Happy belated win...

You may have heard something about this around these parts, but Brook Lopez is good at basketball.

Stanford 60, Washington State 53

I have to be honest with you-- I was not enamored of Stanford's chances of winning this game from the get-go (I thought it was basically a toss-up with how well WSU has played on the road) and seeing the team shut out for 5 minutes and down 13 in the first half didn't exactly assuage my concerns.

Then came a gift Robin Lopez slam on an inbounds play to end the half, and a quick run to start the second half and put the Cardinal back in it. The key to that run was unquestionably Brook Lopez. His signature play for me as a Cardinal will probably remain the play on which he was double teamed, drew a foul on a contested fadeaway 12-footer, and somehow made the shot.

WSU had no answers. Baynes could body him but had no chance to stop him from taking a shot other than by fouling; Cowgill couldn't hold post position. WSU Hoops notes that Stanford has generated two of the three highest Free Throw Rates (the ratio of made free throws to attempted field goals) on the season against WSU, normally a highly disciplined defensive team.

We also got to see a little bit of that big-man chemistry that occasionally shows up when the Lopezes are on the floor together. It makes a lot of sense, really-- they're both taller than everyone else out there, so why not just pass the ball where the defense can't reach it? Robin Lopez had a couple of assists, and both of them were on essentially effortless baskets by Brook.

Taj Finger, as usual, was the unsung hero. 8 points and 3 rebounds doesn't really tell the tale-- he made the biggest shot of the game (a 3-pointer-- normally he has a mediocre outside shot, but somehow he has a knack for hitting them at the right moments) to tie the game for the first time since it was 0-0, and if I recall rightly, WSU had exactly two points from there until the end of the game.

The defense, as usual, put the other team through an involuntary clinic on Contested 15-foot Fadeaways, and although WSU is good enough that they came away with 11 assists, the team only made 6 baskets overall in the second half. A remarkable job to shut down one of the most efficient offenses in the country.

Honestly, I kind of hope these teams meet up again in the Pac-10 tournament (maybe in a 2 vs. 3 semifinal game). It's just good basketball. One word of advice to WSU though: don't break out the bright red uniforms against Stanford. Stick to maroon. It's bad form to yoink the other team's colors, and I have no doubt, in the inevitable Gregg Easterbrook paraphrase, that the Basketball Gods were displeased by that display of sartorial hubris.

Up next? Only UCLA on the road. I don't want to say it's for all the marbles-- it strikes me as eminently possible that Stanford could move into a conference tie by beating UCLA, then lose an exhausted follow-up to USC and end up second in the league anyway. But it's sort of a prerequisite for even getting to the point of playing for all the marbles. Or half of the marbles. Or something.

The annoyingly quick turnaround time (Saturday's game is at 11 AM) does mean that if the team gets down by a bunch, it might be better to capitulate and regroup than to expend a ton of energy on a comeback. It sucks, but sometimes these tradeoffs need to be made. Let's hope the game stays close and entertaining throughout so that these perverse incentives don't come into play.

Cal ended any hopes by gacking up a game to Washington in which Joe Wolfinger (no, I haven't heard of him either) scored 17 points, and is essentially playing for an NIT bid at this point.

I'm hoping I'll be able to see tomorrow night's game, but I may not. With luck I'll be able to slip out the door of the George Washington "admitted-student reception" around 7:30 after the food and before the heavy-duty schmoozing, and then dash home to only miss the first couple of minutes. We'll see.