The last game of the season was a dismal 79-64 loss to Washington that was in no way as close as the score makes it seem. Stanford was outshot, outrebounded, outquicked and generally outmanned by the Huskies. The only Stanford player in double figures was Landry Fields, and he hit less than 50 percent of his shots. Drew Shiller and Jeremy Green were something like 4 for 18 from the field.

And while there was probably no way we could have won this game, the referees didn't leave anything to chance. This was the most one-sided officiating I've ever seen in a college basketball game. (Jarrett Mann, after getting beaten to the ground while driving to the basket, apparently said as much to one of the refs, who of course gave him a technical.) Virtually any Stanford defensive attempt to contest a shot got whistled, and there was a stretch in the first half when three Stanford possessions in a row ended in offensive fouls as our players tried to fend off Washington's bumper-car defense.

This one was as miserable to watch as the ASU game was fun. What a lousy way for Fields to end his career.

I think Stanford was +5 in turnovers (some of those referee-decided, but I couldn't tell from the poor commentary and videography), and Stanford was definitely at least +3 in offensive fouls that were probably undeserved.  Stanford was getting mugged in the paint on both ends with no referees having any issue with the play.  Zimmerman fouled out on a real iffy call, clearing the rebound by turning his upper body and having Pondexter flop hard to draw the foul.   UW collectively got away with at least two or three over-the-back violations that I remember seeing (though the situations escape me).

The way a game is called early on really determines how the players will play, and it just seemed pretty obvious that UW was going to get the better side of the whistle very early on.

The late game press defense was weak and led to a bunch of ridiculous UW dunks, which didn't really need to happen.  I know the idea is to not let UW run down the clock, but Stanford wasn't converting their offensive chances very well anyway...

Definitely think the refs were tilting the court Washinton's way, but I also think Stanford probably still loses if it's called evenly.  

Beyond yesterday's game, I'm proud as hell of this team.  They clearly lacked talent but never lacked in effort.  They were expected to be last in the league and hard to watch.  Instead they moved into the respectable category and had some games that were extremely entertaining.  Kudos to Landry Fields for showing everybody his heart and talent.  He only lost the POY by one point and clearly would have won had the rest of the team been just a little bit better.  

So Cheers to the team and to Coach Dawkins.  Hoping our new recruits bring us back to the top of the league.

Pete F.