What the hell? Sorry. That’s not appropriate. Hell doesn’t go ice-cold for a weekend. Scoring 45 points against Washington State is as excusable as 45 points in a game gets. Washington State is packed with upperclassmen, and has played lockdown defense in each of its 20 wins this season.

Washington, however, plays defense like Britney Spears wears panties — with embarrassing irregularity. At over 75 points allowed per game, the team is last in the conference in scoring defense, and that’s even after Sunday’s debacle. If Stanford had played that game against Washington State, I don’t think they would have scored 30.

So then, why did Stanford make the Huskies look like Ben Wallace’s Detroit Pistons, and what does it mean for this team going forward?

Theory 1: No offensive ammo. Robin is in a slump (“He’s hit the wall,” head coach Trent Johnson said), Mitch and Fred can’t shoot, Landry has a beautiful stroke but an ugly percentage and the rest of the roster is offensively limited, save for Brook Lopez and Lawrence Hill. And when those guys have quiet days, like Hill did at Washington State (zero points), or Brook did at Washington (six points), it can get ugly.

Plus, of course, Anthony Goods is likely out four to six weeks with a high ankle sprain. (The Pac-10 Tournament is in three weeks and the NCAA Tournament starts in four.) His MRI was not scheduled until next week, so he’s definitely not playing this weekend.

Goods was in a serious slump before his injury, though, and one player does not make a team. Still, things have gotten so desperate that walk-on Kenny Brown could be seeing more and more minutes. Right now, he’s the only guard that can hit a three.

“I’ve said since day one that Kenny Brown was the best shooter on this team,” Fred Washington said.

Theory 2: This team is young, and lets up its focus, especially on the road. Stanford turned it over 19 times against Washington and must have been out-hustled to as many loose balls.

“I think we lost that competitive edge a little bit,” Taj Finger said. “I think we had some success and then we got loose with our approach. We know we’re a good team, but we also know if we don’t prepare and get focused, we can be a really bad team.”

Theory 3: The team is scared. We all saw a lot of tentative play in Seattle, and a lot of passed-up open looks. The reluctance to pull the trigger, in turn, causes teams to sag off guards, which leads to forced passes into double teams and turnover after turnover.

Right now, Stanford, and especially Mitch Johnson, just needs to shoot the rock.

Washington made this point Monday, while jokingly referring to Mitch’s shooting woes with the funniest line of the season:

“I tell him [to] shoot the ball every time,” he said. “Take 15 shots a game, I don’t care. I just want him to shoot the ball. Pad my rebound stats or something.”

Theory 4: The Pac-10’s pretty darn good. Hey, 7-5 in conference is 7-5, and if the team can grab three or four more wins, it’s in the Tournament. Washington State could win the league and Washington’s probably as talented as anyone in the league, save for UCLA. It’s better to play poorly in games you’re probably going to lose anyway than blow winnable games with poor performances.

That’s all true, but it goes out the window tonight. If some freak accident were to send Lawrence Hill and the Lopez twins alongside Anthony Goods on the stationary bikes, you could still make a compelling argument that Stanford should beat Oregon State at home.

Hold homecourt tonight, and hold it against fellow bottom-feeder Arizona State. Then win one or two of the remainder (vs. Oregon and Arizona, at UCLA and Southern California) and NCAAs, here we come.

Given this team’s youth, and serious lack of shooting, I think that is about as much as fans can hope for. Besides, with only Weatherby and Bobel leaving this offseason, this should be a preseason top-25 team eight months from now.

Daniel Novinson is a writer and columnist on men’s basketball for Cardinal Today. He can be reached at dannovi@stanford.edu.