The Stanford men entered last weekend's roadie to LA at #98 NET and tied for fifth in the conference. After splitting the trip, including a Quad 1 win and another reminder that Stanford cannot hang with elite teams, Stanford is <sarcasm>all the way up to</sarcasm> #89 NET and alone in seventh place in the Pac-12 standings. However, Tuesday's previously postponed contest vs Cal is the start of a four-game home stand with the two teams immediately above Stanford in the standings--UW and WSU--visiting Maples later on this week.
But first up is Cal. The Dirty Golden Bears are at #128 in the NET rankings and 0-6 on the road. They have played eight (!) Quad 1 games and lost them all. They are 2-8 in conference, which puts them all alone in 10th place. On offense, Cal is not terribly impressive--only 63.2 ppg, which is next-to-last in conference play--although they only commit 11.2 turnovers per game, which is 2nd to UCLA. On defense, the Bears give up 69.9 ppg, which is .1 ppg better than Stanford. But they have a negative net rebounding margin and negative net turnover margin. In fact, Cal only forces 8.3 turnovers per game in conference, which is dead last.
The Bears have two players who average double figures in conference games: Sr G Jordan Shepherd (15.3 ppg) and Sr F Andre Kelly (11.4 ppg). Shepherd is a graduate transfer who played two years at Oklahoma and three years at Charlotte. I read somewhere--so this may not be entirely accurate--that Stanford is one of 5 D1 schools that does not have a transfer on its roster this season. And the most recent transfer to Stanford basketball was Andrew Zimmerman in 2009. Or something like that.
Cal coach Mark Fox looks a bit like George Castanza on his wikipedia page. He experienced a lot of success at Nevada in the early 2000s, then spent nine years at Georgia, where he experienced modest success (which I would take right now), but was let go. After a gap year, Fox joined the Bears. In 2+ seasons, his teams have gone 31-47 (12-33).
But first up is Cal. The Dirty Golden Bears are at #128 in the NET rankings and 0-6 on the road. They have played eight (!) Quad 1 games and lost them all. They are 2-8 in conference, which puts them all alone in 10th place. On offense, Cal is not terribly impressive--only 63.2 ppg, which is next-to-last in conference play--although they only commit 11.2 turnovers per game, which is 2nd to UCLA. On defense, the Bears give up 69.9 ppg, which is .1 ppg better than Stanford. But they have a negative net rebounding margin and negative net turnover margin. In fact, Cal only forces 8.3 turnovers per game in conference, which is dead last.
The Bears have two players who average double figures in conference games: Sr G Jordan Shepherd (15.3 ppg) and Sr F Andre Kelly (11.4 ppg). Shepherd is a graduate transfer who played two years at Oklahoma and three years at Charlotte. I read somewhere--so this may not be entirely accurate--that Stanford is one of 5 D1 schools that does not have a transfer on its roster this season. And the most recent transfer to Stanford basketball was Andrew Zimmerman in 2009. Or something like that.
Cal coach Mark Fox looks a bit like George Castanza on his wikipedia page. He experienced a lot of success at Nevada in the early 2000s, then spent nine years at Georgia, where he experienced modest success (which I would take right now), but was let go. After a gap year, Fox joined the Bears. In 2+ seasons, his teams have gone 31-47 (12-33).
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)
