The Stanford men’s basketball team (18-11, 9-8 Pac-12) heads to Tucson, Arizona for its final regular season game against the toughest opposition it will face all year — the No. 5 Arizona Wildcats (27-3, 15-2 Pac-12). Arizona clinched the regular season Pac-12 title with a 99-60 win over Cal on Thursday, and although Stanford was defeated by Arizona State on the same night, the Cardinal will need to be on their A-game to pull out a final regular-season win.
Earlier in the season, Arizona came to Maples and put on an offensive show. The Wildcats scored 89 points, which would usually be incredibly difficult for Stanford to match. However, the Card did manage 82 points in that game, which indicates that this Stanford team can break down Arizona.
Therefore, Stanford’s potential for an upset is really contingent upon whether or not the defense shows up. Arizona has averaged 76.2 points per game this season and has held its opponents to an average of 58.6 points per game. The Wildcats have six players who average over 9 ppg, so Stanford cannot be reliant on shutting down one man. It will take an unwaveringly strong team performance to go home with a victory.
The Card will need to keep Stanley Johnson under lock and key. With a 14.1 average, the freshman leads the Arizona charts in ppg. He’s also averaging 6.7 rebounds per game, and therefore will be a massive threat. The team will also look to minimize the creative space given to senior guard T.J. McConnell who leads Arizona with 184 assists. McConnell has also averaged 9.6 ppg throughout the season.
Nearing the end of the season, Stanford fans have come to expect the same thing from the Stanford team. Chasson Randle, Anthony Brown and Stefan Nastic will all have pressure to perform, but recent weeks have shown that Marcus Allen and Michael Humphrey could play equally critical roles in a big upset victory.
Following the loss to Oregon, which many thought of as the final nail in the coffin for Stanford NCAA tournament hopes, Dawkins pointed out, “We have two regular-season games to play on the road against some very good teams and we also have the Pac-12 Tournament, so I don’t think it kills our chances.”
The Cardinal will tip-off at 1 p.m. on Mar. 7 in the last game of the regular season.
Contact Jack Seaton at jrseaton ‘at’ stanford.edu.