#48 STANFORD CARDINAL

#48 STANFORD CARDINAL

Last Season: 18-13 (10-8), lost to Louisville in first round of NCAA Tournament
Key Losses: None
Key Adds: F Josh Owens (top 300), Drew Shiller (transfer)

BACKCOURT:
Stanford struggled all last year with turnovers (459 TOs to 460 assists, 21 TOs in season-ending loss), much of which can be traced to unsteady point guard play. There are no easy answers. Junior Mitch Johnson received the bulk of the starts last season at PG, averaging only 4 pts and 3 assists per game, to go along with 2 turnovers. Coach Trent Johnson has to be hopeful that help has arrived with transfer from U of San Francisco Drew Shiller. However, in 28 games two years ago with USF, Shiller tallied a 37-30 assist/TO ratio, and shot just 39%.

Shooting guard is no problem for the Cardinal, with returnee Anthony Goods (12.8 ppg) back at it. Goods is an explosive scorer, with two thirty point games lasts season, and is the only Cardinal who hit more than 50 three-pointers last season.

FRONTCOURT:
One thing the Cardinal certainly aren't lacking is size, with the 7-0 Lopez twins (Brook and Robin - both also girls names, hmm....) and 6-8 Lawrence Hill roaming the middle. Hill has a nice inside/outside game (15.7 pts, 6 reb, 41% 3-pt shooting) which compliments the Twin Towers (get it, they're twins) nicely. Brook is clearly the better twin, and posted a triple-double last season in a game against USC. He outplayed Robin last season (12.6 ppg/6.0 reb to 7.5/5.5), but both make their presence felt on the defensive end, combining for over 4 blocks per game. Extra depth will come from fifth year senior Fred Washington and freshman Josh Owens.

OVERALL:
Some people are pretty high on Stanford. Myself, not so much. I think they were a pretty mediocre club last season, and managed to sneak into the NCAA tournament due to strength of conference, where they were promptly embarrassed. Stanford may be able to make a step forward this season, most likely if the Lopez twins can take their game to a new level. But they probably won't. Between that and the poor point guard play, Stanford is heading to the NIT.