Cardinal seek to sweep ASU, win tiebreaker
Besides trying to continue the momentum of its hot streak, Stanford has another big source of motivation when it visits Arizona State on Wednesday night.
A win would give the Cardinal a sweep of the Sun Devils, an important asset, given that head-to-head results are the first tiebreaker for one of the top four spots in the Pac-12 tournament.
The first four teams get opening-round byes, which moves them a step closer to winning the title and gaining the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
In a season when the conference has not been rocking the critical NET rankings — only 31st-ranked Washington was in the top 67 as of Tuesday morning — any team that doesn’t win the Pac-12 title has to start thinking about the NIT or one of the lesser postseason events.
At the moment, Stanford has a lot going for it. It has won five of its past six games. It swept the L.A. schools last week, including a 24-point defeat of UCLA. And everybody is reasonably healthy now that point guard Daejon Davis is back from a two-game absence.
In his return, he had 12 points and 11 assists with just one turnover against the Bruins.
“I love the way the guys fought for me in the USC game,” Davis said, referring to Stanford’s 79-76 win. Against UCLA, “I knew I had to come out and play with passion and match the energy and moment that we had while I was off the court.”
He thought the crowd of 5,418, Stanford’s largest home crowd of the season, was a key factor in the win.
“I can’t thank those guys enough, especially for our senior,” Josh Sharma, Davis said. “It was one of his last home games ever. It means a lot to us to have that type of support in Maples.”
Now the Cardinal have to win in front of an opposing crowd — and they’re 4-7 on the road. ASU is tied with Utah for third in the Pac-12 at 8-5, but after first-place Washington (11-1), the next eight teams are packed tighter than a sardine can, from second-place Oregon State (8-4) to ninth-place UCLA (6-7).
The Sun Devils are the top rebounding team in the conference, mainly because of Pac-12 leader and San Diego State transfer Zylan Cheatham (11 per game). They’re 11-3 at home, but even there, they’re unpredictable. Two nights after being pounded by lowly Washington State, they handed Washington its only conference loss.
“They feed off energy, and it’s going to be a great crowd,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said. “They understand how big the game is. We expect to get their best punch certainly.”
Although Stanford was explosive offensively against UCLA, Haase said, “Defensively is probably our greatest room for improvement.” Against ASU, “we need to really guard the ball and keep it out of the paint.”
ASU’s top scoring threat is Luguentz Dort, a freshman guard from Montreal who averages 16.4 points a game.
“They do a great job driving downhill getting to the rim and the free throw line and playing with energy on both ends of the floor,” Haase said. “Obviously, we need to match that.”
He reiterated what he said after the UCLA game, that the Cardinal have by no means “arrived.”
“From start to finish, we’ve talked about this being a stairstep approach, where we’re trying to make incremental gains,” he said. “I think we’re doing that. To get a road win at ASU would be a significant incremental gain.”