[washingtonismoney]

I don't know that I'd be so quick to dismiss this loss, whatever the expectations. If you're intending to do great (or, in our case, good things), eventually you have to exceed expectations. Put more concretely, if we wanted even a shred of a hope of getting into the tournament, we need wins on the marquee (as of right now, there's exactly one -- the Oregon game), we needed to pull out that win. We didn't. That's bad.

[washingtonismoney]

I don't know that I'd be so quick to dismiss this loss, whatever the expectations. If you're intending to do great (or, in our case, good things), eventually you have to exceed expectations. Put more concretely, if we wanted even a shred of a hope of getting into the tournament, we need wins on the marquee (as of right now, there's exactly one -- the Oregon game), we needed to pull out that win. We didn't. That's bad.

[FarmBoy]

I watched the last 25 minutes of the game. From what I saw, the only reason Stanford was leading was poor Arizona shooting. I didn't see particularly tough Stanford defense that forced poor shooting. Once Arizona's shots started to fall, the game was over.

If Stanford is relying on 50% shooting from 3-point range to win games, then we're in trouble.

Dwight Powell is more impressive every time I see him play. He's a great combination of agile, shifty and explosive with a nice soft shot. He just needs a few more pounds to be an NBA prospect, imo.

Randle doesn't seem to have developed and Bright is still a tad too short.

Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

[FarmBoy]

I watched the last 25 minutes of the game. From what I saw, the only reason Stanford was leading was poor Arizona shooting. I didn't see particularly tough Stanford defense that forced poor shooting. Once Arizona's shots started to fall, the game was over.

If Stanford is relying on 50% shooting from 3-point range to win games, then we're in trouble.

Dwight Powell is more impressive every time I see him play. He's a great combination of agile, shifty and explosive with a nice soft shot. He just needs a few more pounds to be an NBA prospect, imo.

Randle doesn't seem to have developed and Bright is still a tad too short.

Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

[Bruce Wang]

Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

Correction, Bill Walton is the worst commentator in all of television.

Last night's game was the first time I watched Stanford basketball this season.  What struck me is the lack of muscle.  Strength is the most underrated attribute of basketball players.  After Muir fires Dawkins, he needs to clone Turley for the basketball team.

[Bruce Wang]

Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

Correction, Bill Walton is the worst commentator in all of television.

Last night's game was the first time I watched Stanford basketball this season.  What struck me is the lack of muscle.  Strength is the most underrated attribute of basketball players.  After Muir fires Dawkins, he needs to clone Turley for the basketball team.

[burger]

Very frustrating, winnable game last night.  My biggest beef continues to be our poor shot selection.  We took jumpers 2 feet inside the 3-point line, drove into thickets of defenders resulting in off-balance heaves, and put up awkward 3-pointers with a defender close by.  Many of these bad shots came early in the shot clock.

We have great 3-point shooters.  Where are the high screens to get these guys open?  Was that not in the Duke playbook?  Arizona ran screen after screen at the top of the key, and even though they didn't hit many 3-pointers, most of their attempts were wide open.  Not so much for ours.

Of course, I've been complaining about poor offense and shot selection ever since Johnny Dawkins took over as coach.  I think that the talented and hard-working kids we have on the team deserve better than they're getting.

[burger]

Very frustrating, winnable game last night.  My biggest beef continues to be our poor shot selection.  We took jumpers 2 feet inside the 3-point line, drove into thickets of defenders resulting in off-balance heaves, and put up awkward 3-pointers with a defender close by.  Many of these bad shots came early in the shot clock.

We have great 3-point shooters.  Where are the high screens to get these guys open?  Was that not in the Duke playbook?  Arizona ran screen after screen at the top of the key, and even though they didn't hit many 3-pointers, most of their attempts were wide open.  Not so much for ours.

Of course, I've been complaining about poor offense and shot selection ever since Johnny Dawkins took over as coach.  I think that the talented and hard-working kids we have on the team deserve better than they're getting.

[Roberton3]

Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

Dick Vitale has that one locked up.  Walton isn't anywhere near as bad.

[Roberton3]

Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

Dick Vitale has that one locked up.  Walton isn't anywhere near as bad.

[FarmBoy]

Honestly, I'd rather listen to Vitale, although his personality has gone beyond caricature as well.

[FarmBoy]

Honestly, I'd rather listen to Vitale, although his personality has gone beyond caricature as well.

[washingtonismoney]

Putting aside Walton (who I think is pretty excellent in medium-sized doses -- I wouldn't want him to achieve, say, Kirk Herbstreit-level ubiquity), it's insane to want to listen to Dick Vitale. In fact, any position other than "immediate retirement and exile to a faraway desert island with voicebox surgically removed" in regards to Dick Vitale is the sort of mollycoddling which ends with the Reds marching down Main Street in Peoria, ready to install Marx and Engels in all the schools. THINK OF THE DIAPER DANDIES in that scenario.

[washingtonismoney]

Putting aside Walton (who I think is pretty excellent in medium-sized doses -- I wouldn't want him to achieve, say, Kirk Herbstreit-level ubiquity), it's insane to want to listen to Dick Vitale. In fact, any position other than "immediate retirement and exile to a faraway desert island with voicebox surgically removed" in regards to Dick Vitale is the sort of mollycoddling which ends with the Reds marching down Main Street in Peoria, ready to install Marx and Engels in all the schools. THINK OF THE DIAPER DANDIES in that scenario.

[Renaissance Man]

I either put the TV on mute or skip the game entirely when Vitale has the game--he has not made a meaningful comment in years.  There are only so many time I can listen to how wonderful Coach K and Bobby Knight are--even when they don't have a team playing in the game that he is watching.  Dickie V is about self-promotion and nothing else.  I find Walton amusing--I like to wait for the play-by-play guy to remind him that there is a game being played.

[Renaissance Man]

I either put the TV on mute or skip the game entirely when Vitale has the game--he has not made a meaningful comment in years.  There are only so many time I can listen to how wonderful Coach K and Bobby Knight are--even when they don't have a team playing in the game that he is watching.  Dickie V is about self-promotion and nothing else.  I find Walton amusing--I like to wait for the play-by-play guy to remind him that there is a game being played.

[Bruce Wang]

[quote author=FarmBoy link=topic=7511.msg58492#msg58492 date=1360244815]
Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

Dick Vitale has that one locked up.  Walton isn't anywhere near as bad.
[/quote]

I stand corrected.  Walton is the 2nd worst commentator in all of television.

[Bruce Wang]

[quote author=FarmBoy link=topic=7511.msg58492#msg58492 date=1360244815]
Oh, and Bill Walton is horrrrrible. Worst basketball commentator on ESPN.

Dick Vitale has that one locked up.  Walton isn't anywhere near as bad.
[/quote]

I stand corrected.  Walton is the 2nd worst commentator in all of television.

[slide]

Walton's calling out the Dead Show from Maples was a good one.  much better than many of Dick's picks.

[slide]

Walton's calling out the Dead Show from Maples was a good one.  much better than many of Dick's picks.

[pincemob]

i liked Vitale in the 80s and 90s, and think he did a lot to draw attention to college hoops.  He used to do his homework and would know a lot about kids when they came onto the college scene (he'd know a kid's high school coach, who else was on the way from that program, and tidbits like that which other announcers didn't seem to know).  Where I noticed a real change in his act was around the time that drafting high schoolers and early entrants became the norm, in the late 90s timeframe.  I think Vitale saw the impact on college basketball coming (imminent talent dilution, drop-off in ratings).  I think he felt that the best way for college hoops (and him) to stay relevant would be if there were 5-10 "super programs" who were consistently elevated above the rest of the programs in perception.  That would keep the average fan engaged who maybe didn't have a strong alma mater to pull for.  His way of helping that cause was to focus all of his attention on the coaches of those programs, knowing the players were not a lasting brand.  He didn't choose Monty and Stanford as part of that elite.  I remember when we played Duke in MSG back when Casey Jacobsen was a freshman, and Duke had Mike Dunleavy.  He must have talked for 1:58 minutes about Duke and 0:02 about Stanford.  It was a noticeable change from earlier years where he seemed to like Stanford and even floated in the 6th-man section a couple times if I remember correctly. 

[pincemob]

i liked Vitale in the 80s and 90s, and think he did a lot to draw attention to college hoops.  He used to do his homework and would know a lot about kids when they came onto the college scene (he'd know a kid's high school coach, who else was on the way from that program, and tidbits like that which other announcers didn't seem to know).  Where I noticed a real change in his act was around the time that drafting high schoolers and early entrants became the norm, in the late 90s timeframe.  I think Vitale saw the impact on college basketball coming (imminent talent dilution, drop-off in ratings).  I think he felt that the best way for college hoops (and him) to stay relevant would be if there were 5-10 "super programs" who were consistently elevated above the rest of the programs in perception.  That would keep the average fan engaged who maybe didn't have a strong alma mater to pull for.  His way of helping that cause was to focus all of his attention on the coaches of those programs, knowing the players were not a lasting brand.  He didn't choose Monty and Stanford as part of that elite.  I remember when we played Duke in MSG back when Casey Jacobsen was a freshman, and Duke had Mike Dunleavy.  He must have talked for 1:58 minutes about Duke and 0:02 about Stanford.  It was a noticeable change from earlier years where he seemed to like Stanford and even floated in the 6th-man section a couple times if I remember correctly.