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NewsvineIt’s time for Stanford basketball.
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After a long offseason, Stanford men’s basketball unofficially kicks off the 2007-2008 season tonight with a 7 p.m. exhibition scrimmage against Concordia University.
The Cardinal enters the year with high expectations — ranked 21st in the nation and picked to finish fifth in the daunting Pacific 10’s preseason media poll.
That’s hardly unexpected praise for a team that returns all five starters from 2006’s NCAA tournament team. The frontcourt of sophomore centers Robin and Brook Lopez and junior forward Lawrence Hill might be the Pac-10’s best, and junior shooting guards Kenny Brown and Anthony Goods give the Cardinal threats from behind the arc.
“We are clearly a much better basketball team than we were last year,” said coach Trent Johnson at the Pac-10 Media Day. “We should be a very good defensive team and a very good rebounding team. Consistency will be a huge key for us in this league and we need to play extremely well in the non-conference.”
In 2006, Stanford finished 18-13 overall and 10-8 in the Pac-10, the nation’s toughest conference, which only got stronger over the offseason. A team with four underclassman starters strung together remarkable performances: a 75-68 upset of then-No. 3 UCLA and thrilling last-second wins over Virginia, Washington State and Washington.
But a 1-6 finish down the stretch, capped by an embarrassing 78-58 blowout loss to Louisville in the NCAA Tournament’s first round left the team with more questions than answers heading into the offseason.
The time off has generated some intriguing questions:Who’s the point guard? The Cardinal suffered from poor ballhandling, passing and, most of all, shooting, at the position all last season, especially against Louisville. The other pieces are there — Stanford’s likely a top-10 team if junior Mitch Johnson, last year’s starter, or junior Drew Schiller, a University of San Francisco transfer, can raise their level of play to that of the other starters. While both players had good summers, neither dominated, so Goods, Brown and slashing senior forward Fred Washington may factor into the rotation.
The other main concern centers around Brook Lopez’s tumultuous offseason. The projected NBA lottery pick is the most promising talent on the team, but was suspended from the squad for fall quarter for academic ineligibility (a 1.8 GPA and 36 completed units are required).
Just weeks later, the situation heightened as coach Trent Johnson suspended Brook indefinitely and placed Robin Lopez on probation. Brook’s absence shouldn’t hurt too much during the weak out-of-conference schedule — the team’s first nine games — but will he be eligible and ready to dominate come mid-December? Further, will his teammates welcome him back into the locker room?
Those questions might not be answered tonight against Concordia. To the Eagles’ credit, they are No. 2 nationally due to the strong play of senior guard Rafael Da Silva — but that’s in the NAIA, not the NCAA. Still, Stanford has a history of slow starts, losing early to UC-Davis, UC-Irvine and Montana over the last two years. A strong performance against the Irvine, Calif. school tonight would set the right tone heading into Friday night’s season-opener against Harvard.