Assume, for a moment, that you are Stanford coach Trent Johnson. It’s November, and your team is readying for a new season, returning its core rotation but rebounding from a disappointing showing in the Pac-10 and NCAA tournaments. Imagine, then, that someone from the future tells you that, come March, your team will be 24-6, ranked No. 11 in the nation and second in the conference as it prepares for the Pac-10 Tournament.

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Jeff Keacher.

Brook Lopez, a First Team All-Pac-10 selection, leads the Cardinal with 18.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Stanford will need him to stay hot in the tournament.

“I would have felt that we had probably come up a little short,” said Johnson, who also was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year this week. “The last time I felt this way about a team as a head coach was my fifth year in Nevada.”

That year, Johnson’s last before becoming head coach at Stanford, the Wolfpack made it to the Sweet Sixteen. This year, Johnson’s fourth on the Farm, the Cardinal is gearing up for the stretch run, starting with the Pac-10 Tournament Thursday in Los Angeles.

Stanford will face the winner of Wednesday night’s showing between seven-seed Arizona (18-13, 8-10 Pac-10) and ten-seed Oregon State (6-24, 0-18). The Cardinal won both games against both teams this season but must exorcise the memories of last season’s disappointing showing in the Tournament, an 83-79 overtime loss to USC in its first game.

This year, the team is older and wiser. Having been through last season’s ups and downs, including the subsequent first-round 78-58 blowout at the hands of Louisville in the NCAA Tournament, Stanford knows what lies ahead.

“I think they’re more relaxed because they know they’ll be playing [in the NCAA Tournament next week],” Johnson said. “I think last year, more than anything, there was an excitement . . . there was some pressure that they put on themselves.

“I think it goes back to experience,” Johnson added. “I’d like to think the kids are more relaxed. This game on Thursday is not going to make or break us.”

Stanford has an NCAA bid locked up, but a strong showing in the Pac-10 Tournament could do wonders for its seeding, which is likely to fall anywhere between a two- and a four-seed.

“It’s huge,” junior guard Mitch Johnson said of the conference tournament. “It’s momentum going into NCAA Tournament. We definitely want to get the winning feeling back, that taste back in our mouths.”

Right now, that taste registers somewhere between sour and bitter. Thursday’s letdown in overtime to UCLA and Saturday’s poor performance at USC handed the Cardinal its first losing streak of the season. Thursday’s contest, marred by a controversial call that led to the overtime, cost Stanford its chance for its first regular season Pac-10 title since the 2003-2004 campaign.

“The goal of playing basketball is to win the championship,” said sophomore forward Brook Lopez, named this week to the All Pac-10 First team, adding that he was “a little disappointed” at finishing second.

Stanford can right its wrongs starting Thursday, but the players know that nothing will come easy. Most recently, the Cardinal blew an eight-point lead with four minutes remaining but held on to beat Arizona in Tucson 67-66. The Beavers, meanwhile, must muster their first win against a conference opponent to move on.

“It’s amazing that Arizona is a seven-seed,” said sophomore center Robin Lopez, named to the Pac-10 All-Defensive team this week. “And Oregon State’s been playing teams tough. They played us tough in the second game.”

Stanford will not have a shot at either UCLA or USC until the tournament’s final game, provided the Cardinal advances that far. But redemption, more so than revenge, is on the mind for the moment.

“I’d like to win the whole tournament,” Lopez continued. “Especially after this past weekend.”