Meet the Lopezes

When the movie of Stanford Basketball in 2007-8 is made, that's what they should call it.

You know, like "Meet the Robinsons?" Anybody?

OK, so I haven't actually seen that movie. Perhaps I should stick to jokes that actually involve plays on words that I understand the meaning of.

Stanford 71, Northwestern 60

With four games under our belts, it's time to look at the relevant players, their stats so far this season, and what we might be able to expect out of them. For our purposes, I'm using stats-per-40-minutes. There are two reasons for this: first, in the context of a single team, everyone gets the same number of potential possessions, so tempo really isn't a factor here, and second, I'm lazy and want something I can calculate in my head.

To get one minor item out of the way first: Will Paul and Da'veed Dildy are redshirting this season and won't contribute.

And in a not-so-minor item, Brook Lopez is academically ineligible for the first n games of the season, where n is a number between 9 and 11, depending on how soon fall semester grades are posted. If he continues his not-going-to-class ways, he might well be ineligible for the entire year. I'm inferring from certain things Johnson has said that he's no longer actually suspended from the team and is participating in practices, but I could be wrong about this.

Please, Brook, just go to class. Halo is not worth sacrificing 18 zillion dollars in the NBA for. As silly as the NCAA's academic rules are, and they're pretty silly, sometimes we just have to suck it up and deal with silly rules. I'll have more to say on this subject in another post, perhaps during the semester break ('Furd plays no games between Dec. 2 and Dec. 16).

The Starting Five (so far)

C. Robin Lopez

19.1 pts/40; 8.83 rebs/40; 4.65 blk/40; 16/26 2ptFG, 0/0 3ptFG (effective shooting pct .615)

See, Brook? Robin likes Halo, too, and still manages to make it to class often enough.

Frankly, these are (rebounds excepted) great numbers. But we can't really expect them to last. Most of the teams Stanford has played against so far have lacked true big men, with the result that Robin can score at will on dunks and tip-ins. The Pac-10? Not so much. He'll be matching up with Jon Brockman, Robbie Cowgill, Lorenzo Mata and DeVon Hardin in conference play, with a side order of Taj Gibson, Jordan Wilkes, Aron Baynes and Kirk Walters.

Nonetheless, it seems like Robin's offensive game has taken a bit of a step forward in the offseason. He's never going to be a great scorer-- some of his attempted hook shots and step-throughs last year were wince-inducing and usually turnover-inducing-- but if he can develop into a good college scorer and, thus, a mediocre NBA scorer, he'll be employed for a long time. I don't mean to rub salt in Warriors fans' wounds when I say that he could be the next Adonal Foyle.

His defense continues to be excellent, which is the most important factor in Stanford's run through a sequence of defensively challenged opponents (like, say, Siena). Force them to beat you with threes and you're forcing them to get very lucky to beat you.

PF. Lawrence Hill

13.1 pts/40; 12.5 rebs/40; 1.3 blk/40; 8/13 2ptFG, 1/9 3ptFG (effective shooting pct .432)

Hill started off the season ice-cold from three and then hurt his ankle against Northwestern, causing him to miss most of the second half with what the game recap describes as a "mild sprain." Hopefully, the 3-point percentage is just a shooting slump, as Hill led the team in that category last season and sparked the huge comeback against UCLA with his outside touch.

I think of Lawrence Hill as comparable in a lot of ways to Oakland A's outfielder Nick Swisher-- not very fast, but otherwise very athletic and defensively sound. He's an excellent rebounder, hawks the ball pretty well, and gets to the right spots on the floor. He has a funky shot which is probably more prone to slumps than most, but normally he's a very strong shooter from all parts of the floor. As his numbers above show, he's also an excellent rebounder, probably the best on the team skill-wise (although at 6-8, he's not going to get to as many balls as the Lopezes). He's one of those sleeper NBA types, a guy that will probably end up getting picked in the second round but might force his way into a team's rotation with quality play in practice.

Hopefully the ankle sprain will be fully healed by the time the team faces Yale next Tuesday.

SF: Fred Washington

12.3 pts/40; 7.7 rebs/40; 5.4 asst/40; 10/16 2ptFG, 1/3 3ptFG (effective shooting pct .638)

"Toujours l'audace" might as well be Fred Washington's motto. Let's be blunt-- the guy doesn't have a lot of talent. He's kind of fast, dribbles and passes pretty well, and that's about it. He's carved out a niche by being an incredibly aggressive slasher who's good at recognizing both whether he's committing to a drive or kicking out, and the point at which he needs to make that decision. His assist-to-turnover ratio, on a turnover-prone Stanford club, is excellent.

He's really the definition of the term "point forward." He's not a guard, but he can act like one for the first 3/4 of the court. With Goods and Hill being more spot-up shooters than ball handlers, and the lumbering Lopezes wandering around the court, this is a pretty essential skill.

Washington has absolutely no outside shot, so let's hope the 2-point percentage stays high and the 3-point shots taken stay low.

SG: Anthony Goods

26.7 pts/40; 4.44 rebs/40; 8/6 asst/TO ratio; 12/19 2ptFG, 11/25 3ptFG (effective shooting pct .647)

On a list of the "breakout seasons" of last year's Pac-10, Goods has to rank near the top. A role-player his freshman year, he turned into one of the conference's best scorers last year, and has continued to excel this season. He's turned into the clear #1 option offensively for Stanford. The point totals are not going to continue, but if they were to, he'd vault into serious contention for Pac-10 Player of the Year.

Goods is not a fabulous ballhandler, but he's capable of taking the ball to the hoop as well as lighting it up from outside. He's the clear best option when the Cardinal go inside-outside-- get the ball inside to a Lopez or have Washington penetrate, then kick out to an open Goods for an easy three-pointer.

I don't think enough has been said about the recruiting savvy of Trent Johnson. The Lopez twins were committed to Stanford from the Montgomery years onward, but Hill and Goods were tremendous under-the-radar pickups. This gives me a great deal of optimism about the team's future chances, especially with him tapping the recruiting gold mine of the Plumlee family (three brothers, with the two uncommitted guys currently a junior and a freshman in high school).

PG: Mitch Johnson

16.5 pts/40; 6.6 rebs/40; 8.2 asst/40; 20/11 asst/TO ratio; 7/11 2ptFG, 5/10 3ptFG (effective shooting pct .690)

Johnson is an object lesson in the need to evaluate chronic injuries in assessing players. He was expected to be a major contributor in his sophomore season; instead, he took a pretty big step backwards. He developed plantar fasciitis in his foot about midway through the season and was basically ineffective from that point on. Plantar fasciitis is the same medical issue that MLB outfielder Shannon Stewart has; it's an inflammation of the bottom of the foot caused by too much running on hard surfaces (the Metrodome's Astroturf, in the case of Stewart). As a result, it's pretty common among basketball players.

Unfortunately, it's also basically incurable; it can be managed and mitigated, but it never really "goes away." Johnson will probably wear down toward the end of the season when it flares up; it's not clear what can be done to prevent this other than finger-crossing. So far, so good; through four games, he's been outstanding.

I'll hit the rest of the players in somewhat shorter profiles next time around.