STANFORD MEN Despite 3 straight losses, Cardinal remain positive
For a team on a three-game losing streak, the Stanford men are whistling a happy tune as they sit in fifth place in the Pac-12 going into the second half of the conference season.
The top four teams get firstround byes in the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. The Cardinal (11-11, 5-4 Pac-12) need to win the tournament to get the automatic bid to the Big Dance or put on a huge run to impress the NCAA selection committee into giving them an at-large berth.
“We’re in a good spot to put ourselves in a good situation at the end of the year,” forward Michael Humphrey said. “… We’re still confident as a group. I think everybody believes that this group can make something special happen on this end-of-the-year run.”
This week’s home games, against Oregon State (11-9, 3-5) on Thursday night and Oregon (14-7, 4-4) on Saturday afternoon, are virtually must-win games, as are the two remaining home games against the Washington schools in three weeks.
The Beavers have lost four of their past five, but the win in that stretch was against UCLA, which pounded Stanford by 16 on Saturday.
“Anyone can get anyone,” forward Reid Travis said. “That’s why we’re so optimistic about where we’re at right now.”
He’s feeling so good about the team that he’s not ruling out coming back next season for his final year of eligibility even though he’ll receive his degree in June.
“I haven’t put too much thought into it,” he said. “All options are on the table. There are so many factors that go into it that are beyond me.”
At the moment, he’s a lot more concerned about helping Stanford get off to a good start against Oregon State. In two of the past three games, the Cardinal dug themselves big holes, 22-11 against Arizona and 28-12 at USC.
“We need to play with a higher motor, higher energy, to start games,” Travis said. “That’s the biggest thing for us. We started slow against USC. We were able to claw our way back into it. But obviously with a good team like that, when you spot them as many points as we did, it was tough for us to come back in the second half.”
Oregon State allows the fewest points in the Pac-12, thanks to its tough matchup 3-2 zone. The losses in Los Angeles demonstrated the problems the Cardinal can have against a zone defense when they don’t pass the ball quickly or move swiftly into the empty spaces, Travis said.
“Being more active in the zone,” he said. “That starts with me, running the baseline, posting guys up more, being stronger down low. I think the biggest thing you’ll see Thursday is that we’ll have more activity in our zone (offense). The ball’s going to be flying around a lot more.” Briefly: Freshman forwards Oscar da Silva (ankle) and KZ Okpala (back) were hampered against UCLA. Head coach Jerod Haase said he hoped they’d be ready for the Oregon State game. … The Beavers rely on the scoring of Tres Tinkle (17.9 ppg), Stephen Thompson Jr. (16.3), Drew Eubanks (12.3) and Ethan Thompson (9.5). “The Thompson brothers are elite-level players,” Haase said, “and Tinkle is an absolute monster.”