that Williams, and the whole Arizona roster, will be a challenging opponent for the Cardinal.

“I think Arizona is playing well…and Derrick’s a terrific player,” he noted. “Both teams are young, but I think both teams at this stage in the game are a little older than their age. We’re almost halfway through the Pac-10 season and more than halfway through the season, and I’ve told some of our kids, ‘You’re no longer freshmen and sophomores anymore, you’re more like sophomores and juniors. You’ve gained a lot of experience this year, and it’s time to play like you’ve gained that experience.’”

With Williams in the paint, Trotter will need to continue to fill the big shoes that have been left for him. But, the sophomore says his confidence is “on the upswing.”

“When you play against a senior like Schaftenaar [of Oregon State] or such a highly touted recruit like Dunigan [of Oregon], and you can hold your own, it’s definitely a confidence booster,” Trotter said.

Trotter should be confident with the conference’s second-best scorer and rebounder in Landry Fields (21.8 points, 8.7 boards) and standout shooter Jeremy Green (17.5 points) on the court to boost the Cardinal, even when the sophomore can’t.

But, Tucson contains the Pac-10’s biggest arena, with an average attendance of nearly 10,000, which may take Stanford’s struggles on the road to a whole new level.

“It’s a terrific environment,” Dawkins said. “It’s a great place, the crowd has a lot of energy, and we expect that. We’ve been in a few venues that have been that way, where it has been that crowds and unbelievable support, and [that’s] something that we have to continue to face.

“When you go on the road, you have to be consistent with your effort and with your execution for 40 minutes,” he continued. “Going anywhere on the road is tough, so you have to approach it that way. You have to be poised, you have to value the ball and, probably above all else, you have to really defend well.”

Shiller agreed, and said the Cardinal was focused on the little things in order to improve its record on the road.

“The biggest thing is communication, especially on the defensive end,” Shiller said. “Being on the road, it is tough to play in other environments, especially at Arizona, so we’re looking forward to the challenge. If we can do well on this road trip [it] can definitely spring us forward. So, it’s definitely important.”

The trip is indeed important for Stanford, potentially making or breaking its success in conference play. ‘The challenge’ tips off at 5 p.m. on Thursday, and all eyes are on the Cardinal to see how it fares.

As it watched its record slip to 1-6 on the road with back-to-back losses at Washington and Washington State last weekend, the Stanford men’s basketball learned the hard way that there’s really no place like home. Luckily for the Cardinal (8-9, 2-3 Pac-10), the team returns to Maples before its next shot at Pacific-10 Conference opponents, as it takes on Oregon State (8-9, 2-3 Pac-10) and Oregon (10-7, 2-3 Pac-10) on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.

Although it’s still early in conference play, Stanford is looking for a boost back toward the top of the Pac-10 standings — this time last week Fields, Green & Co. was tied for the top spot and now it jointly holds down the bottom. More significantly, the Cardinal heads on its longest road trip of the season (four games) after the Oregon schools come to town. If the past is any indication, Stanford can clearly use all the momentum and confidence it can muster before venturing outside the confines of Campus Loop.

In the meantime, head coach Johnny Dawkins stays focused on the more reassuring 7-2 record the Cardinal has built at home and knows the team is determined to improve upon it further.

“For us to continue to grow, [it’s important] for us to defend our home court,” Dawkins said. “That’s something we talked about earlier in the season and our kids have taken pride in that, so we have to go out this week and do the same thing. [We have to] take it one game at a time, go out there and put everything on the court on Thursday and come back and do the same thing on Saturday.”

The first chance the Cardinal will have to do this is against the Beavers. Last season, Oregon State won both meetings with Stanford, but the Card should have an edge this time around.

The Beavers return a starting lineup chock-full of upperclassmen, so experience alone could pose a challenge to Stanford’s youth. But, even the young ‘uns on Stanford’s side of the court are able to support the team, as sophomore guard Jeremy Green (17.4 points per game) should easily handle Oregon State guard Calvin Haynes (11.7 ppg). Senior forward Landry Fields (21.5 ppg, 8.7 rebounds per game) should also be under matched against small forward Seth Tarver, who averages 11.6 ppg and leads the conference in steals with nearly three per game.

Dawkins recognizes the Beavers’ talent, but knows that Stanford’s biggest opponent may be itself — namely, its ability to execute its own game plan properly.

“Oregon State is a good team. They’re going to play a Princeton-style offense and defense, 1-3-1, match-up 2-3 zone, some man-to-man — and they’re good at it,” he said. “They have some experience — these kids have been around for a while now. We need to execute very well against their zones and we also need to really defend their Princeton offense.”

But, Stanford’s tougher game will come Saturday against Oregon. Senior guard Tajuan Porter (12.8 ppg) is a quick — though little — point guard who has run the Ducks offense for the last four years.
His young sidekick, sophomore Malcolm Armstead, might overshadow him — though just barely in a literal sense at 6 feet — throwing up another 11.5 ppg and also giving the Ducks 4.24 assists per game and 2 steals.
While Oregon will struggle to find an answer for Fields, Stanford will hit its own stumbling block down low.
“[Sophomore Andrew] Zimmerman is out probably two to six weeks with a stress fracture in his foot,” Dawkins said in the Pac-10 teleconference. “It’s unfortunate. You know, he was starting to get our concepts down and was playing fairly well for us. He’ll be missed.”
Without Zimmerman — the Card’s leading rebounder in the post — Stanford will rely solely on Jack Trotter down low. At 6-foot-9 and 220, Trotter stands one inch and 22 pounds smaller than the Duck’s candidate, Michael Dunigan (11.8 ppg, 5.7 rebounds) and when in doubt, Oregon will likely use him to hammer it inside.
Still, Oregon is currently on a three-game losing streak of its own in Pac-10 play and is by no means untouchable. With this in mind, Dawkins is staying optimistic about the meeting. But his focus remains on his own team and its ability to dictate play.

“Our team is really [as] capable of beating anyone as Oregon,” Dawkins said. “Oregon is a team that scores the ball easily at times and so they want a fast-paced game, they want it to be up-tempo — that’s something you need to be aware of when you play them. You need to make sure that you stay within your tempo and within the framework of what you’re trying to do as a team.”

If Stanford can do just that in both games this weekend, it will not only re-earn a winning record in the conference, but also will feel a little more prepared for two weeks on the road.
The challenge begins when Stanford tips off against the Beavers at 7 p.m. tonight at Maples Pavilion.

After opening the Pacific-10 season with a demoralizing 92-66 loss at California, Stanford men’s basketball proved itself anything but demoralized. Instead, the Card returned to the court hungry for a win and determined to prove itself a conference contender. Cal’s disappointment was quickly erased with a we-can-win-at-the-end victory over USC, followed quickly by a we-can-win-decisively stomping of UCLA.

The one caveat? Both were home games and the only win Stanford has outside of Maples is a 57-52 victory over Virginia in the Cancun Challenge. Now, only one question remains for the Cardinal: can they win on the road?

Luckily for Stanford, the team’s first away game since the Bears is a meeting with the team currently at the bottom of Pac-10 rankings, the Washington Huskies. The Huskies are 1-3 in the conference — although 10-5 overall — after winning their first game against Oregon State, then dropping three in a row to Oregon (home) and the Arizona schools (on the road).

However, Washington does boast the conference’s leading scoring offence, which averages 79.6 points per game. In its last two games, though, Stanford has held its opponents to 53 and 59 points, respectively, and head coach Johnny Dawkins hopes the trend will continue in Seattle.

“I thought our defense was terrific [in the last few games],” Dawkins said. “We were very active, we forced turnovers and more importantly, we didn’t give up many easy baskets. Holding our opponents under 60 is very good and it’s a standard that we want to set, where we become a very stingy defensive team.”

This stingy defense will have its work cut out for it against Washington senior forward Quincy Pondexter and sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas. The duo rank third and fifth in the Pac-10 in scoring, putting up 19.5 and 18.3 ppg, respectively. Pondexter also snags an average of 7.9 rebounds and knocks down 81.3 percent of his free throws. He’ll be Card standout Landry Fields’ toughest match-up of the season thus far, but will also be a warm-up for Saturday’s standoff with the conference’s leading scorer from Washington State, Klay Thompson. (Thompson and Fields are the only two who top Pondexter in scoring, tallying 23 and 22.1 ppg, respectively.)

“[Washington State has] one of the best players in the conference in Klay Thompson, who is a terrific, terrific scorer,” Dawkins said. “Our match-ups with Landry Fields, versus him and Pondexter, are key match-ups for us. Those are three of the best players in our conference and we need our guy — Landry — to be the player he’s been all year. And that’s a rock for us and one of the best players in our conference.”

The backcourt battle will prove equally important against the Huskies, as Stanford sophomore Jeremy Green falls just behind Thomas in scoring for the year with 17.6 ppg. But, he has spent his last two outings leading the team, with 17 against the Trojans and 30 against the Bruins. Green hits roughly three shots from long range every time out — making him the Pac-10’s best three-point shooter — offering a threat that Thomas has yet to match.

After Stanford’s own comeback from a slow season start, Dawkins is taking nothing for granted and knows Washington will be looking for a win tonight.

“I expect Washington to come out in the game very strong,” Dawkins said. “They’re a very competitive team — they’re a team that’s going to come out right away and try to hit us hard and their crowd is going to be terrific. They’re coming off a few losses, so they’ll be hungry, and we need to match their intensity.”

The crowd may very well prove to be another factor for the young Card, which often plays to a less-than-packed Maples, but Dawkins believes that experiences from other games from the season will help Stanford adjust to playing to a new environment.

“I think the games we played in the preseason plus the Cal game will be beneficial,” Dawkins noted. “We’ve been in some hostile environments, some great crowds, and I think our kids have learned from those experiences. And now it’s time for us to go on the road again and to show the poise, to execute under pressure, be able to work and communicate through large crowds.”

Hostility will meet Stanford from both opponents and crowds this weekend. But this time around, Stanford hopes it will fare better than the last time it hit the road.

Whether it was the free Chipotle for the 6th Man section, the prospect of seeing Lil’ Romeo or merely the excitement of a Pac-10 home opener, Stanford men’s basketball played to a full house at Maples Pavilion last night with 6,520 fans in attendance. Romeo didn’t show for the Trojans’ 54-53 loss, but the Cardinal combo of sophomore Jeremy Green and senior Landry Fields did – and they put on a better show than most expected after Stanford went 1-4 during winter break.

While the win, which pushed the Cardinal to 1-1 in conference play (7-7 overall), was by no means a runaway full of glitz and glamour, Stanford finally earned a victory in a meeting that came down to the final possessions – a much needed statement after the team lost two games this year by two points or fewer.

Coach Johnny Dawkins said the ball just bounced in Stanford’s favor during this trip down the stretch, while Fields offered a different explanation: sheer resolve.

When asked what was going through his mind as Stanford’s seven-point lead evaporated in the final minute, Fields simply said, “We’re not losing this game. Not this time.”

The Trojans were expected to be formidable opponents at 2-0 in the Pac-10 (10-4 overall), but this proved only partially true. USC came out flat offensively in the first half – falling to an early 11-3 deficit and shooting 42.3 percent to Stanford’s 48.1 – and hung back on defense, leading to what head coach Kevin O’Neill called “a complete lack of effort.” Still, with only two major producers for each team (guard Dwight Lewis and forward Alex Stephenson for USC, with 13 and nine points, respectively, and Fields and Green for Stanford with 12 and seven), the margin was only 31-28 at the break.

USC pulled things together defensively after halftime and was able to keep Fields without a field goal in the second half. But the Trojans couldn’t contain Green, who eventually led Stanford with 17 points.

With 3:48 to go, Green hit a three from deep in the corner, putting Stanford back up by seven. USC senior Mike Gerrity responded with a long ball of his own to make it 52-46 before Green hit another jumper 20 seconds later at 2:01.

In the end, though, it wasn’t Green’s or Fields’ scoring that put the nails in USC’s coffin, as their combined 31 was outdone by Stephenson’s and Lewis’ 35. Instead, it was contributions from sophomore big men Andrew Zimmerman and Jack Trotter – with 10 and six, respectively – that gave the Cardinal the edge.

“In a game where the final score is 54-53, 10 points is a heck of a lot of points,” Dawkins said.

Dawkins was pleased with the balance of the team, especially among the young players.

“I think some guys did some growing up tonight on our team by being put in that position,” Dawkins said. “For sophomores that never really played a lot of minutes, playing at this level is an adjustment. But they’re adjusting to the level of competition… They compete, they work hard for us and they come out every game and they give us what they have.”

As sophomore Jarrett Mann stepped up to have the final chance, he was, in fact, adjusting. With 10 seconds to go, after classmate Zimmerman had failed to convert either free throw at the 32-second mark, Mann took his own spot on the line on a reaching foul by Trojan forward Leonard Washington. Mann, who had missed back-to-back free throws at the same mark on Nov. 25 to send the game with then-No. 5 Kentucky to overtime – in which Stanford eventually fell 73-65 – missed the front end. However, his second fell and USC missed a jumper and its put-back at the other end, leaving Stanford on top.

In a season when a single conference win sometimes seemed like a stretch for the Card, this victory over USC will be a big momentum booster, especially going into Saturday’s 3 p.m. matchup against UCLA.

Dawkins said he was proud of the team and of the win, but that it hardly came as a surprise: “I think we can be as competitive as any team in the conference, and we have to believe that.”

After falling at the buzzer to Oral Roberts on Nov. 18, Stanford men’s basketball knew that Thanksgiving would bring anything but a “break” for the team. In fact, the Cardinal was in for a series of battles — not the least of which was against the football team for fan turnout on the day of Big Game, plus the battles on the court with Florida A&M, Virginia, No. 5 Kentucky and Portland State — before classes resumed.

So, Stanford (4-3) went to work, notching a 30-point win over the Rattlers of Florida A&M (0-7) on Nov. 21, despite losing fans at the half to a less successful appearance by the football team at Big Game. Sophomore guard Jeremy Green led all scorers with a season-high 21 points, while senior Landry Fields earned his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds along with a season-high six assists.

Sophomore forward Jack Trotter and guards Drew Shiller, Jarrett Mann and Emmanuel Igbinosa all reached double figures in scoring as well, helping the Cardinal to lead by as much as 34 partway through the second half and to earn an eventual 99-69 victory.

Fields believes that the shared scoring in the Card’s most dominant win to date is a sign of Stanford’s continued improvement as individual players and as a group.

“Playing with each guy, I think the rotation is starting to really set in,” Fields, Stanford’s team captain, said. “A lot of guys are really starting to find their identity out there — I feel like everyone’s getting comfortable with their roles.”

Coach Johnny Dawkins agreed, noting that he’s seen the most improvement this season in Stanford’s young players.

“Some guys ducked into the lineup when they probably weren’t expecting it with Josh [Owens] around,” Dawkins said. “To see those guys really step up and compete for us at a really good level and to see those guys continuing to get better — when I’m speaking of those guys I’m speaking of the Zimmermanns, the Trotters, the Matei Daians — those guys at every practice have really come and battled, you can see the improvement in them.”

Stanford rode the momentum from the win all the way to Cancun, Mexico, where it met the University of Virginia (4-2) in the Cancun Challenge on Nov. 24. The matchup was fairly even, with six ties and 13 lead changes over the course of the contest. Both teams struggled in shooting — the Cardinal shot 38.9 percent from the floor to UVA’s 37.8 — but Fields lifted the Stanford offense with 25 points and 13 boards and found some help from Green, the only other Cardinal player to contribute in double digits, who added 10 points. Half of Green’s points came in the final 5 minutes of play, helping Stanford to pull away from the Cavaliers after being down 47-46 with 4:52 remaining.

At 4:42, Mann scored on a lay-up and Green followed with a lay-up of his own and then a long ball, along with a lay-up and two made foul shots by Fields to finish the 11-5 run by the Cardinal to win the game by the score of 57-52.

The win against Virginia placed Stanford in the tournament’s championship game against the fifth-ranked University of Kentucky (5-0). The Wildcats jumped out to what would be their largest lead of the meeting, holding a 19-11 advantage eight and a half minutes into the game. However, the second of Green’s five three-pointers at 12:21 jumpstarted an 11-0 run by the Card to give Stanford a three-point edge.

By the half, the teams had already seen six ties, but a final burst by the Cardinal earned the team a 38-32 buffer at halftime.

With Kentucky expected to dominate Stanford, Dawkins said that his team’s confidence in itself allowed Stanford to hang with one of the nation’s top teams.

“I think our kids believe that we can be competitive and that’s the first step — believing,” he said.

Throughout the second half, that belief and the Cardinal’s play, hung tough. Despite shooting only 31.8 percent, Stanford maintained a slight lead until 6:42, when a lay-up by Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson put the Wildcats up by one.

In the final three minutes, the teams tied four more times, but with nine seconds left, the Cardinal held a two-point lead. A pair of missed free throws by Mann failed to clinch the victory for Stanford and a foul by sophomore Andrew Zimmermann gave Kentucky the chance to make everything even. Clutch conversions by guard John Wall — he went eight-for-eight from the stripe on the night to help earn his game-high 26 points — made it 63-all and the teams went to overtime.

In the extra period, however, the young Stanford team crumbled under a combination of inexperience and fatigue. The Cardinal did not score a single field goal in the remaining five minutes and the team was outscored 10-2 in overtime, falling 73-65.

Stanford was led by Fields’s third consecutive double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds and Green added another 18 in the loss. No other Stanford players reached double digits.

Dawkins blames some of Stanford’s shortcomings thus far on youth. But he also acknowledges that this team has more potential than it has yet reached.

“We’re not exactly an old team,” Dawkins said. “There are a few things that we’re still trying to see with our guys. We do have an idea of what our guys can do. That’s what this time of the season is about for us — it’s a growth period. I think we’re learning more — and there are a few things that we need to clean up, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

Back on campus, Stanford looked to rebound against Portland State (1-4) on Nov. 29. Again, play stayed relatively close throughout the first half and the Vikings’ eight-of-13 threes — and 65 percent overall shooting — certainly helped keep it that way. In fact, Stanford only had a two-point lead until Fields stepped up and hit a three of his own with one second left to close the period, 43-38.

Dawkins was less-than-thrilled with the Cardinal’s performance, though he gave credit to Portland State for its offensive success in the first half.

“They made us play the way they wanted to play,” he said. “We didn’t play as well as I would’ve liked to see us play in the first half. I thought our second half defense was better — and that’s a credit to our guys in making some adjustments and being really focused. [But] this is one of the best shooting teams that I’ve seen in the last couple years. They really shot the ball well.”

Luckily for the Card, the Vikings’ shooting fell to 37.9 percent after the break and the team went only 2-for-11 from long range. Meanwhile, Stanford’s shooting jumped to 69.6 percent and the game became increasingly one-sided.

The Cardinal finished with an 83-64 victory and was again led in scoring by Fields with 25 points. Green, Shiller and Trotter added 19, 11 and 10 points, respectively. Despite the improved scoring, though, Dawkins saw room for improvement and he hopes that the next two weeks — when the team breaks for finals — will give Stanford some time to prepare.

“I think we have to continue to get better defensively,” he said. “We have to get better on the boards — we battle pretty good, but I think we can battle even better there, so those are areas I think that need to be cleaned up the most. Offensively, we’re still working on our spacing and some timing issues and you know we’ve got to clean that up. So, I’m definitely not satisfied with where we are. I think there’s a lot of room for us to improve some of the intangibles of the game really. And I think if we make those improvements, we can be a better ball club.”

“Like coach said, there’s a lot to improve on,” Fields agreed. “I think we are improving and I feel like these next two weeks we’ll get better in a lot of aspects of the game, in a lot of our deficiencies. But I’m liking how it’s going right now, but we can’t be satisfied with anything, especially with this team because our margin for error is so small. We just have to keep getting better.”

Stanford will have a chance to test these improvements when it returns on Dec. 13 to take on UC-Davis at Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m.