I attended my first Stanford home game tonight (picked a good one!) and wanted to share my experience and observations with you all : )
If you told me that Stanford would be led in scoring by Brandon Angel and Noah Taitz, with Ingram not making a single field goal, I would be confused and assume we lost by 20.
Instead it was a fantastic, complete team effort with great ball movement, strong shooting and enthusiasm from the bench. Beating Valparaiso at home is nothing special, but nice to have an end to end easy win after a rocky first three games (note: Stanford led by 23 with 4 minutes left before emptying the bench and allowing a 9-0 Valpo run).
This was a much-needed romp to build confidence and morale before a tough visit to Waco to face the defending champs on Saturday.
Some thoughts on the game, but first a Matt Lottich story or two....
Lottich was in my year at Stanford and we rushed SAE together. Spring semester of my freshman year, SAE hosted a rush event that was a 4-on-4 basketball tournament. I was fortunate to wind up on the same team as Lottich and another freshman who was probably the best non-NCAA player I saw in college (he had no interest in rushing, he just wanted to hoop). We ran the court for over an hour, much to the dismay of the older guys who lived in the house (including Tony Giovacchini, who Lottich punked repeatedly). That was a fun night.
Lottich dropped out early sophomore year because he was way too cool and popular to handle getting hazed by the far-less-cool upperclassmen. I probably would have made the same decision if I were him. He also had the misfortune of rooming with a crazy older baseball player who had played minor league baseball for a few years before coming back to Stanford to "finish his degree" i.e. frat out and terrorize the rest of us in the house. But that is another story...
Ok... back to the game:
Weird move to not start Ingram or Delaire; they combined for 50% of the SJSU scoring yet started out on the bench. Of course, the starting rotation came out and looked awesome, but it was quite surprising to see Ingram riding pine to start. Of course, Stanford goes up 12-1 and then subs out all 5 guys.
This team has a ton of depth which is theoretically good, but I think Haase is going to struggle to find the right 8-9 man rotation to go to war with. One thing I know is that Jarvis Moss will not be one of them : )
Ingram did very little but still looks awesome out there. Great passing, ball handling, body control. It felt like he knew the game was comfortably in hand and endeavored to get the other guys going (5 assists).
Sam Beskind is a surprisingly legit player. When I saw that he was starting against SJSU, I assumed it was more of a motivational gimmick, but he looked like he belonged. You don't see it in the stat sheet but he took a great early charge to set the tone, had a steal and made some fantastic passes along with high energy defense. I can see him coming in for a couple of high energy spurts a game throughout the season (not sure he should/will be starting for much longer though).
Noah Taitz and Brandon Angel came to Stanford as hyped shooters and have had little success thus far so it was nice to see them stroke it with confidence. Taitz played as the 2 guard most of his time on the court and seems like someone who should figure bigger into the backcourt rotation. Angel had a nice night but I'm doubtful that he will see heavy minutes when conference play begins.
Raynaud is going to have a fantastic career at Stanford. What a great late recruiting find to save a pretty weak frontcourt. Kisunas and Keefe comprise an underwhelming platoon. Murrell hit a tough 3-pointer and looks like he should be good but just hasn't put it together yet. He still has some upside and hopefully can progress throughout the season so we don't have to see much of Kisunas and Keefe.
Delaire and Jones did not need to do much tonight but will ultimately have to be starters and key contributors if this team has a hope of making the tourney (still seems doubtful).
O'Connell took all the minutes against SJSU with Isa Silva hardly playing. Tonight, with the game mostly in hand, O'Connell only played 15 minutes with Silva taking the other 22. While they both had quiet outings, point guard feels like it is in good hands with these two.
Jarvis Moss is the 4th (lowest) ranked freshman recruit on the team. I'm not sure why people want him to get minutes so badly but I don't see it this season. Plenty of mouths to feed on the perimeter. He is essentially the 13th man.
Stanford's cheerleaders do not wear masks; the dollies do. Assume that is a weird NCAA loophole?
There were maybe 700 people at the game tonight. As we lament weak football (and now basketball) attendance, we should consider the role COVID plays. Way fewer kids and a lot less fun to sit with a mask on (and go through the health screening) than years passed. I would expect to see relatively low turnout indoors for the rest of the season.
Condi was there. she is always there, God bless her.
I brought my 6-year-old son who promptly ate all the sweets and popcorn, borrowed my phone to watch YouTube videos of people building shark dioramas and then proclaimed "I don't like basketball, it's boring. Can we leave soon?"
"Sorry kid, I need to report back to the board! Keep stuffing your face and draining my phone battery"
If you told me that Stanford would be led in scoring by Brandon Angel and Noah Taitz, with Ingram not making a single field goal, I would be confused and assume we lost by 20.
Instead it was a fantastic, complete team effort with great ball movement, strong shooting and enthusiasm from the bench. Beating Valparaiso at home is nothing special, but nice to have an end to end easy win after a rocky first three games (note: Stanford led by 23 with 4 minutes left before emptying the bench and allowing a 9-0 Valpo run).
This was a much-needed romp to build confidence and morale before a tough visit to Waco to face the defending champs on Saturday.
Some thoughts on the game, but first a Matt Lottich story or two....
Lottich was in my year at Stanford and we rushed SAE together. Spring semester of my freshman year, SAE hosted a rush event that was a 4-on-4 basketball tournament. I was fortunate to wind up on the same team as Lottich and another freshman who was probably the best non-NCAA player I saw in college (he had no interest in rushing, he just wanted to hoop). We ran the court for over an hour, much to the dismay of the older guys who lived in the house (including Tony Giovacchini, who Lottich punked repeatedly). That was a fun night.
Lottich dropped out early sophomore year because he was way too cool and popular to handle getting hazed by the far-less-cool upperclassmen. I probably would have made the same decision if I were him. He also had the misfortune of rooming with a crazy older baseball player who had played minor league baseball for a few years before coming back to Stanford to "finish his degree" i.e. frat out and terrorize the rest of us in the house. But that is another story...
Ok... back to the game:
Weird move to not start Ingram or Delaire; they combined for 50% of the SJSU scoring yet started out on the bench. Of course, the starting rotation came out and looked awesome, but it was quite surprising to see Ingram riding pine to start. Of course, Stanford goes up 12-1 and then subs out all 5 guys.
This team has a ton of depth which is theoretically good, but I think Haase is going to struggle to find the right 8-9 man rotation to go to war with. One thing I know is that Jarvis Moss will not be one of them : )
Ingram did very little but still looks awesome out there. Great passing, ball handling, body control. It felt like he knew the game was comfortably in hand and endeavored to get the other guys going (5 assists).
Sam Beskind is a surprisingly legit player. When I saw that he was starting against SJSU, I assumed it was more of a motivational gimmick, but he looked like he belonged. You don't see it in the stat sheet but he took a great early charge to set the tone, had a steal and made some fantastic passes along with high energy defense. I can see him coming in for a couple of high energy spurts a game throughout the season (not sure he should/will be starting for much longer though).
Noah Taitz and Brandon Angel came to Stanford as hyped shooters and have had little success thus far so it was nice to see them stroke it with confidence. Taitz played as the 2 guard most of his time on the court and seems like someone who should figure bigger into the backcourt rotation. Angel had a nice night but I'm doubtful that he will see heavy minutes when conference play begins.
Raynaud is going to have a fantastic career at Stanford. What a great late recruiting find to save a pretty weak frontcourt. Kisunas and Keefe comprise an underwhelming platoon. Murrell hit a tough 3-pointer and looks like he should be good but just hasn't put it together yet. He still has some upside and hopefully can progress throughout the season so we don't have to see much of Kisunas and Keefe.
Delaire and Jones did not need to do much tonight but will ultimately have to be starters and key contributors if this team has a hope of making the tourney (still seems doubtful).
O'Connell took all the minutes against SJSU with Isa Silva hardly playing. Tonight, with the game mostly in hand, O'Connell only played 15 minutes with Silva taking the other 22. While they both had quiet outings, point guard feels like it is in good hands with these two.
Jarvis Moss is the 4th (lowest) ranked freshman recruit on the team. I'm not sure why people want him to get minutes so badly but I don't see it this season. Plenty of mouths to feed on the perimeter. He is essentially the 13th man.
Stanford's cheerleaders do not wear masks; the dollies do. Assume that is a weird NCAA loophole?
There were maybe 700 people at the game tonight. As we lament weak football (and now basketball) attendance, we should consider the role COVID plays. Way fewer kids and a lot less fun to sit with a mask on (and go through the health screening) than years passed. I would expect to see relatively low turnout indoors for the rest of the season.
Condi was there. she is always there, God bless her.
I brought my 6-year-old son who promptly ate all the sweets and popcorn, borrowed my phone to watch YouTube videos of people building shark dioramas and then proclaimed "I don't like basketball, it's boring. Can we leave soon?"
"Sorry kid, I need to report back to the board! Keep stuffing your face and draining my phone battery"
