Stanford earned a much-needed (for NCAA Tournament purposes) victory over Cal this afternoon. The Cardinal opened up a double digit lead late in the first half and kept the margin around 10 for much of the rest of the game.
There were two key developments that keyed the win in my view.
1)Chasson Randle, distributor
2)The best (combined) game for Stanford's young posts all year.
-Randle approached today's game differently than any I can recall. Perhaps the way Cal defended him influenced Randle's choice to be as much a distributor as a scorer, I'm not sure, but regardless, even though he opened the game shooting 1-8 from the field and finished 5-16 from the floor, this was one of his better overall games in some time. Randle had a career-high eight assists (easily could have been 10-plus) to go along with 19 points. The fact that this was his fifth very poor (sub-32 percent) shooting outing in a row is concerning, but you have to like what Chasson did in the other parts of his game.
-Michael Humphrey scored a career high 14 points (7-8 shooting) to go along with 11 rebounds for the first double double of his career. This was the most productive game of his career, but Humphrey has been flashing in a major way for the last month, really, so it was not entirely unexpected. He did much of his damage this afternoon around the rim - converting on offensive rebounds and sending home a few lobs, but he also hit an 18-foot baseline jumper and looked very comfortable doing so. Plus, Humphrey was on the floor diving for loose balls on at least three or four occasions. The combination of shooting touch/athleticism/effort has to be quite enticing for the Cardinal. He's come such a long way since the beginning of the season when he fouled out in like 7 minutes at the Cardinal/White scrimmage, and should be one of the core players for Stanford basketball for the foreseeable future.
-As good as Humphrey was, perhaps the more encouraging development from this afternoon's game was the play of Reid Travis, who had his most productive game since returning from the stress fracture. The caveat here (and with Humphrey) is that Cal's frontline is not exactly anything to write home about. (David Kravish is very good, but 6-foot-6 Dwight Tarwater found himself trying to guard Stanford's posts on a semi-regular basis and that did not exactly work well for the Golden Bears.) Nonetheless, Travis looked as spry as he's been in some time (perhaps the week off helped) in scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds. Travis and Humphrey helped key Stanford's substantial edge on the glass; the Cardinal outrebounded Cal 42-30.
-Speaking of the future of Cardinal hoops: Here's Cameron Walker from his playoff game last night. Stanford's 2015-16 campaign sans Nastic, Randle and Brown could be rough, but no question the program does have some legitimate athleticism and talent.
-Humphrey and Travis capitalized on the available playing time that was the result of Stefan Nastic being slowed by foul trouble. He ended up fouling out, and was very quiet (7 pts, 1-6 shooting) in the 22 minutes he did play.
-Anthony Brown didn't have a great second half, but he played a significant role in Stanford grabbing a double digit first-half advantage. Brown was 4-8 from the field (3-4 from three) and scored 13 first-half points. He finished the game with 16 points (5-13) shooting and 11 rebounds.
-Random fact of the day: One of the game officials was Deron White, who, yes, happens to be the father of one future Arizona State QB Brady White.
-Stanford has two more must-win games this week. They host Oregon State on Thursday and Oregon on Sunday. Win those, split at the Arizona schools next week, and win a game or two in Vegas at the Pac-12 tourney and Stanford would have a chance at the NCAA's pending the outcome of conference tournaments elsewhere. (They're currently No. 51 in RPI.) Zero margin for error at this point, however.
Here are postgame quotes via GoStanford.
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
"It's what you grow to expect from a game like this: a rival game. Both teams wanted this game very badly and it showed that way on the floor. Our guys, especially in the first half, it was some of the best defense we've played all year. Holding them to 23 in the first half was a big number for us. It enabled us to build a lead going into half time, which was big."
"I was really happy with our overall performance. Michael Humphrey has the best game of his career. He's been getting better and better and it was great to see him have the type of performance in this type of atmosphere. It's going to help him continue to grow."
"All in all, it was a great effort by our team. A game that you want to come home - just because you come home doesn't mean you're going to win. You have to go out there and you have to earn it always, and our guys earned the victory tonight."
Stanford Senior Chasson Randle
"It was more so just about our standards and what we want to do for the rest of this year. NCAA or not, we just wanted to go out the right way, especially being at home. Take what the defense gives you. We just wanted to come out as aggressive as possible and it just so happened that it came from the 3-point line."
"Humphrey and Travis were huge for us. We talked about it all week that guys needed to step up and we needed contributors from the bench. Reid came in and did a great job and Mike was huge all night. We've got to keep bringing those guys along - getting performances like that from those two."
Stanford Freshman Michael Humphrey
"Being a rivalry game, it was a big game and somebody needed to step up and multiple people stepped up. Reid had a great game. We knew our backs were against the wall and we needed to get a win today and everybody kind of had to play their best."
"It was a lot of fun. We've talked in practice. It's fun to play basketball when you're winning. When you're not winning, we're not having any fun. I thought we played relaxed and we played well today."
California Head Coach Cuonzo Martin
"I thought we had good looks, especially in the first half -- they didn't fall. I felt like we couldn't get into a real flow from start to finish in the game. The key for us was that we didn't get stops. We didn't defend well. Defensively we had breakdowns; we missed key box-outs. I think that's where it started."
"I think the biggest key is taking pride in going around in the second half. I thought we did a better job of guarding Brown in the second half. We need to take individual pride in the perimeter defense to stop those guys. They're talented basketball players. You've got to make their catches tough, their looks tough."
"I thought their two freshmen (Humphrey and Travis) had a great game. When you have veteran perimeter guys who are guards and play as well as they do, then your freshmen can be freshmen, and they can grow and take their lumps. Those young guys can lean on those older guys -- I think that's why they were able to play so well. I think that they had an opportunity with foul trouble (on Nastic) that they were able to showcase what they can do."
"I thought David (Kravish) played real well. Nastic dominated us at our place. I told David and Kingsley (Okoroh) that Nastic cannot leave this game with one foul. It just can't happen. I thought they did a really good job of battling against him, because he does a great job of being physical in the post. We wanted to mix it up, double the post, and get him off balance."
California Senior David Kravish
"The guys were finding me today. There was open space and Tyrone (Wallace), Brandon (Chauca), Sam (Singer) -- those guys were hitting me. I got a lot of good looks at the basket, so give them the credit."
"They (Humphrey and Travis) are playing at Stanford in the Pac-12, which is a good conference. You expect players at this level to be able to play. Nastic had a tough day and they stepped up. So that was good for them."
California Junior Tyrone Wallace
"I got a lot of good looks, especially in the first half -- I missed a lot of stuff I normally would make. From that standpoint, it was just one of those games offensively for me. David was able to step up and carry the scoring load -- we just needed more help to get there -- and a few more stops."
There were two key developments that keyed the win in my view.
1)Chasson Randle, distributor
2)The best (combined) game for Stanford's young posts all year.
-Randle approached today's game differently than any I can recall. Perhaps the way Cal defended him influenced Randle's choice to be as much a distributor as a scorer, I'm not sure, but regardless, even though he opened the game shooting 1-8 from the field and finished 5-16 from the floor, this was one of his better overall games in some time. Randle had a career-high eight assists (easily could have been 10-plus) to go along with 19 points. The fact that this was his fifth very poor (sub-32 percent) shooting outing in a row is concerning, but you have to like what Chasson did in the other parts of his game.
-Michael Humphrey scored a career high 14 points (7-8 shooting) to go along with 11 rebounds for the first double double of his career. This was the most productive game of his career, but Humphrey has been flashing in a major way for the last month, really, so it was not entirely unexpected. He did much of his damage this afternoon around the rim - converting on offensive rebounds and sending home a few lobs, but he also hit an 18-foot baseline jumper and looked very comfortable doing so. Plus, Humphrey was on the floor diving for loose balls on at least three or four occasions. The combination of shooting touch/athleticism/effort has to be quite enticing for the Cardinal. He's come such a long way since the beginning of the season when he fouled out in like 7 minutes at the Cardinal/White scrimmage, and should be one of the core players for Stanford basketball for the foreseeable future.
-As good as Humphrey was, perhaps the more encouraging development from this afternoon's game was the play of Reid Travis, who had his most productive game since returning from the stress fracture. The caveat here (and with Humphrey) is that Cal's frontline is not exactly anything to write home about. (David Kravish is very good, but 6-foot-6 Dwight Tarwater found himself trying to guard Stanford's posts on a semi-regular basis and that did not exactly work well for the Golden Bears.) Nonetheless, Travis looked as spry as he's been in some time (perhaps the week off helped) in scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds. Travis and Humphrey helped key Stanford's substantial edge on the glass; the Cardinal outrebounded Cal 42-30.
-Speaking of the future of Cardinal hoops: Here's Cameron Walker from his playoff game last night. Stanford's 2015-16 campaign sans Nastic, Randle and Brown could be rough, but no question the program does have some legitimate athleticism and talent.
-Humphrey and Travis capitalized on the available playing time that was the result of Stefan Nastic being slowed by foul trouble. He ended up fouling out, and was very quiet (7 pts, 1-6 shooting) in the 22 minutes he did play.
-Anthony Brown didn't have a great second half, but he played a significant role in Stanford grabbing a double digit first-half advantage. Brown was 4-8 from the field (3-4 from three) and scored 13 first-half points. He finished the game with 16 points (5-13) shooting and 11 rebounds.
-Random fact of the day: One of the game officials was Deron White, who, yes, happens to be the father of one future Arizona State QB Brady White.
-Stanford has two more must-win games this week. They host Oregon State on Thursday and Oregon on Sunday. Win those, split at the Arizona schools next week, and win a game or two in Vegas at the Pac-12 tourney and Stanford would have a chance at the NCAA's pending the outcome of conference tournaments elsewhere. (They're currently No. 51 in RPI.) Zero margin for error at this point, however.
Here are postgame quotes via GoStanford.
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
"It's what you grow to expect from a game like this: a rival game. Both teams wanted this game very badly and it showed that way on the floor. Our guys, especially in the first half, it was some of the best defense we've played all year. Holding them to 23 in the first half was a big number for us. It enabled us to build a lead going into half time, which was big."
"I was really happy with our overall performance. Michael Humphrey has the best game of his career. He's been getting better and better and it was great to see him have the type of performance in this type of atmosphere. It's going to help him continue to grow."
"All in all, it was a great effort by our team. A game that you want to come home - just because you come home doesn't mean you're going to win. You have to go out there and you have to earn it always, and our guys earned the victory tonight."
Stanford Senior Chasson Randle
"It was more so just about our standards and what we want to do for the rest of this year. NCAA or not, we just wanted to go out the right way, especially being at home. Take what the defense gives you. We just wanted to come out as aggressive as possible and it just so happened that it came from the 3-point line."
"Humphrey and Travis were huge for us. We talked about it all week that guys needed to step up and we needed contributors from the bench. Reid came in and did a great job and Mike was huge all night. We've got to keep bringing those guys along - getting performances like that from those two."
Stanford Freshman Michael Humphrey
"Being a rivalry game, it was a big game and somebody needed to step up and multiple people stepped up. Reid had a great game. We knew our backs were against the wall and we needed to get a win today and everybody kind of had to play their best."
"It was a lot of fun. We've talked in practice. It's fun to play basketball when you're winning. When you're not winning, we're not having any fun. I thought we played relaxed and we played well today."
California Head Coach Cuonzo Martin
"I thought we had good looks, especially in the first half -- they didn't fall. I felt like we couldn't get into a real flow from start to finish in the game. The key for us was that we didn't get stops. We didn't defend well. Defensively we had breakdowns; we missed key box-outs. I think that's where it started."
"I think the biggest key is taking pride in going around in the second half. I thought we did a better job of guarding Brown in the second half. We need to take individual pride in the perimeter defense to stop those guys. They're talented basketball players. You've got to make their catches tough, their looks tough."
"I thought their two freshmen (Humphrey and Travis) had a great game. When you have veteran perimeter guys who are guards and play as well as they do, then your freshmen can be freshmen, and they can grow and take their lumps. Those young guys can lean on those older guys -- I think that's why they were able to play so well. I think that they had an opportunity with foul trouble (on Nastic) that they were able to showcase what they can do."
"I thought David (Kravish) played real well. Nastic dominated us at our place. I told David and Kingsley (Okoroh) that Nastic cannot leave this game with one foul. It just can't happen. I thought they did a really good job of battling against him, because he does a great job of being physical in the post. We wanted to mix it up, double the post, and get him off balance."
California Senior David Kravish
"The guys were finding me today. There was open space and Tyrone (Wallace), Brandon (Chauca), Sam (Singer) -- those guys were hitting me. I got a lot of good looks at the basket, so give them the credit."
"They (Humphrey and Travis) are playing at Stanford in the Pac-12, which is a good conference. You expect players at this level to be able to play. Nastic had a tough day and they stepped up. So that was good for them."
California Junior Tyrone Wallace
"I got a lot of good looks, especially in the first half -- I missed a lot of stuff I normally would make. From that standpoint, it was just one of those games offensively for me. David was able to step up and carry the scoring load -- we just needed more help to get there -- and a few more stops."
