January 21, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Goal is to not let down

by Rick Eymer

There are any number of reasons for the Stanford men's basketball team not to let down following its 68-61 victory over Bay Area rival California on Saturday before another packed house of fans and media.

The main reason is merely winning for its own sake. Or as Cardinal coach Mike Montgomery says so succulently: "I don't want to lose any game I play."

Second-ranked Stanford (5-0 in the Pac-10, 14-0 overall) can't afford to slip up if it wants to maintain its hold on first place in the Pac-10, never mind how close the Cardinal have come to reaching the No. 1 spot in the nation.

Arizona, despite two conference losses, remains a threat, and UCLA, with its 5-1 Pac-10 mark, can shake up the conference standings again this week. The Bruins have their eyes marked squarely on the target that is Stanford when the two schools get together for the 213th time on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. (Fox Sports Net) at Maples Pavilion. First place is once again at stake.

The last time Stanford was ranked second in the nation was at the end of the 2000-01 regular season. That's also the last season the Cardinal graced the top of the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

At 14-0, Stanford is tied for the third-fastest start in school history (along with the 1936-37 squad), with only the 1997-98 (18-0) and 2000-01 (20-0) teams starting better.

That 2001 team spent most of January as the No.1 team in the nation, until UCLA came to Maples Pavilion and ended Stanford's 20-game winning streak.

"We have to guard against all the nonsense people are talking about," said Montgomery. "Right now being undefeated means we've played well up to this point. We've got to get back to the task and play the game we're capable of playing. The only thing that's going to happen is we play our next game in conference. It doesn't mean we're better than anybody or we're better than the next opponent. When you start thinking that translates into something, you won't have much success."

Stanford may have gotten a lesson against California on Saturday. After struggling through a sluggish first half in which neither team showed much of a penchant to take charge, the Cardinal broke loose at the start of the second half and made nine of their first 11 shots to pull ahead 46-31.

(Stanford officially took over the lead for good when Matt Lottich hit two free throws with 4:13 remaining to play in the first half. It just took awhile for the game itself to break free of some self-imposed restraints. That Lottich gave the Cardinal the lead with a pair of charity tosses was fitting; the game was ultimately decided on the foul line).

Stanford was still comfortably ahead, 55-39, with 5:33 to play when the Bears made their only move of the night against an otherwise stingy Cardinal defense. Cal scored 13 of the next 15 points to draw within 57-52 with 3:21 left to play.

"We thought it was over," said Stanford center Rob Little of the 16-point edge. "We were back on our heels on defense and they started knocking down some 3's. We were fumbling with the lead and didn't play a very good game."

Justin Davis' lay-up with 4:31 remaining proved to be Stanford's final field goal of the night. All that time spent fine-tuning the art of free throwing shooting paid off in the final three minutes when the Cardinal made 11 of 12 from the foul line down the stretch to hold the Bears at bay.

"A lot of the game we weren't the aggressor and that caused us problems," said Stanford forward Josh Childress. "Once we started to get aggressive we were able to take the lead."

The Cardinal may have learned not to let down even for a minute or something like the run Cal made at the end of game could happen again and prove costlier than just making it a more stressful victory.

The Stanford media relations department credentialed 79 members of the press for the game, the second-largest press corps ever assembled at Maples Pavilion behind the 171 who attended the Stanford-Connecticut game in 1999.

Now that UCLA is under new, proven leadership, there's no guarantee the Bruins will fall apart under pressure. They've been playing pretty well, in fact, with the exception of their 25-point loss to Arizona on Saturday. UCLA went up to Washington the previous weekend and toughed out a pair of victories. UCLA is playing like it wants to be among the big boys again.

Stanford still has a few things to tidy up against the Bruins, too. Montgomery lost 14 of the first 20 games he coached with Stanford against UCLA, including a 10-game losing streak into the 1995-96 season. The Cardinal are 11-4 since that long losing streak, but one of those losses knocked Stanford from the unbeaten ranks and ended a four-week stay at No. 1 in the nation.

Montgomery is 17-18 overall against the Bruins and Stanford is 53-53 at home against them, so a victory on Thursday would settle some of the sub plots in addition to directing the main plot forward.

Stanford hopes it can continue to write its own script of the season, one that ends happily in San Antonio. The Cardinal players, however, will likely be concentrating on the next chapter and not looking too far ahead.

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