Stanford men’s basketball’s conference play has seemed to be defined less by its achievements and more by its “have not’s” in recent years.
The team has earned a handful of top-notch victories against high-quality opponents and achieved some sporadic success in the Pac-12 tournament, but Stanford fans seem to remember the times when the team has disappointed much more frequently than the times it has excelled.
As Stanford heads south on Thursday to face UCLA, however, it has a chance to turn a number of these historic failures into distant memories.
A win at UCLA would accomplish a number of things that the Cardinal have failed to do for a very long time. It would mark the first five-game win streak for Stanford since it went on a tear to win the NIT at the 2011-2012 season. And it would give them their first win at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion since the Cardinal scraped out a victory back in 2005.
Perhaps most notably, however, it would give the Cardinal their first 3-0 start to conference play since 2003. Back then, Stanford was still coached by Mike Montgomery, and the team lost just one game during the regular season en route to a national No. 1 ranking.
Stanford seems every bit capable of turning in an impressive performance in Westwood. Since they knocked off then-No. 9 Texas in an overtime win on Dec. 23, the Cardinal have shown an ability to finish close games that they have notably lacked in recent years. Led by senior guards Chasson Randle and Anthony Brown, Stanford has displayed character and unselfishness in its last set of games, perhaps best exemplified in a comeback overtime win against No. 21 Washington on Sunday.
UCLA, meanwhile, appears ripe for the picking. After a reasonably strong start to the season that saw the Bruins briefly attain a top-25 ranking, head coach Steve Alford’s side has lost five in a row and rarely made it look close. Sophomore point guard Bryce Alford, normally the team’s top scorer, has shot 5-for-39 over his last three games, and many of the team’s highly touted recruits have failed to make an impact in the way that the Los Angeles faithful hoped they would.
Still, trips to Westwood are rarely as easy as they seem. The crowd will certainly be a factor, particularly since UCLA has not played at home in almost a month, and the team will be undoubtedly come out fighting as it attempts to get back on track.
“I was really pleased with the way we scheduled the last road trip. Obviously we didn’t come up with it at BYU, but both were great atmospheres for our team. Especially that Texas win; it definitely helped as a reference point for us as well,” said fifth-year senior center Stefan Nastic. “We’ve played in big crowds before and we have the experience together so it definitely helps out.”
Stanford’s defense will have to frustrate their opponent’s scorers early on or they could risk building up a deficit against the Bruins’ young, energetic squad.
The Cardinal will have to make the trip without freshman forward Reid Travis, who added a solid scoring and rebounding presence to the team’s frontcourt this season before being sidelined with a stress fracture. Nastic will help make up for the absence of the McDonald’s All-American, as he has 18 rebounds over Stanford’s last two games after averaging around 6 rebounds per game before then.
Stanford’s matchup against UCLA is scheduled for 6 p.m., with television coverage on ESPN.
Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.