Publication Date: Friday, February 11, 2005
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Stanford men, women have shots at sweeping Cal
Stanford men, women have shots at sweeping Cal
(February 11, 2005) Cardinal men host Bears on Saturday in crucial contest
by Rick Eymer
Both the Stanford men's and women's basketball teams will be trying to make it an even dozen this weekend, as in consecutive victories against California at the respective venues.
The Stanford women (12-1, 21-2) travel to Berkeley today for a 7 p.m. contest with an 11-game winning streak on the Bears (3-10, 9-13) home court on the line.
The Cardinal men (6-5, 12-9) host Cal (5-6, 12-9) on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. having beaten the Bears the last 11 times they visited Maples Pavilion.
The Cal men are a better team than the one which lost to Stanford, 74-58, on Jan. 15. The two teams entered that last game tied for ninth in the Pac-10; both have raised their level of play since.
Stanford has a four-game wining streak over Cal overall, and has won 14 of the past 16 meetings. Has Stanford coach Trent Johnson given much thought to extending Stanford's run in the NCAA tournament to 11 straight years?
"None whatsoever," he said. "It's pretty evident one bad week can knock you out of a lot of things but we're sticking to the emphasis we've had all year long and that's to get better."
Stanford is 6-1 at home this year, but is coming off a two-game losing streak in Arizona. Cal split its two games last week and has won four of its last five games. The Bears are 5-3 on the road.
"We've done a pretty good job on the road but if you look at the records over the years we haven't done so well at Stanford," Cal coach Ben Braun said. "I think both teams are going through some adjustments periods and are playing much better basketball now than earlier in the year."
Junior Dan Grunfeld continues to lead Stanford with an 18.0 scoring average. Chris Hernandez is second at 14.3.
The Stanford women haven't lost at Cal since Feb. 12, 1993. They own a nine-game winning streak over the Bears overall, and have won 24 of the past 25 meetings.
Cal snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 70-61 victory over Arizona last week.
"That was a good win; we needed it," Cal coach Caren Horstmeyer said. "It let us know we can beat good teams.."
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer hopes her team can stay healthy after losing three players in quick succession the past two weeks. The Cardinal have five players benched as a result of injuries.
"It's demoralizing to look over and see the people on the sidelines," VanDerveer said. "You never want to have anyone get hurt but thankfully the core of the team has been relatively healthy."
Freshman Candice Wiggins leads Stanford with an 17.0 scoring average while junior Brooke Smith is next at 13.1.
The Cardinal have a two-game lead over USC and a three-game lead over UCLA. The Los Angeles schools are in Arizona this weekend.
E-mail a friend a link to this story. | 
