Last year the buzz about Stanford's men's basketball team began long before the first game was played. Point guard Arthur Lee, '99, made the cover of Sports Illustrated. Some preseason polls ranked the team No. 1 in the country. Students camped out nearly two weeks before tickets went on sale. But despite winning the Pac-10 championship, the 1998-99 season ended with a disappointing loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Expectations were lower this year. With four of last season's five starters gone, the team started at No. 13 in the Associated Press preseason poll. But senior Mark Madsen and a crew of other players soon gave the pundits pause. By early December, they had swept through five teams, including perennial powerhouse Duke (then No. 10) in a nationally televised game at Madison Square Garden and No. 2 Auburn. All of a sudden, the Cardinal had vaulted to No. 3 on the AP list. The team has shown it can handle the pressure. In the game against Duke, Madsen pulled a hamstring at the end of regulation, but the team went on to eke out an 80-79 win in overtime without its leader. Facing Auburn, the men blew a nine-point lead but bounced back to win, 67-58. "The kids had enough mental toughness to come out of it," says coach Mike Montgomery.
And then there's freshman phenom Casey Jacobsen -- dubbed a "scoring machine" by the San Francisco Chronicle. With just five Stanford games under his belt, Jacobsen was already averaging 11 points and 3.4 rebounds a game. Others to watch: twins Jarron and Jason Collins.
The men's team isn't the only one bucking expectations. Stanford's women entered the season without a spot in the top 25 rankings for the first time in the 1990s. But the Cardinal upset No. 6 Iowa State, 95-82, and gave No. 5 Tennessee a scare before losing, 79-73.
It's too early to say if the men and the women can carry the early momentum into the Pac-10 season -- and into the all- important NCAA tournament in March. Neither team has been picked to win its conference. But this year, surprise may be the Cardinal's secret weapon.
