I just came from Maples for what was a really fun day for Stanford hoops. My thoughts are below...

The Kids
Whoever said this is the loudest Maples could be all season was spot on, these kids were enthusiastic and loud all game, screaming during opposing free throws and waving their free pom poms. It created an awesome environment. When the team took the court for warmups the crowd (kids) went crazy and the Stanford players were all grinning. It is the loudest they have probably ever been cheered taking the court.

Maples capacity is 7,233. I would estimate 1,500 school aged kids (3rd-5th grade?) and 500 "regular" fans putting the area at roughly 28% capacity. Kids filled up the entire 6th man section (but where were the Stanford students?!) and the entire lower bowl behind the UoP basket (smart move) as well as 2 upper sections behind UoP's bench. In the 2nd half some of the older kids had filtered down into the lower bowl to where I was sitting (right behind UoP's bench). Sure they were a bit annoying but I always loathe how empty Maples' lower bowl is due to indifferent season ticket holders and the overly-aggressive seat enforcers.

These were all PAUSD kids (at one point the PA announcer had each school see who could cheer the loudest. It was... very loud). I saw the daughter of one of Stanford's assistant coaches sitting with her class so perhaps that was one of the connections. How many of those kids are going to go home and ask their parents to bring them back to a game? This was a huge win all the way around! More of this please!

Others in Attendance:

I saw Tara before tipoff, KN95 masked up. Some women's players sat in the corner of 6th man (hopefully the men reciprocate this evening). David Moseley was there, Joe Lacob in his usual courtside seat (I hate how those seats are always so empty, I counted 10 of the 50 "courtside" seats occupied today). Muir did his classic "stand in the corner near the exit" for the 2nd half.

The Actual Game:

This was a B/B+ performance by Stanford given Spencer Jones' absence and fending off a UoP team who got hot and nailed a ton of tough long shots in the 2nd half. Sure they didn't cover the spread but I was thrilled to see a high-impact newcomer look awesome...

Michael Jones was the story today. The guy is a total stud and odds on favorite to be team MVP (Ingram and S Jones are still close though!) He started out hot (3-4 on 3s and 9 of the first 14 points) before missing his last 5 3-pointers (all close) but still found a way to contribute, scoring his last 22 points inside and at the FT line (6-7 on 2-point shots with some and-1s). He made some nice passes and looked solid on defense (long arms and disruptive).

At one point, UoP's top player (Jordan Ivy-Curry) blew by him for a layup and I remarked to my Dad that I was surprised to see Jones guarding UoP's best and fastest guard instead of O'Connell. The next position, Harrison Ingram was on him. Let's all hope that he doesn't pull a Ziaire where his first Stanford game is his best. He was also the only player to see significant minutes with no turnover. Can we get more intel on whether Jones may come back next season? That would be great to know!

Michael O'Connell and Isa Silva appear to be status quo from last year (somewhat even minutes with O'Connell still being the starter and closer). Silva didn't impress today but we shouldn't overreact from one game. That said, it was a disappointing effort from a highly touted player we all hope makes "the leap" this season. O'Connell looked about the same - solid but not spectacular. I feel a lot safer with him on the floor.

The center platoon of Keefe and Raynaud was also interesting to watch. I believe they combine for 40 minutes and substitute exclusively for each other. Keefe started out 1-5 of free throws before nailing 2 important ones late. He was his usual self but could lose some minutes this season because...

Raynaud was fantastic, disruptive on defense and super efficient on offense. His first buckets were on putbacks before Stanford started looking for him late. He confidently nailed all of his FTs and only 3 attempt. UoP was fairly small so don't expect this sort of output in most games but it was a very impressive showing from a young guy with tons of upside. Also noteworthy that Haase kept him in late when UoP was pressing and fouling. That's often when coaches will favor ball handling but Silva remained on the bench. He also led the team in rebounds and blocks.

This was a forgettable game for Harrison Ingram but I'm not concerned. I think we'll see games all season where Jones, Jones or Ingram takes center stage as the scorer. He brought the ball up a few times and was very involved as a distributor. He missed some close 3 pointers and had a few uncharacteristic turnovers. Overall, I think the fast pace of the game and Stanford's ability to get looks inside and clean 3s from other players made Ingram less of a focal point of the offense, which is fine. With 1:33 left, Haase ran a set play out of a timeout for Ingram but UoP fouled him (and he converted 1-2 FTs).

Branden Angel had a very efficient outing and should have played more if not for foul trouble. Max Murrell didn't do much (zero shot attempts) but filled in admirably on defense late when Angel sat with 4 fouls.

Ryan Agarwal was a surprising presence in the first half (where he missed two 3s but at least took confident shots). I don't expect we'll see much of him in close games with a fully healthy team but perhaps that is my wishful thinking that Haase will tighten the rotation to the top 8 guys. As an aside, there were plenty of South Asian students in the crowd today and it's awesome for them to have some representation on the court.

Jarvis Moss also got some good run, his 2 misses from outside didn't look as good as Agarwal's but he flashed some serious athleticism on a rebound and looked ok. But again, not someone I want to see getting meaningful minutes this season.

Turnovers were a bit sloppy but UoP had an athletic team that was fast and flying around. I thought they were ok.

I'm curious why Jaylen Thompson didn't play and really hope that Spencer Jones can be back for the next two games because they are critically important to the NCAA tourney resume - Wisconsin and San Diego State. I'm pumped for this season!

Read that here.

Read that here. MBB recap is first followed by the WBB recap. Figured I would combine them in one longer article.

The quality of Stanford's coaching is significant.

Haas is similar to Shaw in one way: he apparently cannot coach offence. Tara definitely can coach. Watching yesterday both the women and men was night and day. As another poster noted, only one MBB player stood out -- because someone else had coached that Jones for four years. All Tara's WBB players understood their roles on a team. Even the stellar sophs and frosh. Haas' players often seem to get worse -- see, e.g., Harrison's first game stats -- or often leave. Tara's players always seem to improve or finally understand the team's rhythm. Iriafen and Demetre and Bosgana were good examples in limited minutes.

Stanford's WBB apparently will run, run, run. They will play exceptionally tight defence. Fouling out will matter less because the team is so deep. Compare Jump and Bosgana. Players' physical exhaustion also becomes less a worry when substitutions do not significantly degrade the quality of the players on the floor.

With great rebounding, fast accurate passing in transitions becomes so important. One first year player poses an interesting issue. How can you keep the amazing Lepolo off the floor? Which other player would not want her precise lightning passes? Eleven assists her first real game? Unreal.

As many have noted, Tara's major issue, even more than last year, will be the distribution of minutes.

Read that here.

Read that here. 11:00 AM for MBB; 7:00 PM PT for WBB.

Read that here. 2:30 PM PT on Saturday, November 19th.

Hey guys, I just caught up with 2025 point guard Hailee Swain and her dad Robert about her commitment to Stanford. Below are key quotes. The rest will be saved for the article.

On why she chose Stanford: "Well, Stanford is my dream school and once I went up there and saw the campus and spent a couple days up there, it kinda just felt like home. I loved my coaching staff; I loved how sisterhood and family is valued at Stanford. But it’s also a business. And also how the student athletes at Stanford are, they’re truly students first and I think that me going to Stanford would set me up for basketball opportunities: Pro, overseas, or the WNBA. But it will also set me up for life after the ball stops bouncing."

On what she'll bring to Stanford: "I think I can bring my fast-paced transition game to Stanford’s program. Like for example, getting a rebound and pushing it all the way to the rim or kicking it out to a teammate for a shot or just getting the ball quickly up the floor. I like to play fast."

On her relationship with the coaching staff: "I felt like once they offered, I knew where I wanted to go. Like Stanford, that was my place, that was my home. That’s where I wanted to play my next four years of after high school. So once they offered, like right on spot I was like that’s where I’m going. I love it here. I love the environment, I love the people, and Coach Britney, she had been talking to me for about a year. She talked to me to for about like two times each month. And I could tell that she also cared about not only me as a basketball player, but me as a person."

Robert Swain on what Hailee will bring to Stanford: "I think she’s gonna bring a lot of leadership. I think players just around her, she’s gonna make them better, and I think she is going to be a great extension to the head coach. Whether it’s Tara, whether it’s the next coach in line. She’s gonna be a great extension on the floor. So it’ll kinda give Stanford an advantage because it’s like you have the coach really playing the game. Hailee is that kind of player where she’ll execute what the coaches want and play with unbelievable confidence in making players around her better."

On Haley Jones and her relationship with her: "Yes. So, actually when I went up, I knew about her previously before I went to the camp. But, when I was up there and I was doing the drills, she was encouraging me and it was kinda crazy because I look up to her. Like she’s been one of my role models. And she actually, once I committed, she actually sent me [a message] and said welcome to the family and congratulations and things like that and I can see her being a big sister to me.

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Don't believe the caption at the bottom. Final score was 14 - 13.

After seeing this I think we can blame WSU for inventing the wildcat.

Read that here.

Down 20 with 4 minutes left after leading at the half!!

I prefer the PAC to run the table today but if there were to be one loss, Enfield getting embarrassed by his former team is pretty delicious!

Found in the comments section of a Facebook post by Stanford Football regarding the Utah kick-off time. Hmmm.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/af1y8pmxkf7mekj/IMG_0236.PNG?dl=0


Sorry, don't know how to post images directly

Nothing about the men's BB game?

I thought at least a couple of big pluses:

holy crap, a gift from the basketball gods - Michael Jones. 31 points on 60% shooting, 5 rebounds and 3 assists with no turnovers; wow

Raynaud: 22points in 21 minutes on 82 % shooting with 9 rebounds. also wow.

I thought Angel, O'Connell and Keefe played well and contributed , while Ingram maybe less than expected.

Whoops Sorry, my bad. Somehow I over looked lots of comments. I must be loaded.

1. Yesterday was a low point for Stanford football. One of the most mediocre teams in Power Five football - a 4-4 Washington State team that hasn't had a regular season better than 6-6 since 2018 - came into our house and picked the score. Beyond the abject uncompetitiveness (itself not a rare occasion for us, which is a big part of why this is another low point), it was another joyless Saturday on campus that begs the question of why we field a team and pour resources into it if we're not going to give it a chance of being relevant or fun. A few thousand people bothered to show up and by the final whistle there were probably more people at field level than in the rest of the stadium. Many of the most vocal who showed up expressed themselves sartorially with garb that Stanford Hates Fun. That meme, comically and short-sightedly boosted by a school more eager to censor criticism than address the roots of it, went national as the much-watched talking heads on ESPN's College GameDay mocked us for the laughingstock our no fun allowed administration, losing football ways, and mausoleum of a football stadium have rightfully made us. It's hard to say whether this is THE low point for Stanford football. Going a year without a major college football win was low. So was the string of obliterations (173-46!) to end last year. Before Shaw's time, so were multiple moments in Walt Harris' reign of terror, or the 1983 season, or the 1960 season. The point is that Shaw has now strung together a couple of years of low points that rival the lowest moments in program history. If there is still somebody out there who tolerates the idea of David Shaw coaching at Stanford next season (including David Shaw) I don't believe they have the best interests of the players, fans, or university at heart.

2. That being said, those who don't feel sorry for Shaw need to work on their empathy. This tarnishing of the legacy of an accomplished and decent man is brutal. It's painful to watch him process all this and gamely go before cameras and do the public-facing aspects of his job. He plainly doesn't know why he's failed or what he could possibly do to stop failing. In the press conference he talked about how ultimately he's accountable and how that's the easy part but the hard part is knowing how to get the most out of our players. To reach the mountaintop, tumble to the seas, and have no idea how to make it back to shore, much less start climbing again, must be excruciating. I have to imagine it's traumatic and, at a bare minimum, comes with coping mechanisms that border on the delusional. When asked about how the coaches are handling all of this, he offered a meditation on how all you can do is just do the job. On some level I think a coach I've always viewed as excessively deontological has coped with failure by becoming even more relentlessly, all-consumingly dedicated to a philosophy of "the means justify the ends." What else can he do but put together the game plan Sunday night, focus on fundamentals during the week, and appeal to the pride of the team to execute on Saturday? But another phrase for this is going through the motions. And I think that wears on even Shaw. It was startling to me to see him in the press conference forget Ron Gould and Kendall Williamson's names. Seemed like PTSD. Deep down I don't care how philosophical one is, a football coach can't sustain his soul on deontology alone. The mounting toll of the losses and the garbage ways they happen will weigh on anybody. To use another metaphor, after falling from the mountaintop Shaw settled at the base camp and accumulated such piles of garbage that they've gotten so high they block out any view he used to have of the peak. All of this makes me sad for Shaw, no matter how angry I am at what he's made of the program (which is very angry). The one thing that would make me take back this sympathy is if he is secretly colluding with powers-that-be to "demonstrate" that winning football is now impossible at Stanford. That always felt too conspiratorial to me but the more he coaches like this and the more he's allowed to do it the more I'll wonder.

3. Shaw's comments that he never makes excuses and then immediately talking at length about the defensive injuries and fumbles was comical, though I chalk it up to shell shock. My problem with his narrative is the same as every week - take out all the injuries and even the super negative plays like fumbles and we're still bad. Shaw talked again about how the offense plays well when it's not going backwards. Excuse me? The game was 21-0 before any fumbles had happened. Given our offense that means the game was essentially over before ball security reared its ugly head. Our first two drives were three and outs without "going backwards" on either of them. We just failed the good old fashioned way, by sucking, same as the vast majority of weeks the last several years. The fumbles and other errors Shaw talked about made the score even more lopsided but take all of that out and we're still not competitive. Obviously the fumbles don't help though. I chafe at any notion this is bad luck or episodic poor execution or even to some degree players trying to do too much. This has been a horrid flaw of the team since the Colgate game. We've fumbled 20 times this season. Twenty! In comparison, Oregon, Cal, and USC are all in the 4-5 fumble range and Washington is at 7. We are 130th in the nation in both fumbles lost and overall fumbles, with only Central Michigan keeping us from the last spot. This is who we are.

Read that here.

The debate about DS’ coaching is in full swing. Can we step away from our emotions and do an analytical postmortem on the debacle. For me, it looks like this: I am going simplistic to facilitate the discussion.
Harbaugh turns the program around and leaves For greener pastures.
Bowlsby chooses Shaw to replace him. Odd choice to some as DS had been demoted by Harbaugh and some insiders weren’t sold on the relative strength of the choice since Stanford could have attracted most targets. Bowlsby told me Peterson was on the list but things didn’t pan out. No details shared.
DS takes over and has a great run. Coaching staff seems solid with a combo of College and Pro types. Booties wonder about play calling prowess and game mojo ( my beef).
Things start going sideways with QB management issues and predictability on Offense despite having the most complex play book in America.
Covid and Santa Clara County make a tough job tougher and the gap v other programs grows. Brother’s sickness interferes with Coach’s focus. Transfer portal and defections blind side fan base.
Jack West is crowned QB 1 after a “tough spring and summer competition” to the consternation of fans everywhere. Awful season especially on D culminates with losing RB1 and 2. Fan base calls for major changes in coaching staff. DS does nothing.
Now, this shit show of a season.
WTF happened. Has there ever been a fall from grace so steep.

Steve Frost correctly and politely reminded me with a reply to a tweet I posted yesterday that this situation is difficult for a number of people to handle. I made a crack that the PA (I didn't tag him) shouldn't try to hype such a small and downtrodden crowd, and we should instead have the "dignity" to just quietly cross our fingers on third down. A bitter comment from a frustrated fan directed toward someone trying to make the best omelet with what's given to him.

So, I once again put on my Hallmark sheriff badge and don my hat of empathy to post a reminder that as much as we want complete change for the program, this process is very upsetting for many people who work in the Arrillaga Family Sports Center and who aren't responsible for the state of things. Even within the group of responsibles there is a wide spectrum of culpability and therefore I feel more sympathy for some than people who are compensated more than $5 million a year, or whatever it actually is. When the rebuild does occur it will probably mean quite a few people will lose their jobs — probably not Frost but who knows.

Quick "negative" tangent: I feel like some people on Twitter who really hate the negativity about Shaw are numbed by capitalist society to think someone compensated at a rate of more than $5 million a year should be treated like a "regular" working person. I'm going to demand a lot from someone who receives that kind of money and I'm sorry but I am not giving you years to fix a problem you created. Are you nuts? FIVE MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. Jesus.

Splendid.... ouch: Stanford to be eviscerated in nationwide primetime/'Pac12 after dark'

The result will in fact be VERY dark.

7:00 on ESPN; was really hoping for Pac 12 network so no one would see it but ESPN is probably best for DSMG.

When i saw that Roxy Bernstein and a former Coug were doing the game, I knew we were in for a long day. Roxy brings us bad luck in MBB and football. And it's especially bad luck when he teams with a former opponent.

So much bad during the game, so nowhere to start. But a few things that bug me because they are examples of poor coaching. U;timately it's on the players, but better coaching should eliminate these mistakes.

1. Our punt returners have a bad habit of calling for a fair catch inside our 5 yard line. It happened twice today but has happened often all season long. This late in the season, this should not happen.

2. Our edge players too oftne misread plays and fail to contain. Again, this should be corrected by the coaches by now.

3. I love David Bailey and he will be a total stud. But too often on pass rushes, he runs right into the opposing tackle and tries to over power him - not going to happen. He should be using his speed and beating the tackle by going arund him or doing a spin move and cut inside. I'm surprised that he hasn't been coached up.

These problems would have made little of no difference in the game. It just bothers me that our coaches haven't noticed this and corrected them.

Read that here.

Read that here.