[Leftcoast]

I was at Maples this evening to take in the Stanford Men's basketball game against the BYU Cougars.

BYU is a solid, guard oriented team without the inside beef to take on big teams in the paint.  They have several excellent shooting guards and competent defenders.  They're well coached and will make some noise this season but would probably be a middle of the pack team in the Pac 12.  They want to drive and dish and have the guards to knock down any open shot from beyond the arch .... and boy did we give them a lot of shots beyond the arc.

The game opened up with both teams trading shots evenly before several turnovers (we had 16 for the night) and open threes allowed BYU to pull away to a 10 point lead.  Stanford never really challenged this gap and the Cougars maintained that 10 point lead throughout the remainder of the game. 

Stanford's offense wasn't the problem tonight.  The Cardinal scored fairly easily and you should win most college games where you score 103 points.  Having said that there were some worrisome questions that remain unanswered about the Cardinal offense.  Randle and Powell will get their points, they have the creativity and game to score against most teams, but will Stanford have a reliable third option?  Dawkins needs either Bright, Nash or Brown to become that reliable third scorer.  My guess based on tonight is that option will need to be Anthony Brown who looked good at times this evening but looked lost and uncertain at other points as he deferred to Stanford's two main scorers. .

Where Stanford really lost tonight's game was on defense.  The Cardinal could not slow down the Cougar's talented guard combo of Haws and Carolino.  Haws has the kind of smooth, quick release on a three point shot that let you know Stanford was in trouble from his first shot.  The secret of Carolino's success was harder to figure out.  He often looked on the edge of losing control as he made drive after drive amongst the Stanford big men.  His shots often looked ugly and improvised but somehow we didn't make him pay for his gambling offensive game.  Combined we let the Cougars as whole shoot over 50% from the field - mostly on perimeter shots.

Stanford's big men were taller and arguably more skilled than their BYU counterparts but we don't have the wide bodies and nasty rebounders that Stanford has had in the past.  We weren't able to take control of the paint and turn this into the grind-it-out half court game that would have disrupted the Cougars.  Instead we tried to match them in the track meet making the game a crowd pleasing full court affair with lots of action and lots of scoring but with a playing style that suited the Cougars over the Cardinal.

On the drive home the announcers said this was the highest scoring game in regulation in Maples history and may have been the first time that both teams went over 100 without an overtime period.  Sounds right to me. 

The crowd left disappointed because BYU is the type of team that Stanford will be fighting for those last remaining NCAA slots and we lost an opportunity to make a statement tonight.  BYU is a good but flawed team.  If we want to make it into the NCAA at-large field we can't lose games against bubble teams on our home court and we did tonight.

The takeaways from this second game are that Stanford is talented in spots but still doesn't play as a cohesive, disciplined team.  We are not a great defensive team and lack the bulk underneath and the speed at the edges to shut down the better Pac 12 teams one on one.  We have some talented underclassmen but they still need time to gel with our seniors.  Powell and Randle are talented but won't take us to the NCAA promised land on their own.  We also need to find our identity and place our imprint on games rather than play to our opponents style as we did tonight.

I predict an up and down season with Stanford ending up in the middle of the Pac 12 standings.  We'll beat a few good teams but we'll also lose to a few teams we should beat.  This equates to a .500 conference record and I'm not sure that will be enough for the fans who are hungry for more.

[Leftcoast]

I was at Maples this evening to take in the Stanford Men's basketball game against the BYU Cougars.

BYU is a solid, guard oriented team without the inside beef to take on big teams in the paint.  They have several excellent shooting guards and competent defenders.  They're well coached and will make some noise this season but would probably be a middle of the pack team in the Pac 12.  They want to drive and dish and have the guards to knock down any open shot from beyond the arch .... and boy did we give them a lot of shots beyond the arc.

The game opened up with both teams trading shots evenly before several turnovers (we had 16 for the night) and open threes allowed BYU to pull away to a 10 point lead.  Stanford never really challenged this gap and the Cougars maintained that 10 point lead throughout the remainder of the game. 

Stanford's offense wasn't the problem tonight.  The Cardinal scored fairly easily and you should win most college games where you score 103 points.  Having said that there were some worrisome questions that remain unanswered about the Cardinal offense.  Randle and Powell will get their points, they have the creativity and game to score against most teams, but will Stanford have a reliable third option?  Dawkins needs either Bright, Nash or Brown to become that reliable third scorer.  My guess based on tonight is that option will need to be Anthony Brown who looked good at times this evening but looked lost and uncertain at other points as he deferred to Stanford's two main scorers. .

Where Stanford really lost tonight's game was on defense.  The Cardinal could not slow down the Cougar's talented guard combo of Haws and Carolino.  Haws has the kind of smooth, quick release on a three point shot that let you know Stanford was in trouble from his first shot.  The secret of Carolino's success was harder to figure out.  He often looked on the edge of losing control as he made drive after drive amongst the Stanford big men.  His shots often looked ugly and improvised but somehow we didn't make him pay for his gambling offensive game.  Combined we let the Cougars as whole shoot over 50% from the field - mostly on perimeter shots.

Stanford's big men were taller and arguably more skilled than their BYU counterparts but we don't have the wide bodies and nasty rebounders that Stanford has had in the past.  We weren't able to take control of the paint and turn this into the grind-it-out half court game that would have disrupted the Cougars.  Instead we tried to match them in the track meet making the game a crowd pleasing full court affair with lots of action and lots of scoring but with a playing style that suited the Cougars over the Cardinal.

On the drive home the announcers said this was the highest scoring game in regulation in Maples history and may have been the first time that both teams went over 100 without an overtime period.  Sounds right to me. 

The crowd left disappointed because BYU is the type of team that Stanford will be fighting for those last remaining NCAA slots and we lost an opportunity to make a statement tonight.  BYU is a good but flawed team.  If we want to make it into the NCAA at-large field we can't lose games against bubble teams on our home court and we did tonight.

The takeaways from this second game are that Stanford is talented in spots but still doesn't play as a cohesive, disciplined team.  We are not a great defensive team and lack the bulk underneath and the speed at the edges to shut down the better Pac 12 teams one on one.  We have some talented underclassmen but they still need time to gel with our seniors.  Powell and Randle are talented but won't take us to the NCAA promised land on their own.  We also need to find our identity and place our imprint on games rather than play to our opponents style as we did tonight.

I predict an up and down season with Stanford ending up in the middle of the Pac 12 standings.  We'll beat a few good teams but we'll also lose to a few teams we should beat.  This equates to a .500 conference record and I'm not sure that will be enough for the fans who are hungry for more.