Stanford's Upset Of Washington Is Nothing To Panic About

There's one knee-jerk reaction to Stanford's 58-56 win I think we can all come together and agree upon.

Pac-10 basketball: Have I mentioned that the TV deal STINKS!?!?! | College Hotline
Hotline readers may recall that I’ve addressed this topic in the past, and I’m going to do it again because the league’s television deal is a joke and the league needs to hear it.

It. Is. A. Joke.

I don’t care what the explanation is. It doesn’t matter. The bottom line is that here in the Bay Area, we could not watch Stanford-Washington or Cal-Washington State.

Aside from that, it was one game and probably no need to get too high or too low, if you don't mind me validating coach speak for the moment.

So there might be talk over the next few days in between games of Stanford's upset tonight being something of a watershed moment in their quest for a Pac-10 championship.

Stanford rallies to stun No. 17 Washington - San Jose Mercury News
With the Stanford football team and women's basketball team making national headlines in recent weeks, the men's basketball team has flown under the radar around campus.

If Thursday night's performance is any indication of what's to come, that anonymity won't last long...If the Cardinal defends as it did Thursday, Green and company are going to win a lot of games in the next couple of months.

On the other side of things, given the Washington Huskies' controversy off the court people might try to make a story out of the team being distracted. Right now coach Lorenzo Romar is having none of that.

Husky Men's Basketball Blog | Isaiah Thomas: "We should really be undefeated" | Seattle Times Newspaper
And finally, Romar said the police investigation into a sexual assault allegation from a 16-year-old girl that involves a UW player didn't factor into tonight's game.

"If you're up 11 points with 10 minutes to go, something went right," Romar said. "It was mentioned that this is the first time we were down at halftime, but that doesn't mean we were distracted. I just don't think we played to where we came out and were in disarray. In the first half we didn't make a lot of shots."

The fact is, as one game in the midst of otherwise strong play in the Pac-10, it's hard to make anything of last night's game other than it being an off night for now even if we didn't see it. Lapses happen and UW had one on the road against a team that had been undefeated at home this season.

That's neither something for the victor to go overboard about nor the loser to hang their heads about. Until further notice, it's one game in the early part of conference play.

Stanford's Upset Of Washington 'The Biggest Win Of Coach Johnny Dawkins' Tenure'

Prior to tonight’s win, Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins hadn’t beaten the Huskies in six tries.

So as Tom Fitzgerald of the San Francisco Chronicle notes, beating a Washington Huskies team that was expected to sail through the Pac-10 is quite a milestone for Dawkins’ career.

Stanford stuns Washington on Owens late basket
Stanford pulled off the biggest win of coach Johnny Dawkins’ three-year tenure, shocking Washington 58-56 Thursday night at Maples Pavilion on Josh Owens’ basket with 29 seconds left.

Dwight Powell’s tip-in gave Stanford a 55-53 lead with 1:44 left. Jeremy Green sank a free throw before a three by Scott Suggs knotted the score 56-56 with 1:09 left. Owens hit his tip-in, and UW’s Justin Holiday missed two free throws with 2.5 seconds left. Powell grabbed the rebound but was tied up and, thanks to the possession arrow, the Huskies had one last chance.

Stanford Cardinal Upset Washington Huskies, 58-56

This has not been an easy for the Washington Huskies basketball team off the court.

And a 58-56 road loss to the Stanford Cardinal didn't necessarily make it any easier.

They never really found the touch, although they did manage to hold the Cardinal to 34.6 percent shooting.

What might have done the Huskies in was the turnover differential: Washington turned the ball over more often in the second half and Stanford outscored them 8 to 3 in points off turnovers, despite not having any fast break points.

Forward Josh Owens led the way for Stanford, scoring a team-high14 points on 7-for-9 shooting, while forward Dwight Powell had 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Although Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Aziz N'Diaye combined for 18 rebounds, neither got involved offensively with Bryan-Amaning scoring eight points after seemingly coming into his own over the past few games.

Justin Holiday led the Huskies with 15 points while Isaiah Thomas had 14 points and seven assists.

Washington Huskies Down 29-28 At Halftime At Stanford

So tonight's game isn't televised, but you can listen to it on the radio and according to the guys on SBN's UW Dawg Pound game thread, Stanford's student crew is admirable in its "earnestness".

Anyway, Washington is down 29-28 at halftime and unquestionably the reason is they haven't been able to put the orange ball in the ten foot high cylinder tonight. And unlike their previous losses this season, rebounding is not necessarily a major problem either.

Washington shot 35.7 percent in the first half while Stanford shot 48 percent, which is definitely above their season average. So perhaps one could suppose that things will even out and that the Huskies have essentially weathered the storm being only down one.

You can follow the game on the game tracker and student radio via Stanford's website.

Washington Huskies Visit Stanford Looking To Maintain Pace In The Pac-10

After the Stanford Cardinal won the Orange Bowl and learning quarterback Andrew Luck would be returning, today they announced the internal hire of David Shaw to replace Jim Harbaugh, who somewhat predictably left Stanford for the NFL.

So although Stanford basketball fans are unlikely to have quite the showing of school spirit that Michigan basketball fans had about the hire of Brady Hoke, there's plenty of reason to walk into Maples Pavilion with a lot of warm fuzzies this evening.

However, the visiting Washington Huskies could disrupt otherwise happy times for Cardinal fans and an undefeated home record for the Cardinal basketball team.

Palo Alto Online : Stanford defense will be put to the test in Pac-10 hoops
The Cardinal (2-1, 9-5) will also put its unbeaten home record on the line against the conference's highest scoring team and one of the one top scoring teams in the country, averaging 88.9 points a game. The Huskies are beating their opponents by an average of 20.8 points a game.

"Any team that explosive is dangerous," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. "They are good at finding ways to score. It's not like you can point to one thing and say we need to stop that. They score in multiple ways."

Further weighing against Stanford is that Johnny Dawkins is 0-6 in his career against the Huskies.

For a quick overview of what Stanford did last weekend in Arizona and how they might approach UW tonight, former Cardinal guard Drew Shiller sat down with Johnny Dawkins in the video below.