If Stanford is going to make a run at the NCAA tournament, it must first learn to win where the environment is most friendly – home, sweet home.
The young Cardinal has defied conventional practice – and wisdom – by playing its best basketball in enemy territory.
Tonight, Stanford (9-4, 1-2 Pacific-10) will get another opportunity to re-establish a home-court edge at Maples Pavilion when Washington (11-4, 1-3) pays a visit.
How unfriendly has Maples been for the home team? The Cardinal’s three worst shooting performances have come in that building.
And these weren’t just three bad shooting nights. They were three brutal shooting nights. To recap:
Air Force, Nov. 15: The Cardinal shot 16 for 53, including 2 for 17 from three-point range, and lost 79-45.
Santa Clara, Dec. 16: The Cardinal shot 14 for 51, including 4 for 27 before halftime, and lost 62-46.
Cal, Jan. 3: The Cardinal shot 21 for 61 and missed 11 free throws in a 67-63 loss.
“The kids want to play so well for the student body and want to play so well because they are great kids that they have a tendency to try too hard,” Coach Trent Johnson said. “It’s amazing how bad you look when the ball is not going down.
“Our first half against Air Force, our first half against Santa Clara, our first half against Cal, we’re (21 of 86) from the field. Out of those shots, probably 55-60 were what you would call great shots – not good shots, great shots.”
So, how do you get them to drop?
“You just continue to shoot,” Johnson said. “The only time I get mad is when they don’t shoot with confidence or aggressiveness.”
Whatever ails the Cardinal at home, forward Lawrence Hill said the team “better change quick because everyone in the Pac-10 is good.
“When we go on the road, we have this (mentality) that it’s just us, and let’s go out and pound these guys,” Hill added. “We need to do that at home, too.”
Stanford is 5-3 at Maples. But it hasn’t won there since November and its victories have hardly come against the cre(gra)me de la cre(gra)me of college basketball. Only Northwestern and Siena have winning records, and none has a Sagarin rating in the top 140.
On the road, however, the Cardinal is an impressive 3-1. It handed Virginia its first home loss in nine games Sunday and is the only team to beat Fresno State this season in Fresno.
“We have to come out with the same intensity and focus and just find ways to get wins” at home, point guard Mitch Johnson said.
Nine of the Cardinal’s remaining 16 games before the Pac-10 tournament are at Maples. Assuming the law of averages evens out on the road – can Stanford really expect to win 75 percent of its road games all season? – the Cardinal can’t afford many more stumbles at home.
Tonight, Stanford faces a Washington team that has lost 13 consecutive games at Maples – few, if any, more stunning than last season. Then ranked 10th, the Huskies led the Cardinal by three points with 2.1 seconds left.
Hill, standing 94 feet from the basket, threw an inbounds pass to Matt Haryasz at midcourt. Haryasz fired a sideline pass to a streaking Chris Hernandez, who was then fouled by Justin Dentmon while attempting a three-pointer. Hernandez made the three free throws with zero seconds on the clock, and Stanford prevailed 76-67 in overtime.
“It showed that you shouldn’t give up,” Hill said this week. “My dad told me when I was younger, `Don’t stop playing until the final buzzer goes off.’ If we had gone through the motions, that last play wouldn’t have worked out.”
Stanford had another dramatic finish Sunday, with Hill hitting a last-second shot to beat Virginia and give the team’s postseason hopes a lift.
Tonight, the Cardinal’s mission is clear: Solve its Maples woes. Before it’s too late.
Contact Darren Sabedra at dsabedra@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5815.
