February 16, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Stanford trying to hold on

by Rick Eymer

Dan Grunfeld plays basketball at full speed and he was going full speed on a breakaway layup when California guard Richard Midgley came up and swiped the ball out of his hands in the first five minutes of the second half.

Grunfeld landed awkwardly, possibly coming down on Midgley's foot, and lay in a crumble while the game continued for several seconds on the other end of the court.

"When he didn't get up you knew it was serious," Stanford coach Trent Johnson said. "But he's tough and resilient. His comment to me was 'great win coach.' It's hard to see a guy like that go down."

Stanford beat visiting California, 71-56, on Saturday but will proceed with the rest of its season without Grunfeld, who sustained a torn ACL in his right knee and is scheduled for surgery. He should be ready to play by next year.

Grunfeld will be there when Stanford hosts USC on Thursday at 7 p.m., and he'll likely be one of the Cardinal's biggest supporters. Meanwhile, Stanford will have to deal with yet another blow to its already depleted roster.

"I keep saying as long as we stay above the Mendoza line, with five or six players, we'll be fine," Johnson said. "We're going to compete and we're going to play."

Suddenly, walk-on freshman Kenny Brown becomes an important player as the Cardinal pursue their 11th straight trip to the NCAA tournament. With the victory over the Bears, Stanford (7-5, 13-9) remains on pace for a possible berth.

The Cardinal have lost enough players to make a football coach feel uncomfortable. Johnson shakes his head for a moment and then moves on.

"The team is down for a moment because of how well they like Danny Grunfeld," he said. "But we're going to practice and try to get better. We'll be enthusiastic and we'll get ready for the Trojans. More than anything, we'll make sure they will bounce back emotionally."

First it was former walk-on Carlton Weatherby suffering an injury, then Evan Moore and Mark Bradford leaving the team to concentrate on football. Top reserve Tim Morris is academically ineligible, and now Grunfeld, the team's leading scorer with a 17.9 average, is out.

"Naturally the guys are down because they know how hard Danny has worked to make himself the player he is," Johnson said. "They also know someone has to step up and find a way to keep this thing headed in the right direction."

Stanford retained its precarious hold on third place in the Pac-10, a half-game up on Sunday opponent UCLA, and a game up on Oregon State, which knocked Washington out of first place on Sunday.

Grunfeld, also the team's third-leading rebounder at 5.5, averaged 3.4 points last year. His improvement of 14.3 is the best by a Division I player this year. Grunfeld's one-year improvement also is the best by a Stanford athlete since team and individual records were kept beginning with the 1951-52 season.

Grunfeld scored 20 or more points in eight games and double-digits in 20 of 22 games. He shot 50 percent (140-280) from the floor, and ranked in the top 10 in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (.431).

Grunfeld hit at least one three-pointer in 17 of 22 games. His 28 three-pointers were second-best on the team. Grunfeld was second on the Cardinal in minutes played per game (33.0).

Last Thursday, Grunfeld was named the co-recipient of The Marty Glickman Outstanding Jewish Scholarship Athlete of the Year award. He will be honored at the Jewish Hall of Fame inductions in April.

Junior forward Matt Haryasz turned the injury into motivation. He scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half to go with a game-high 11 rebounds.

"It looked like he was in pain," Haryasz said. "I got fired up after that. That's my best friend; that's my boy. We had to take it at them."

Haryasz recorded his fifth double-double in six games and seventh of the year.

Grunfeld scored 16 points despite missing most of the second half. Rob Little had 11 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double and Chris Hernandez added 13 points as Stanford beat Cal at home for the 12th straight time.

Haryasz moved ahead of Little into seventh place on the career blocks list with 77.

Grunfeld was taken to Stanford Hospital for an MRI after an extensive evaluation by team doctor Dr. Tim McAdams.

"I just stopped and stood there for a second," Hernandez said. "And time just stopped as well."

The 56 points were the fewest Cal has scored in conference play, and Stanford held Cal's top three guards to a combined 4-of-27.

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