How many times has a college team won the coin flip in OT and elected to take the ball first?

Some people, particularly the haters from across the bay, are quick to assert and to try to diminish Stanford’s run of success thru 2017 by claiming it was mostly due to a controversial and perhaps illegal use of a training aid that allowed its players quick, steroid-like recovery time during strength training.

I never got the whole story about The Glove. I’m curious to know if anyone had some inside info about its use at Stanford and what its status is today.

Read that here.

Garrett Wolfe leaving for assistant AD job at SJSU:

Login to view embedded media
Sasaki wouldve gone #1 in the NPB draft but wants to go to college in the US instead. Some describe him as baby Prince Fielder.

Read that here.

Alright, it's Super Bowl week!

Not only are the local "Scarlet Heroes of Yore" (as former SJ Mercury columnist Mark PURDY used to call the San Francisco Forty-Niners) playing in the game, their 8th appearance overall (tied for 2nd most all time), there are also two Stanford players in the game. Christian McCaffrey (why is "McCaffrey" a word this site doesn't recognize?) is a possible NFC OPOY and MVP candidate for Niners, and his former teammate Justin Reid plays Safety for the Kanas City Chiefs.

As some might be aware, Kyle Shanahan's dad Mike coached Ed McCaffrey in a Super Bowl he won. Now Kyle gets to coach Ed's son Christian in a Super Bowl he is trying to win. Would be pretty cool if this were to happen and be a tough feat to match!

No shortage of coverage and discussion on this game. Here's a really interesting article on Nick Bosa becoming a quiet leader, by Tim Kawakami.

Read that here. Gorney addressed Maxwell Richardson and Charlie Hoitink reclassifying to the 2024 class.

Read that here.

😅 phew

More from the Rivals250 prospect out of Nashville and his recent trip to Stanford

Jalen Wiggins, who committed to Florida about a month ago

ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 comes out as soon as the title game is over. For our brave new world:

10) Notre Dame
16) Florida State
19) Clemson
20) NC State
22) Louisville
24) SMU

We don’t have to play Florida State. Not an easy schedule but should be easier than 2023.

Read that here. Glad I had the energy to write today after being totally wiped out yesterday! I decided to roll with Roy Yuan as the cover photo. It was fun to see him knock one in from deep.

Read that here. Courtesy of Adam Gorney. He gave Troy Taylor and Stanford an A- grade.

Read that here.

Well I’ll be dipped: I have received confirmation that 2025 4-star QB Bear Bachmeier has committed to Stanford. My guess that it might be him was right! Haha

Login to view embedded media

T9 after first round of the Farmer's Open. Have not seen his name for quite some time. Thought he might have dropped golf as a profession.

PREACH!
Login to view embedded media

Good for him. One of my favorites the last regime.

Reunites with Pete Alamar (he didn't overlap with Mike Bloomgren at Stanford).
Login to view embedded media

Read that here.

Jerod Haase has had many saving graces in recent years - evidently working hard, being a nice guy, having powerful patrons, coaching at a time of change in the national landscape that built in excuses, going a few years of not being the major sports coach who had grown most stale. Another is that his individual teams aren't horrendous. Mediocre is the word many reach for. Consider the KenPom rankings of his tenure among 350+ (currently 362) major basketball programs and 80 Power Six teams:

2017: #102 (#8 in Pac-12)
2018: #87 (#7 in Pac-12)
2019: #112 (#10 in Pac-12)
2020: #43 (#4 in Pac-12)
2021: #57 (#8 in Pac-12)
2022: #106 (#8 in Pac-12)
2023: #84 (#9 in Pac-12)
2024: #90 (#8 in Pac-12)

Below average almost every year but also squarely in the mediocre middle of the Pac-12 almost every year. Falling outside of the top 100 happens less than half the time and he's never had a horrendous team. Many call that mediocre.

To me being below average 87.5 percent of the time is much, much worse than mediocre. But I've said that before and don't want to be a broken record. To try to add something new, I thought I'd look at the 80 Power Six programs and look at the coaches who have been around as long as Haase to try to put into context whether Haase is an outlier (ok, how much he's an outlier) in terms of the rope he's gotten to deliver these results. NCAA tournament appearances since 2017 of the guys who have coached the whole span (parenthetically listing how this year is going):

Matt Painter (Purdue) - 6 (arguably best team in the country)
Bill Self (Kansas) - 6 (very high seed)
Tom Izzo (Michigan State) - 6 (making the tournament)
Kelvin Sampson (Houston) - 5 (arguably best team in the country)
Greg McDermott (Creighton) - 5 (very high seed)
Rick Barnes - 5 (Tennessee) - 5 (very high seed)
Scott Drew (Baylor) - 5 (making the tournament)
John Calipari (Kentucky) - 5 (making the tournament)
Tony Bennett (Virginia) - 5 (fringe of the bubble)
Greg Gard (Wisconsin) - 4 (very high seed)
Bruce Pearl (Auburn) - 4 (very high seed)
Fran McCaffery (Iowa) - 4 (outside the bubble)
Jim Larranaga (Miami) - 4 (outside the bubble)
Leonard Hamilton (Florida State) - 4 (outside the bubble)
Andy Enfield (USC) - 4 (well outside the bubble)
Jamie Dixon (TCU) - 3 (inside the bubble at the moment)
Dana Altman (Oregon) - 3 (inside the bubble at the moment)
Bobby Hurley (Arizona State) - 3 (well outside the bubble)
Brad Brownell (Clemson) - 2 (likely to make tournament)
Chris Collins (Northwestern) - 2 (inside the bubble at the moment)
Steve Pikiell (Rutgers) - 2 (well outside the bubble)
Tad Boyle (Colorado) - 1 (inside the bubble at the moment)
Wayne Tinkle (Oregon State) - 1 (massively outside the bubble)
Jerod Haase (Stanford) - 0 (well outside the bubble)

Johnny Dawkins (UCF) is now a Power Six coach but this is the first year of that in this stretch. But even he's made a tournament in this stretch, and is coaching a better team than Stanford this year.

Only at Stanford. Let's have some pride. We can succeed on the level of Northwestern, Rutgers, Colorado, Oregon State, and UCF.

inquiring minds wish to know...

Read that here.