The Cardinal got Jerod Haase a home win on their first try and the game was never in doubt. Before people completely dismiss Northridge as overmatched competition, the Matadors scored 42 in the first half against UCLA and gave the Bruins a game for a while several days ago.
There was no such threat of an upset in Maples Pavilion. Stanford had five players in double figures and the list of positives was long, while also not missing that there are definitely still questions for the Cardinal to answer. But the hustle, energy and flow within a system was evident.
The pleasant surprise of the night was the play of Josh Sharma, who got into the game early because of Michael Humphrey foul trouble.
The ball movement was "average" according to head coach Jerod Haase, but there were stretches of play when the Cardinal found the open man with a level of passing that was often missing in past seasons.
I am not a basketball expert, but it was clear to me there was better organization, confidence and energy among the Cardinal on the court. Stanford plays Weber State on Thursday and then a solid Colorado State team on Sunday. The first big test is against Miami on Thanksgiving.
Haase Quotes
Had a blast. I think the thing that continues to stand out in my mind is how much I enjoy coaching these guys. They're so willing to learn and willing to do what we ask them to do -- at least try to do what we ask them to do. I think they've really bought into a team concept right now. Having said that, being in Maples and my first experience here was awesome.
I didn't like the severity of the ebbs and flows. Every game there are ebbs and flows to it and you work through it, but I thought we'd go from really, really good to really, really bad defensively. We might get five stops in a row and the next four we fouled them or they'd score three out of four. So, I didn't like the consistency with how we did some things. But I did like how we responded. We're trying to share the basketball well. I like the way we were on the offensive boards. I like that we were sticking to our approach. We did shoot the ball well from the three-point line, but we only shot 16 threes, so the idea of getting the ball inside first was important.
I think average (ball movement) for what we want to get to. I didn't think it was bad, but it's still sticking in guys' hands a little bit too much. We're still struggling with the flow from going to primary break to secondary break to motion. So, I think that 's going to continue to get better.
We've been really excited with him (Josh Sharma) since day one. We feel like he's made a ton of progress in the time we've been here. We also know there's a ton more to make. He understands he has a long way to go. He is trying to play lower -- lower center of gravity on both ends of the floor. He has tremendous skill set. He's long, lean, can shoot the basketball, has really nice touch in the post. I think he has a wonderful future ahead of him.
On Humphrey's foul trouble: "A little bad luck. His second foul he was looking at me on the bench, I think, and someone drove and ran up his back. He ended up getting the foul on that. That's unfortunate. But what we need to do, though, is eliminate some of the ticky-tack fouls that he puts himself in bad situations. It's a little bit of everything, but it's something that's officially a trend now from his past and continuing to this year. You need to learn. We need to help him as coaches learn how to stay out of those situations without taking away his abilities. Just playing passive won't be the answer, either. One of the joys is we have a deep bench, especially the front court. We can sub guys in but we want Mike in there more.
On Reid Travis' significant improvement at the free throw line (7-of-10): "It's great. And I lose a lot of sleep as coach for a lot of different reasons, but since I've seen him work on his shot and see him shoot in practice and understand what he's doing, that's not one of the things I lose sleep over. Because I really have a great deal of confidence in him at the free throw line right now. I think he'll continue to shoot the ball well and maybe even get better as the year goes on. He's an unbelievable person, an unbelievable player, but his work ethic to change his shot was extremely impressive. And I've been around for a little while now around college basketball, not many players can change their shot once they get to college. And he did that in a summer.
Dorian Pickens and Reid Travis Quotes
Getting coach win in first home game:
Travis: "It means everything to do that, especially with all the work we've put in this spring, summer and the preseason with him building that relationship with him and the coaching staff. It means the world to give him the win at home.
Overall team performance:
Pickens: "At times in the game we played great defense. That needs to be one of our identities -- and playing tough, playing hard, playing unselfish needs to be something we pride ourselves on. At times in the game we did that. I think sometimes we definitely had a dip in that and it's something we need to work on going forward.
Travis on play he knocked over row of seats diving for a loose ball: "It's definitely what he (Haase) tries to instill in us. We're playing hard. Toughness is one of our standards. When we get on the court it's full speed ahead. That's not uncommon for us to see in practice, guys flying into the sideline.
Travis on young bigs Sharma and Stanback: "They're staying aggressive. That's the biggest thing we preach as a core group of bigs that when you get your opportunity you have to make the most of it. They go against me and Mike every day and battle it out. There's no drop off in that sense.
Pickens on ball movement: "As you can see from the bench scoring and scoring from the starters, the way we were able to move the ball and create shots for guys ... makes the game much easier to win. Selfless is another one of our core values and it's something we're going to have to do game after game to accomplish the things we want to accomplish.
There was no such threat of an upset in Maples Pavilion. Stanford had five players in double figures and the list of positives was long, while also not missing that there are definitely still questions for the Cardinal to answer. But the hustle, energy and flow within a system was evident.
The pleasant surprise of the night was the play of Josh Sharma, who got into the game early because of Michael Humphrey foul trouble.
The ball movement was "average" according to head coach Jerod Haase, but there were stretches of play when the Cardinal found the open man with a level of passing that was often missing in past seasons.
I am not a basketball expert, but it was clear to me there was better organization, confidence and energy among the Cardinal on the court. Stanford plays Weber State on Thursday and then a solid Colorado State team on Sunday. The first big test is against Miami on Thanksgiving.
Haase Quotes
Had a blast. I think the thing that continues to stand out in my mind is how much I enjoy coaching these guys. They're so willing to learn and willing to do what we ask them to do -- at least try to do what we ask them to do. I think they've really bought into a team concept right now. Having said that, being in Maples and my first experience here was awesome.
I didn't like the severity of the ebbs and flows. Every game there are ebbs and flows to it and you work through it, but I thought we'd go from really, really good to really, really bad defensively. We might get five stops in a row and the next four we fouled them or they'd score three out of four. So, I didn't like the consistency with how we did some things. But I did like how we responded. We're trying to share the basketball well. I like the way we were on the offensive boards. I like that we were sticking to our approach. We did shoot the ball well from the three-point line, but we only shot 16 threes, so the idea of getting the ball inside first was important.
I think average (ball movement) for what we want to get to. I didn't think it was bad, but it's still sticking in guys' hands a little bit too much. We're still struggling with the flow from going to primary break to secondary break to motion. So, I think that 's going to continue to get better.
We've been really excited with him (Josh Sharma) since day one. We feel like he's made a ton of progress in the time we've been here. We also know there's a ton more to make. He understands he has a long way to go. He is trying to play lower -- lower center of gravity on both ends of the floor. He has tremendous skill set. He's long, lean, can shoot the basketball, has really nice touch in the post. I think he has a wonderful future ahead of him.
On Humphrey's foul trouble: "A little bad luck. His second foul he was looking at me on the bench, I think, and someone drove and ran up his back. He ended up getting the foul on that. That's unfortunate. But what we need to do, though, is eliminate some of the ticky-tack fouls that he puts himself in bad situations. It's a little bit of everything, but it's something that's officially a trend now from his past and continuing to this year. You need to learn. We need to help him as coaches learn how to stay out of those situations without taking away his abilities. Just playing passive won't be the answer, either. One of the joys is we have a deep bench, especially the front court. We can sub guys in but we want Mike in there more.
On Reid Travis' significant improvement at the free throw line (7-of-10): "It's great. And I lose a lot of sleep as coach for a lot of different reasons, but since I've seen him work on his shot and see him shoot in practice and understand what he's doing, that's not one of the things I lose sleep over. Because I really have a great deal of confidence in him at the free throw line right now. I think he'll continue to shoot the ball well and maybe even get better as the year goes on. He's an unbelievable person, an unbelievable player, but his work ethic to change his shot was extremely impressive. And I've been around for a little while now around college basketball, not many players can change their shot once they get to college. And he did that in a summer.
Dorian Pickens and Reid Travis Quotes
Getting coach win in first home game:
Travis: "It means everything to do that, especially with all the work we've put in this spring, summer and the preseason with him building that relationship with him and the coaching staff. It means the world to give him the win at home.
Overall team performance:
Pickens: "At times in the game we played great defense. That needs to be one of our identities -- and playing tough, playing hard, playing unselfish needs to be something we pride ourselves on. At times in the game we did that. I think sometimes we definitely had a dip in that and it's something we need to work on going forward.
Travis on play he knocked over row of seats diving for a loose ball: "It's definitely what he (Haase) tries to instill in us. We're playing hard. Toughness is one of our standards. When we get on the court it's full speed ahead. That's not uncommon for us to see in practice, guys flying into the sideline.
Travis on young bigs Sharma and Stanback: "They're staying aggressive. That's the biggest thing we preach as a core group of bigs that when you get your opportunity you have to make the most of it. They go against me and Mike every day and battle it out. There's no drop off in that sense.
Pickens on ball movement: "As you can see from the bench scoring and scoring from the starters, the way we were able to move the ball and create shots for guys ... makes the game much easier to win. Selfless is another one of our core values and it's something we're going to have to do game after game to accomplish the things we want to accomplish.
