Author: Michael Lazarus

It’s not hard to find the irony. The No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis team will be hoping the rain stays away this weekend, as it hosts the first round of the Team Indoor Championships today and tomorrow.

Despite the name of the tournament, the first round is in fact played outside at the Taube Family Tennis Center.

“You just have to prepare as if it’s not going to rain,” said sophomore Bradley Klahn. “We’ve been through the rain delay situation before. You just have to prepare to play the match, be ready to wait it out.”

If Mother Nature cooperates, the Cardinal will host UNC-Wilmington at 12 p.m. today and, if it wins, will face the winner of the San Diego State vs. Oklahoma match on Saturday. The forecast calls for scattered showers this afternoon, with the system clearing out by tomorrow morning.

“We’re just thinking of UNC-Wilmington, but if we win we’ll probably play Oklahoma,” said junior Alex Clayton. “They’re well coached and it won’t be an easy match.”

The games are part of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Stanford is serving as one of 15 host sites around the nation for the second annual tournament.

The Cardinal is the highest-ranked team in the group. Wilmington is ranked No. 57, San Diego State No. 44 and Oklahoma No. 45. Despite being a low seed in Palo Alto this weekend, Oklahoma brings the biggest name — its head coach is John Roddick, older brother of tennis star Andy Roddick.

If Stanford wins both of its matches, it will advance to the National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 12-15.

Stanford is coming off a dominant victory over Sacramento State on Jan. 23, the team’s first regular season match. The Cardinal had a clean sweep over the overmatched Hornets, winning 7-0.

On the doubles side, the No. 1 duo in the nation, sophomores Klahn and Ryan Thacher, easily won 8-4. Senior Richard Wire and Clayton, the No. 2 team for Stanford, won an astonishing 26 points in a row en route to an 8-1 victory. The one blemish on the match for the Cardinal was the freshman duo of Matt Kandath and Denis Lin, which lost 8-1.

On the singles side, junior Greg Hirshman, playing in the sixth spot, delivered the clinching the point with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. The rest of the singles lineup — Klahn, Clayton, Thacher, Wire and Kandath, in order — is not expected to change, nor is the doubles lineup.

“I know the freshmen struggled a little bit, but they will get better,” Klahn said. “It was the first match of the season and we got a long way to go. If we just keep working and improve each match we will be fine.”

What could benefit the Cardinal the most from the Sacramento State match is not the game play itself, but the rain delay it had to endure. The match was initially scheduled for 1 p.m., but was pushed back to 3 p.m. The teams finished the doubles and as they were starting the singles, the heavens opened up once again, delaying the match another two and a half hours.

Stanford is praying it won’t have to draw on its rain-delay experience, but until it has an indoor facility, it is out of the Cardinal’s control.

The match today is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. If Stanford wins, it will play at 12 p.m. on Saturday, while it will play at 9 a.m. if the Cardinal falls to Wilmington.

At the beginning of the season, CBS Sports predicted, “Stanford fans will suffer through another tough campaign, no question.” Doc Sports announced, “This is going to be a long, long year for coach John Dawkins . . . it’s going to get real ugly, real fast around Palo Alto.” Bleacher Report was the most optimistic for Stanford basketball, backhandedly complimenting the Cardinal with this gem: “Are they the worst team in the Pac-10? No, but someone has to finish last. Coach Johnny Dawkins has a long way to go with this program.”

To every basketball pundit’s surprise, Stanford men’s basketball has not self-imploded into an amorphous blob of five players chucking a ball toward a hoop. Who knew? The kids can actually play.

To celebrate the Cardinal’s delightful mediocrity (10-9, 4-3 Pac-10), let’s hand out some midseason awards.
Most Valuable Player: Toss up between forward Landry Fields and guard Jeremy Green. Coming into the year, Fields was the clear-cut favorite. As the only returning starter and proven scorer on the roster, Dawkins was expecting a Herculean effort from Fields game in and game out for Stanford to be competitive. But the sharp-shooting Green has been a revelation of sorts. Never afraid to pull the trigger from deep behind the arc, the Texas native is averaging 17.5 points per game and lit up the UCLA defense for a career-high 30.
Most Improved Player: Forward Jack Trotter. There were moments last season where Trotter looked like a boy among men on the court. Not this year. Averaging nearly seven points in just over 24 minutes, the 6’9’’ Trotter has been a steady presence to a revolving front-court for the Cardinal. Still only 220 pounds, Trotter could be a wrecking force down low if he adds a few more pounds to his frame.
An honorable mention to The Sixth Man committee. After a disastrous season last year that saw record-low membership, the committee responded with a price cut and an incentive based system to encourage people to attend games. While the turnout hasn’t been great (more on that later), it would be scary to imagine the results without the proactive moves of the committee.
Fan Favorite: Without question, forward Matei Daian. Seriously, have you ever seen a crowd go as crazy over a routine lay-up, as Maples Pavilion does on every Daian score? Is it the fact that he’s from Romania? Is it that he often looks a little, umm, lost on the court? Or is it that no one on the team has the heart to tell him to pull his shorts below his belly button? Whatever the reason is, Stanford fans will be treated to two more years of the happy-go-lucky Daian.
Most Welcome Addition: Forward Andrew Zimmermann. It wasn’t much of a competition for Zimmermann as the two other newcomers, freshmen Gabriel Harris (8.9 minutes per game) and Andy Brown (0, torn ACL), have seen limited action. Still, the Santa Clara transfer has impressed teammates and fans alike. Before going down with an injury earlier this month, Zimmermann was a vocal, energetic leader on the court. Zimmermann played every minute like it was overtime in the NCAA Championship, diving for every loose ball and always being the first to congratulate a teammate.
Best Halftime Show: The Shaolin Monks. Lying parallel to the ground being supported by nothing but four sharp stakes while shirtless? Enough said.
Least Valuable Player: The Sixth Man. I’m aware that Stanford is undefeated at home in Pac-10 play. I understand that has something to do with fan noise. But seeing the student section three-quarters empty five minutes before tip-off is disheartening. Stanford is one game out of first place in the Pac-10. Finish up your problem sets and go to the Thursday night games. Start your pre-gaming early and go to the Saturday twilight games.
Mike Lazarus is now training to become a Shaolin Monk. Send encouragement to [email protected]

I play on the Stanford Club Baseball team. We face other club teams from California and Nevada. Our hats have the National Club Baseball Association logo on the back. In other words, I am a club athlete.

Of course, Stanford University doesn’t see it that way. Ask the Athletic Department about a club baseball team and they will give you a blank stare.

That’s because according to the University, I am part of an ASSU Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) athletic club. In a move that can only be explained by an attempt to increase the size of its mind-numbingly slow bureaucracy, Stanford decided to separate club teams that do or do not have a Division I affiliate.

For example, since Stanford has a DI baseball team, club baseball is a VSO. Same thing for basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, water polo, women’s lacrosse and other sports that Stanford already has.

What is the significance of the separation? Well, it means that club baseball stores its gear in the back of a player’s car, while ultimate frisbee has three coaches and annually travels to a tournament in Las Vegas.

Sorry, that was an unfair jab. I’m sure frisbee needs those three coaches to instruct them on the intricate art of a sport that grandmothers play with their grandchildren on beaches in Hawaii.

The biggest difference and the only practical one, is that VSOs receive much less money from the University. Club sports and VSOs both receive money from The Stanford Fund, normally around $1,500 per quarter. Both normally charge member dues (Club Baseball is $200 per year). What VSOs do not receive, however, are special fees — the fees students vote on and can request refunds from. Currently, club sports collectively receive $8.23 per student per quarter and that money is then split between the teams based on such factors as budget and need.

That’s a lot of frisbees.

By funding club sports more heavily than VSOs, the University is sending a clear message: It has no use for student-athletes who cannot compete at the DI level.

In the eyes of the University, VSO athletes do not contribute to the school. Unlike club cricket, frisbee or rugby, VSO teams do not bring another sport to the Athletic Department’s vast lineup of teams. Stanford already has a baseball team and a basketball team, so why should it fund another one?

This line of thinking is a mistake. VSOs are much more valuable to the University than club sports are.

VSOs are one of the best recruiting tools Stanford has to attract high school athletes. VSOs are full of players who were very good high school players, but not quite good enough to play for a DI school, especially for one as good as Stanford.

When these students apply to different schools, they have a choice to make. Do I go to a smaller school where I can continue playing the sport I love, or do I go to Stanford and completely stop playing?

VSOs offer a compromise — the ability to attend a school like Stanford and still compete in the sport you have been playing your entire life. I know I can’t speak for every VSO athlete, but I was seriously considering going to another school where I knew I could make the varsity baseball team. While club baseball isn’t the same as varsity college baseball, I still didn’t have to quit baseball cold turkey to attend Stanford.

Stanford’s actual club sports do not have this recruiting power. How many diehard cricketers or archers do you know whose college choice would be shaped by the existence of a club cricket or archery team? Probably none.

Yet, these are the teams who receive the most money from Stanford. Something doesn’t add up.

These club sports definitely contribute to the atmosphere of Stanford. How many campuses can you walk around and see students play taekwondo or rugby?

But to argue that they contribute more and are worth more than VSOs is irrational. Give VSOs the respect and funding they deserve and treat them as full-fledged club sports.
Mike Lazarus just lost any chance he ever had of making the Frisbee team. Console him at mlazarus “at” stanford.edu.ߴ

Cardinal tennis is back.

After a three-year rare downturn for the Stanford men’s tennis program, the Cardinal announced its return to dominance at the Sherwood Cup, as sophomore Bradley Klahn captured the singles title and Klahn and sophomore Ryan Thacher reached the semifinals in doubles.

“I think the team as a whole we had a pretty good showing,” Klahn said. “Singles, guys were plying pretty well and had some good wins. Doubles was decent; I think we got a lot of room for improvement, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

Klahn defeated Baylor’s Denes Lukacs 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday afternoon to claim his second singles title of the year. Klahn took home hardware at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships previously in the year.

“I felt pretty good the entire week,” Klahn said. “I got better with each match and was playing my best tennis by the middle of the semis and finals. I improved my serve and backhand. That was one of things I was working on the most over the summer and fall and it’s starting to show.”

The championship victory was especially gratifying for junior Alex Clayton, who lost to Lukacs 0-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals. Clayton reached the semis after the No. 1 seed in the tournament, USC’s Steve Johnson, could not play due to back spasms.

There were more Stanford ties in the tournament. Nine Cardinal players entered the singles tournament and five – Klahn, Clayton, Thacher, freshman Matt Kandath and senior Richard Wire – survived the first round. In the second round, Wire and Kandath both fell in straight sets to USC’s top two players – Johnson and Robert Farah.

“I feel in much better shape now than I did before the tournament,” Wire said. “I think everyone used it as a good warm-up.”

In the quarterfinals, Klahn and Thacher, Stanford’s No. 1 ranked doubles team, squared off against each other. Thacher kept it close in the first set, losing in a tiebreaker, but could not keep up with Klahn in the second set, losing 6-2.

On the doubles side, the Cardinal, which has been mixing up the lineup and pairings, had a solid, if unspectacular, showing. Klahn and Thacher had a bye into the quarterfinals. Clayton and Wire, Stanford’s No. 2 ranked team, advanced out of the first round, while the duos of freshman Walker Kehrer and junior Ted Kelly and Kandath and freshman Denis Lin had early exits.

In the quarterfinals, Klahn and Thacher made quick work of their UC-Irvine opponents, defeating them 8-3. Clayton and Wire lost 8-3 to a USC team featuring the same Johnson who could play Clayton a day earlier.

In the semifinals, an unranked USC squad upset Klahn and Thacher, 8-3.

In order for Stanford to win its 19th NCAA championship, the doubles must improve.

As the Sherwood Cup showed, the Cardinal’s singles lineup can play with anyone in the nation, so “the doubles point could be the difference” in advancing to the next round, according to Wire.

Stanford opens its regular season against Sacramento State this Saturday. While picked to win the Big Sky Conference, the Hornets should not pose too much of a threat to the Cardinal, if Stanford plays at the same level it did at the Sherwood Cup.

The match is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. at the Taube Tennis Center.

On Monday, my colleague Dan Bohm wrote a column criticizing the recent firings of three prominent college football coaches as just another example of how modern sports are “too soft.” While I agree with Bohm’s argument and have no problem with a coach showing a player a little tough love (this column has previously called out Stanford intramural sports for contributing to the softening of its students), we need to ask ourselves if these coaches are the men we want raising the next generation of adults.

I obviously do not condone locking players in storage closets, making players crawl on sun-scorched Astroturf until their hands are burnt or physically assaulting players, but I believe there are worse things for players to be subjected to.

Like their coach deserting them for more money.

The hottest trend in college football since the spread offense has been coaches skipping out on the final years of their contract to take a job at a more prestigious program. What message does that send to their players?

This one: When an opportunity presents itself to add a few more zeroes to your bank account, by all means go ahead and stab in the back an institution that gave you a chance.

The most glaring example is the case of Brian Kelly at the University of Cincinnati. In his fourth season at Cincinnati, Kelly had his preseason unranked Bearcats sitting at a perfect 12-0 and a date against the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl. On the cusp of the most important football game in the history of the school, Kelly decided to leave. Just packed his bags and hightailed it to his new higher paying coaching gig at Notre Dame.

Predictably, Cincinnati was systematically dismantled by Florida, 51-24.

When a coach goes on a recruiting trip, he tries to sell the player on the program. “Hey five-star recruit, I want you to be part of the (insert school name) family. Here at (school name), we don’t look at you as just a player, we treat you like a brother and a son.”

Sounds good. Until Pete Caroll bounces to the NFL before the NCAA doles out sanctions for alleged violations by Reggie Bush and Joe McKnight.

Sounds good. Until Rich Rodriguez signs a contract with Michigan, refuses to coach West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl and then refuses to pay his buyout clause to WVU.

Sounds good. Until Bobby Petrino, only six months after signing a 10-year contract with Louisville, leaves the Cardinals to coach the Atlanta Falcons.

These are the coaches who are supposed to be shaping young men into strong adults?

Even if these coaches were not role models and father figures for the players, there is still an ethical reason for honoring their contracts. When a university signs a coach to a multiyear contract, it is taking a gamble. No matter how bad a coach turns out to be, the university still must pay the contract (or pay a ridiculously high buyout).

Either way, the coach is guaranteed a set amount of money regardless of performance. In turn, the coach tells the university, no matter how good he turns out to be, he will continue to work for the university at the agreed upon rate, for the agreed upon time.

Apparently these coaches play by a different set of rules. And by that, I mean no rules.

Is it really any wonder there are players like Brandon Marshall and JaMarcus Russell — me-first, money-hungry, locker room detractors — in the NFL? Where do you think they learned their selfish behavior? From their me-first, money-hungry college football coaches.

With all due respect, a bruise from a coach’s punch will fade away. The lessons players learn from their coaches do not.
Mike Lazarus is honoring his contract with the Daily’s Ink Bowl team despite interest from the NFL. Congratulate him at mlazarus “at stanford.edu.

You hear stories of the Stanford men’s tennis team traveling to Hawaii over Thanksgiving break and you invariably become jealous.

You see tennis players wearing their free Nike shorts, shirts, sweats and shoes and you say to yourself, damn, I wish I were on the team.

You watch the team steamroll over opponents in the Taube Tennis Center, arguably the premiere collegiate stadium in the nation and become even more envious.

Then you sit in class and overhear a player discussing the twice-weekly 7:00 a.m. workouts and you forget why you ever wanted to play on the team.

That is the life of a Stanford men’s tennis player.

The Cardinal, returning its top four players, enters the 2010 season with lofty expectations. Last season, Stanford had its national title dream dashed by a loss to USC in the Round of 16 at the NCAA Tournament.

This season, Stanford does not plan on changing much. Sophomores Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher, junior Alex Clayton and senior Richard Wire, the team’s top ranked players, lead the charge for the Cardinal’s 19th national championship.

Four new freshmen will also enter the fray: Matt Kandath, Denis Lin, Sam Ecker and Walker Kehrer.

Stanford only loses three players from last year’s squad: Matt Bruch, Blake Muller and Jeff Zeller. Bruch, the Pac-10 singles champion his freshman and senior year, is an especially big loss.

Clayton is excited about the combination of new talent and experienced veterans.

“We have a few new freshmen who are going to make an impact immediately,” he said. “We had a really young team last year. Everyone comes in a year older and year more mature.”

As of now most of the roster is set. Klahn, Clayton, Thacher, Wire, Kandath and Lin will most likely be the singles lineup.

Doubles is a little more wide-open. Klahn and Thacher, the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the nation and winners of the National Indoor Championships, will assuredly be the No. 1 for Stanford. After that, there are five players — Clayton, Wire, Kandath, Lin and junior Ted Kelly — competing for the four spots on the two other doubles team.

Whatever the lineups end up being, the Cardinal will not have an easy road to the NCAA Championships. Standing in the way of a dream season for Stanford are the perennial powers: USC, UCLA, Baylor, Texas, Ohio State, Mississippi and Virginia.

Stanford gets it first test of the season Jan. 15-19 at the Sherwood Cup, which features some of the best teams in the nation, including USC and UCLA. While the tournament does not matter in terms of conference play, the Cup traditionally serves as a litmus test for the Cardinal.

“It’s a good way to see where we are as a team,” Wire said.

Stanford has already had one quick test — a match against University of Hawaii over Thanksgiving Break. Even without Klahn, who was out with a minor injury, the Cardinal easily defeated the Warriors 7-0.

“Hawaii was a great warm-up,” Wire said. “We don’t want to draw too much from it, but we were pleased with the results.”

Stanford will quickly see how those results in Hawaii translate to the tougher Pac-10 competition. By the end of the year, the Cardinal players are hoping you will hear one more story: how they won the national championship.

Being a Stanford sports fan just got harder. A lot harder. Gone are the days of being able to sit in the Red Zone chanting “Toby, Toby!” over and over while Cardinal football steamrolls opponents. Gone are the days of watching All-Americans Kelly O’Hara and Christen Press lead Stanford women’s soccer to an undefeated regular season and a berth in the National Championship.

Gone are the days of women’s volleyball winning its 16th conference title and making its 29th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Gone are the days of men’s soccer reclaiming national prominence. Gone are the days of seeing men’s water polo atop the national rankings.

Now? Our ‘welcome back to campus’ gift this quarter was a game in which Jerome Randle and the rest of the California Golden Bears crushed a woefully overmatched Stanford squad, 92-66.

Yep, the good-ol’ days are definitely gone.

To compensate for the drop-off of talent and success, here are seven promotions, giveaways and gimmicks that would give the men’s basketball season the amusement it so desperately needs.

1. Bring a keg to the game. The first 50 students (21 and older, of course) in the game are allowed to buy a $10 seat in the student section for their kegs. This one will take care of three problems. First, it encourages students to arrive early. Second, it will all but force fans to stay to the end of the game, no matter the score, because who wants to lug a half-full keg back out of the arena? Third, it will raise some much-needed revenue for the Athletic Department.

2. Golf Cart Giveaway. All students who attend the game will automatically be entered into a halftime raffle to win a golf cart, complete with an all-access parking pass. One caveat: winning fan must hop into the cart and ghost ride all around the court á la Marshawn Lynch.

3. Borat Night. In honor of 6’10’’ sophomore center Matei Daian, a native of Romania, all students will receive a neon-green Borat swimsuit and fake moustache. As frivolous and ridiculous as the giveaway may sound, can you think of a more surefire way for Stanford to get on SportsCenter? I didn’t think so. (And yes, I’m aware Borat is from Kazakhstan, but I don’t think Stuart Scott and Scott Van Pelt would mind.)

4. Taunt the Tree at Halftime. The Leland Stanford Jr. University Marching Band’s mascot has gained notoriety for being cited for public drunkenness at a game after blowing a 0.157 and for fighting and removing the head of Oski, the Cal mascot. So, why not let the Tree get a taste of its own medicine? At halftime, students will be prompted to throw any objects they want at the Tree, which will be forced to stand at center court and take the abuse. Soda, tomatoes, dirty underwear, Stern Dining lasagna — anything that passes through a metal detector.

5. Retro Night. Show footage of the Lopez Twins, Josh Childress, the Collins Twins and other former Stanford greats to remind fans that yes, the Cardinal once had an elite program; and yes, that success can be replicated in the near future.

6. Treehouse Pizza Eat-Off. Ten lucky students will be chosen for an eating competition. The rules are simple: you have the entire game, from tip-off to the final buzzer, to consume as much greasy Treehouse pizza as possible. The student section will be divided into ten groups and assigned to a competitor. If your eater wins, you receive a coupon for a quarter-long supply of pizza.

7. Lil’ Romeo Night. When USC strolls into Maples Pavilion, its most famous (and arguably worst) player, Percy Miller a.k.a. Lil’ Romeo, will be treated to a montage of his work. At every timeout, fans will hear such classics as “My Baby” and “True Love.” At halftime, the Jumbotron will show a few of Mr. Miller’s acting clips, including, but not limited to, Honey, Uncle P and everybody’s favorite, Crush on U.

Mike Lazarus thinks Stanford can attract basketball fans by giving away free shit. Tell him you’d prefer a center to a Borat suit at mlazarus “at” stanford.edu.