The Stanford Cardinal (7-0) look to stay unbeaten on the season as they take
on the Santa Clara Broncos (5-6) at the Leavey Center at 8:00pm on Tuesday,
December 23rd.
Stanford is coming off a hard fought, yet nearly wire-to-wire, victory over
the Big Ten’s Northwestern Wildcats at Maples Pavilion, 65-59. In that
contest, the Cardinal’s Anthony Goods got back on track after a subpar
performance versus Northern Arizona, scoring 20 points on 8-12 shooting, while
senior point guard Mitch Johnson was a perfect five-for-five, including the game
clinching three-pointer in the final minute, helping Stanford run their record
to 7-0 on the season.
Stanford is looking to win their third road game of the year against a team
they have met on a semi-regular basis over the years. Their matchup with
Santa Clara this season marks the 78th time the two neighbors have played each
other, but only the 11th time they’ve played on the Broncos’ home court.
The last time Stanford traveled to Santa Clara it was 2004, just the fifth game
in Trent Johnson’s tenure as the Cardinal’s head coach. Stanford fell to
the Broncos, 86-76, moving them to 2-3 on the season. In that contest, it
was a nip-and-tuck affair until the home team used a 12-3 run to break open a
tie game. Travis Niesen netted a double-double, including 31 points and 11
rebounds, to lead the Broncos to victory. Stanford was paced by Dan Grunfeld who scored 26 points for the Cardinal.
The 2008 edition of the Santa Clara Broncos are also led by a big man, senior
center John Bryant, who has evolved into one of the better big men on the West
Coast. After struggling through endurance issues his first two years at
the WCC school due to his weight, Bryant started to slim down his junior year
and his game showed great improvement, increasing his per game averages from
10.4 points/6.7 rebounds/23.2 minutes his sophomore year to 18.0 points/9.6
rebounds/27.8 minutes his junior year. So far in 2008, Bryant leads Santa
Clara in scoring and rebounding, netting an average of a double-double through
11 games this season at 17.7 points and 11.9 rebounds per contest. Bryant
also is shooting very well from the field and the charity stripe, making nearly
62% from inside the arc and 86% from the free throw line. However, Bryant
only goes to line about four times per game, which seems a little low for a man
with such a big presence inside the paint.
Santa Clara has used a variety of starting lineups thus far in 2008. Of
the 13 players who have had some time on the floor for the Broncos, 10 of them
have started at least one game and only one (junior transfer out of Texas Tech,
Decensae White) has played more than 30 minutes per game. The only players
who have started every game are the aforementioned Bryant and sophomore shooting
guard Michael Santos who played sparingly during his first year. Two other
players score in double figures for Santa Clara, including freshman guards Kevin Foster and James Rahon, averaging 11.0 and 10.1 points, respectively.
Looking at the statistical comparisons between the two teams, Stanford and
Santa Clara shoot about the same from the field on an overall basis (45.5% vs.
45.6%), but the Cardinal shoots far superior from beyond the arc, outshooting
the Broncos by a 39%-34% margin. Both squads shoot above 70% from the
line, with Santa Clara at 75%, Stanford at 73%. Santa Clara outrebounds
opponents by four a game, while Stanford is virtually even on the boards.
An advantage for Stanford is that the Cardinal have recorded 15 assists a game,
while getting their opponents to turn over the ball 19 times per contest.
Santa Clara turns the ball at a rate of 15 per contest, so the Cardinal may be
able to exploit the Broncos offense with their new attacking defense.
Finally, Santa Clara outscores opponents by a 61-58 margin, while Stanford,
despite closer games the last two times out, is beating teams by an average
score of 76-64.
To win this game on the road, Stanford will have to continue to shoot the
ball well from beyond the arc and do a better job of defending inside the
three-point line. So far this year, Stanford opponents are shooting a
paltry 29.1% from outside the arc, but are allowing teams to shoot an astounding
55.2% from inside the three-point line. With the best presence they’ve
seen inside this year going for the Broncos, Stanford will have to make Bryant
and his teammates work for every bucket out there or it could be a very long
night for the Cardinal.
It is homecoming for Stanford associate head coach Dick Davey as he returns
to Santa Clara, a university where he was the head man for 15 years, but spent
30 years with the program. Davey won 251 games at the West Coast
Conference school, including 20-win seasons four times and multiple appearances
in the NCAA Tournament, including two upsets in the Big Dance, the bigger by far
being his #15 seed Broncos upending #2 seed Arizona 64-61 in 1993.
After playing Santa Clara, the Cardinal break for Christmas before coming
back to Stanford for a pair of non-conference games versus the Big 12’s Texas
Tech Red Raiders (8-3 as of 12/22) on Sunday, December 28th at 7:00pm and the
America East’s Hartford (4-8) on Monday, December 30th at 7:30pm. Pac-10
Conference play begins just a few short days later as Stanford welcomes Arizona State and Arizona to Maples Pavilion for Friday/Sunday tilts as 2009
begins.
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