In a game where Stanford didn't take care of the ball, and
didn't shoot all that well, the Card picked up a road sweep
nobody thought possible by continued physical and mental
toughness. The win over Arizona State was founded on another
strong defense showing, dominating rebounding and consistently
excellent free throw shooting. All of those categories needed to
be superb in this game to overcome a disappointing afternoon
handling the ball, with 24 turnovers. To put that number in
perspective, the apocalyptic turnover-fest in the LA Sports Arena
against Hank Bibby's relentless press produced 27 turnovers and a
nationwide Cardinalmaniac cardiac attack. ASU only turned the
ball over in this game 11 times, giving them a net advantage so
strong that the Card could never pull away or manage a
double-digit lead. In fact, it was the Solar Satans who led much
of the first half, as Stanford adjusted to the change from the
yo-yo zone defense they saw in Tucson Thursday night to the 40
minutes of intense ball pressure in Tempe on Saturday. Rob Evans
encourages a physical style of defense from his guys, and
pressure out on the perimeter, but that also produces wholesale
foul trouble for his guys. Stanford took advantage of those
fouls, hitting for 32 of 39 free throws in the game.
Free throws may be the least sexy part of basketball, which
explains in part why today's ESPN-centric style of play has
produced a generation that doesn't mind shooting below 70%. But
for the second straight game, free throws were a standout
difference in the game. The Card shot a season-high 82.1% in
today's game, versus an abysmal 55.6% showing by the Solar
Satans. And when two teams combine for 75 free throws - each over
35 - that great of a disparity almost certainly dictates the
outcome of a game. Revisiting Thursday night at McKale, Stanford
bested the Mildcats at the stripe 79.2% to 72.7%. Over Stanford's
last three games, the Card have shot 90 free throws at an 81.1%
clip. Those three games have been three of the top six free throw
shooting games of the season, three of the top four since
November. This looks like a real and encouraging trend heading
into the post-season.
With Justin Davis back in the fold, albeit for limited
minutes, the rebounding is back on track, as Arizona State never
had a chance on the boards throughout the game. Curtis Borchardt
almost outrebounded the Dirt Devils all by himself, but the Card
cleaned the glass even while he sat with foul trouble in the
first half. Justin Davis, Teyo Johnson and Joe Kirchofer combined
for 16 boards, including a big 5 from Justin in the first half.
As a team, Stanford dominated the boards by a count of 49-31,
including 14 on the offensive glass that were converted for high
percentage putbacks. C-Bo and JD had 4 and 3 offensive rebounds,
respectively.
Overall team defense held a second straight opponent in the
30's, with a preponderance of man-to-man defense. Stanford mixed
in a little zone when foul trouble struck and the lineup had to
be tweaked. It worked like a charm, forcing ASU into a lot of bad
shots from the perimeter. The turnaround after two miserable
defensive games in Maples against the LA schools is alarming, and
has propelled Stanford to the top of the final Pac-10 defensive
ranking. After today's games, Stanford holds the top and final
spot with a conference FG% defense at 0.418. UCLA takes 2nd place
at .420, while a piss-poor day from the Berzerkeley Bears drops
them to third at .423.
The scoring was more localized for the Card in this game, as
compared to the very spread out team scoring Thursday night, as
just seven Stanford players scored and three combined for 64 of
81 points. Casey Jacsobsen broke out of a deep early shooting
slump to score a game-high 29 points. After hitting just 4 of his
first 13, and missing all four of his three's, Jake hit his final
three shots of the game, including a long bomb from behind the
arc. Curtis Borchardt completely dominated the smaller ASU
post-players inside, but added a couple huge buckets from 15-feet
and out. His line, 6 of 9 from the field and 7 of 9 from the
line, totalled 19 points to go with his 17 rebounds. Curtis has
recovered competely from his funk at Maples of last week, and is
showing again why he must be an All-American this year. His lack
of pre-season notice, coupled with moderate in-season exposure,
will probably keep him to second-team or third-team, though.
But Cardinal eyes are glowing because the Casey and Curtis
show have apparently added a third act, in the form of a
one-legged Julius Barnes. JB was Stanford's offense in the first
half while Casey struggled, hitting four early treys for 12
points. Julius didn't play much thereafter, still nursing a
sprained ankle, but he did draw four free throws, nailing them
all.
The Stanford offense stalled in the late stretches of the
game, though, which combined with turnovers, bad offensive fouls
and some big ASU treys, made this game too close for comfort. But
the Solar Satans never got closer than three points, and never
got off a shot to even attempt to tie. It was that clutch Card
free throw shooting that kept the score just out of reach, and a
big part of that credit goes to Tony Giovacchini. For the third
time this year, Tony G hit big free throws at the end of the
game, when his offense wasn't otherwise there. His 6 straight
shots from the stripe in the final minutes today were huge, even
though he did not register a field goal.
Josh Childress logged important minutes again in this game,
with a gimpy Julius sparingly used by Monty. Josh unfortunately
had another tough shooting day, missing all four shots from
outside, and just 2 of 9 overall. It was seriously comforting,
though, to see him unafraid to keep shooting, and to see Monty
unafraid to leave him out there on the floor. The hook didn't
come after the misses, which were good, clean shots. Josh did
grab two offensive boards, including one in the second half that
he put back for a big bucket.
The battle scars for this team grew in number, though, as
Chris Hernandez left the game with blood pouring out of his mouth
early in the second half. He took a head to the chops and lost a
tooth, not to return to the game. To add insult to injury, he
somehow was charged with a foul on the play, though ASU's Curtis
Millage butted into him while driving the lane.
The final shakeout in the conference produced a very clear
champion, and those Oregon Ducks deserve all the kudos in the
world. They went undefeated at home and took two of their four
losses in the tightest of overtime games in the Bay Area.
Congrats to Ernie Kent. UCLA's loss to the Duckies today, with
its share of controversy in the final seconds, drops the Bru-Crew
to 6th place in the Pac. That continues a streak of finishes for
Steve Lavin outside the top two in the conference, now at five
straight years. And, that also marks the first time UCLA has finished below 5th in the conference. That leaves a crazy four-team logjam for 2nd
place between the Card, the Bears, the Trojenz and the Mildcats.
The Pac-10's tiebreakers will seed Arizona #2, kal #3, U$C #4 and
Stanford #5 in next week's post-season tournament, by virtue of
head-to-head records. The ironic note is that Oregon's
heartstopping win at the buzzer Thursday night at U$C not only
kept Bibby's bunch out of a tie for first place, but it also
propelled kal from a #5 seed next week to a #3 seed. In a year
like this, you can't be surprised at how much impact the little
things can have.
Click here for the complete box score