By most measures, it was a very good season. Thirty-one wins, a third straight Pac-10 championship, a first-team All-American (sophomore Casey Jacobsen) and impressive victories over two Final Four teams--unfortunately, not in the Final Four.
For the second consecutive year, Stanford was the nation's top-ranked team for virtually all of January and February, and there was even some talk in the press midway through the season about the Cardinal going undefeated, something no team has done since the Indiana Hoosiers in 1975-76. As things turned out, it wasn't all that far-fetched. Both of the team's regular-season losses, to UCLA and Arizona, could easily have gone Stanford's way.
A No. 1 seed in the West region of the NCAA tournament, the Cardinal handily dispatched its first-round opponent, North Carolina-Greensboro, 89-60. In the second round, scrappy St. Joseph's, led by a 37-point effort from guard Marvin O'Connor, frayed Stanford fans' nerves but eventually submitted, 90-83. And in the regional semifinal, a bruising Cincinnati squad took Stanford to the limit before falling, 78-65.
That left the Cardinal just one game away from the Final Four. The last time the Cardinal advanced so far in the tournament, in 1998, Arthur Lee, '99, and Mark Madsen, '00, rallied Stanford from a six-point deficit in the final minute to defeat Rhode Island, 79-77. As breathtaking as that victory was, the opponent was not nearly as talented as the one Stanford faced in the regional final this year. The Maryland Terrapins, a No. 3 seed, already had proved they could match up with any team in the country, having defeated Duke on Duke's home floor and nearly beaten them in two other meetings. And against Stanford, they played perhaps their best game of the season, hitting 58 percent of their shots, including nine of 13 three-pointers. The Cardinal made a 7-0 run early in the second half to shave a 10-point Terps lead to 3, but never seriously threatened Maryland after that. The Terrapins won by 14.
It was a disappointing end to the season, but head coach Mike Montgomery focused on the positive. "These guys accomplished a lot," he said after the loss. "The disappointment is there, obviously, but it's not as though you're giving something up, like maybe we felt the last two years [when Stanford lost in the second round]."
A healthy team might have gone farther. Sophomore Curtis Borchardt, who was emerging as a dominant defensive player and skilled scorer, broke a bone in his foot in January and missed the rest of the season. Justin Davis, a redshirt freshman who also shows great promise, was hampered for much of the final month of the season with an ankle injury and played only a few minutes in the NCAA tournament. Both of those players will be keys for next year's team, which loses three senior starters and perhaps a fourth, Jason Collins, who in April was contemplating whether he would enter the nba draft. Collins, who graduates in June, has two years of NCAA eligibility remaining after redshirting both his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Incoming freshmen Josh Childress and Chris Hernandez may have an immediate impact. Childress, a 6-foot-7 forward from Lakewood, Calif., is among the top high school players in the country. Hernandez, a point guard from Fresno, Calif., is touted as the best player at his position in the West by several scouting magazines.
Replacing the points and the rebounds will be easier, though, than replacing the leadership Montgomery got from the seniors, Ryan Mendez, Michael McDonald and Jarron Collins. They helped elevate the Stanford program into the nation's elite over the past four years. Hours after the loss to Maryland, Jacobsen already sounded wistful about their departure. "I have learned a lot from the seniors. My goal is to leave Stanford basketball with the pride and dignity that they have left us with. It's been a pleasure, and we will miss them."
