Those of you who didn’t make it out to
Maples Pavilion Thursday night: you sure missed out. This is
exactly how Stanford was advertised coming into the season. They
were going to be flashy; Casey was going to drain three’s;
and the games would be closer. All of these factors came into
play, as Stanford was fighting uphill this game, even with
Jacobsen’s barrage of shots. Arizona State's guards had
their way for most of the night, driving the lane, dishing and
hitting some tough shots. The Sun Devils were able to hit 52% of
their shots, but who am I kidding? This night should be devoted
to one man, and he is the greatness that is Casey Jacobsen.
Jacobsen was unbelievable; he did it all and definitely showed
how he has rounded out his game since last season. He drove to
the hoop; he hit the mid-range jumper; and of course he hit the
bombs from the Maples Pavilion lettering 35 feet away. I believe
he got as far as the V in Pavilion before the night was done. He
scored 13 points in a four-minute span and hit four three
pointers in a row, towards the middle of the second half.
Jacobsen also scored 31 points in the 2nd half - are
you kidding me? All in all, the affair finished with a 90-81
victory for the Stanford Cardinal over the Sun Devils, vaulting
Stanford into the very top echelon of the Pac-10 standings.
This game was no blowout. Stanford wasn’t
even winning for a strong majority of it. They jumped out to a
10-point lead within the first seven minutes and everything
looked great. Then the defense got lazy and Arizona State got
hot. The lead quickly disappeared, and Arizona State went into
the locker room with a five-point lead. This lead ballooned to as
high as nine points, and then Julius Barnes took over at the
point. Quickly the game started to turn as Julius pushed the ball
and drew the defense. This made Jacobsen that much more open for
all his three-point shots. Barnes also broke the press provided
by the Sun Devils, which was certainly a welcome sight after the
USC debacle. He finished with only two turnovers and definitely
made a strong impact in the game. Stanford tied the score at
62-62 with six minutes left, which was their first tied score
since the middle of the first half. Stanford pulled away towards
the end of the game as the defense tightened up and Casey just
couldn’t be stopped. Arizona State made a flurry of three’s
toward the end, but all it did was make Stanford fans cheer more
as it gave the mighty Casey more free throws. It was truly an
exciting game that was closer than the final score indicates.
Besides Casey, Julius Barnes had 18 points
and provided a boost Stanford drastically needed. He also had
four assists, but was important in many other Stanford plays.
Curtis Borchardt made his return from a one game absence, and
chipped in 10 points and 11 rebounds. He again made things
tougher on the defense end as he had three more blocks despite
constantly being pulled away from the basket by Chad Prewitt and
Shawn Redhage. One more thing of note: Teyo Johnson was in the
starting lineup today, something that was mentioned on the boards
numerous times. He picked up two fouls in his first four minutes,
but had a very productive second half in which he played 14
minutes and was a physical presence down low. His stats aren’t
that impressive, but it is obvious that things flow better when
he is in. He is still a little rusty but is rapidly improving.
Josh also had a solid game off the bench, as he had five points
and six rebounds in 21 minutes of action. Casey had 49 points on
14-22 shooting. He also had a 15-17 night at the free throw line,
which is very impressive to say the least. Jacobsen played the
entire game and didn’t look like he was tiring that much. It
was amazing that even with no rest he could continually shot over
defenders from 30 feet away. Rob Evans overall coached a very
good game for the Sun Devils, but I thought putting 6-1 Kyle Dodd
on Casey was a joke. What did Evans expect? Jacobsen continually
shot over the shorter Dodd and drove around other defenders his
way such as Ayvee Storey, Tommy Smith and even Shawn Redhage. It
was a thing of beauty and hopefully can be repeated in March.
If anyone is interested, Chad Prewitt led
the Sun Devils with 18 points and shot five for seven from behind
the arc. Arizona State actually played a very good game and could
have easily won this game. They have a good team with Storey,
Millage and Prewitt; they just lack enough good players to
consistently compete in the Pac-10. They rebounded surprisingly
well against Stanford, often having second and third chances.
Another thing that destroyed Arizona State was the fact they
committed 35 fouls, many of them not smart, and made them play
very undermanned in the second half.
This was a fantastic game for a fan, and a
decent game for the Stanford team. Beyond Casey’s
performance it was not a very well played game that they could
have easily lost. This brings up another point. I don’t like
to beat dead topics BUT Julius Barnes needs to start at the point
guard against Arizona. It looks like Monty is coming around after
starting Teyo tonight but people are just kidding themselves if
they think that Tony is a better option at point guard than
Julius. I heard from a friend that Bob Murphy was surprised that
Casey was getting so much room to roam with Julius in there. It
is very simple!!!! Teams have to respect Julius’ jumper,
with Tony they do not. I know this has been discussed to no end
on this board, but it makes you wonder what Monty is thinking in
regards to Tony. This is not supposed to be a personal attack of
any sort, but I think that the time has come to hand the team
over to Julius. Jason Gardner is going to be the best player
Stanford will play in the regular season and Julius needs to
guard him on top of getting the offense going.
One more gripe while it is on my mind. The 6th
man overall was very good tonight. As a fan up in the high seats
it was very nice to see the crowd making some noise. EXCEPT some
of you have no common sense at all. Casey is at the line in a
close game and Ayvee Storey fouls out. The student manager goes
to Storey and tells him to wait until Casey shoots the free throw
to sit down. Storey then sits down and about 1/3 of the students
yell sit down!. Casey misses one of his two free throws
in 17 tries. This prevents him from getting 50 points, and could
have cost the team the game. This has already happened once, and
while it isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, the
students have to stop doing this. It would be a shame if a game
were decided by this.
Overall I am much more upbeat then I appear
to be. :) Huge game as always against Arizona on Saturday.
Everyone who has a ticket should be there and make some noise!!!
Oh yeah, and shake the basket just to get Lute going again!