Stanford’s Grade Remains Rooted In Basic Chemistry

If it’s Thursday night at Friel Court, it’s Must Zzzzz BB.

Rankings are relative. The straight-A team isn’t going to have its A game every night - and contrary to what Stanford’s alums will tell you, a C there is not worth an A any place else. Not in biophysics and not in basketball, even if the Cardinal is unbeaten and fifth in the country.

And as for the Washington State Gutty-Gritties, well, you’ve pretty much heard it all before.

Close, but not that close.

Vegas close. Not exactly a moral victory, but perhaps - what? A moral tie?

“I’ve seen a resiliency from our team,” said WSU coach Kevin Eastman during the autopsy of Thursday’s 82-72 loss to Stanford. “From a mental aspect, our team has done a good job and that’s what’s kept us going.

“If we can stay away from reading or listening to anything that might say otherwise, we’ll be OK.”

Maybe this would be a good spot for the Surgeon General’s warning.

There is no particular shame in losing by 10 to the No. 5 team, or else UCLA would have dropped its program last week. The shame is that the chances of anything meaningful happening at Friel Court have now gone on hiatus until at least the last 10 days of the season. And that’s the rose-colored view.

Of course, nothing meaningful is going to happen in the Pac-10 unless Stanford, Arizona, UCLA or Washington is involved - the league having divided itself into two radically disparate castes.

Then again, meaningful is not a synonym for entertaining.

Seventeen-and-oh or no, the Cardinal is not going to wow ‘em with a lot of high-wire-and-no-net stuff. What works for Stanford is what passes for brain surgery in college basketball, and the visitors were pretty clumsy with the scalpel Thursday night.

“We’re not a great team,” insisted Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, who knows he’s not going to talk his way out of the Top 25. “We have to work very hard together to be successful. That’s what we do, and we didn’t do it very well at times tonight.”

Which is to say, the Cardinal built leads of 14 points in the first half and 18 in the second and blew most of it both times.

Some of it was because the Stanford big men collected a few too many fouls and some was because the Cardinal just flat lost interest and some was because the Cougars, game as they are, never will - but none of it was enough to generate even a little drama.

“They deserve their ranking,” said Cougar forward Carlos Daniel. “Good teams are supposed to take whatever you throw at them.”

About all the Cougs can throw at Stanford - or anybody else - is Daniel.

After all, this is the deepest team in America we’re talking about. Montgomery has 11 players who average at least 10 minutes a game, and a 12th who nearly does. Eastman can’t be bothered to put that many on scholarship - though he did note wistfully that Michael McDonald, Stanford’s 12th man, is a recruit the Cougs wanted desperately.

Desperately wanting is becoming a pretty good description of this season - which, in case you didn’t notice, veered under .500 Thursday night.

Daniel’s 25 points and 16 rebounds kept him atop the Pac-10’s double-double list, but mostly served to underscore an ongoing lack of support.

No. 2 scorer Chris Crosby made just 2 of 16 shots, and missed many of those 14 badly. Guards Kab Kazadi and Blake Pengelly were a combined 5 for 15. Center Leif Nelson did play the Cardinal’s 7-foot-1 giant Tim Young to a draw, and good for him, but mostly it was a grand night of rim-bending.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever have Chris go 2 for 16 again,” said Eastman.

Well, that’s not exactly the point. If he did it regularly, he wouldn’t be here. On this night, the Cougs needed something better and didn’t get it.

And a lot of that, to be fair, was Stanford’s doing.

“We have elected not to cover down with a perimeter guy inside - and I don’t know how much longer we can do that,” said Montgomery.

“We started the season off with six big guys and they’re all pretty good and we expect they can handle most people. We got criticized against Pacific because (7-1 Michael) Olowokandi wound up with 25, but none of their perimeter guys got any. So you’ve got to ask yourself if that’s going to beat you?

“I’m not willing to give Pengelly free shots and I’m not willing to give Crosby a free look at the basket while we’re trying to cover down on the post. That presumes our post guys are capable of doing the job. And we’ve been able to win with that. Daniel did a great job, but at the same time, they’re not able to beat you.”

Words we’ve heard before, and will hear again.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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