Stanford Preview: Cardinal Has Had Ups and Downs

Cal, which has lost seven straight games, has to be wondering which Stanford men’s basketball team it will be facing Tuesday night in Palo Alto.

Will it be the Cardinal who knocked off 15th-ranked USC on Thursday by shooting 42.6 percent from the floor, 47.9 percent from three-point range, and turned the ball over just nine times?

Or will it be the Cardinal that got gob-smacked two days later by UCLA, shooting just 27.1 percent, 15 percent from beyond the arc, and turned the ball over 22 times? 

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Jerod Haase

This Stanford team has been a classic example of inconsistency. The beat-down at the hands of the Bruins was not the only time the Cardinal was routed. Check out these scores:

Baylor 86, Stanford 48

Arizona 85, Stanford 57.

And then there was UCLA, which was undoubtedly the nadir. Stanford scored just 15 points in the first half and went nearly six minutes without a basket. “It really came down to their defensive pressure and our turnovers,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said afterward.  “A lot of different guys at a lot of different positions struggled.”

In fairness, all of those teams are in the top-10 and the Cardinal beat USC twice and knocked off Oregon. Those are the types of quality wins that help a team reach The NCAA Tournament, a goal Stanford (12-7, 5-4 Pac-12) still believes it can achieve.

This will be Cal’s first look at the Cardinal’s hot-shot freshman Harrison Ingram, the 6-7 Texan who on Monday was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the fifth time this year.

He scored  12 points, including the go-ahead layup with 33 seconds remaining, five assists, and three rebounds in the win over USC.

He leads the Cardinal in both scoring 11.2 ppg and rebounding 6.8 pg.

Cal (9-12, 2-8) will have to be creative in trying to contain him, especially if Andre Kelly, who was injured against USC on Saturday, cannot play. There was no word from Cal about his condition, but he was seen leaving Pauley in a walking boot.

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Harrison Ingram

The Cardinal also have a veteran presence inside in 6-9 senior Jaiden Delaire. At 11.0 ppg., he is the only other Cardinal in averaging double figures in scoring.

For the benefit of those who can’t read a schedule themselves, each coach has pointed out that his team is in a stretch of almost as many games as days off.

“We have eight games in 17 days. We don't have a lot of time to wallow in self-pity or celebrate," Haase said. "We have to learn from film. There's not going to be a lot of practice time.”

Notes

• Cal leads the all-time series, 153-128.
• Fox is 3-3 against Stanford.
• The Bears’ last win at Stanford was, 64-59, on March 7, 2019 
• Stanford is last in the conference with a minus 3.89 per game.
• The Cardinal has outrebounded its opponent in 17 of 19 games this season, posting a plus-7.6 margin, which is 15th-best nationally.
• Stanford ranks in the top-25 nationally in offensive rebound (25th, 35.4 percent) and defensive rebound percentage (13th, 77.5 percent).
• Stanford is the only team in Pac-12 play shooting at least 35 percent from 3-point range as a team while holding its opponents to 30 percent or less from deep.
• Eleven Stanford players have reached double figures in scoring at least once. WSU is the only other conference school that can make that claim