Pac-12 Basketball Team Preview: Stanford Cardinal
By Alex Weber
It’s here! The 2019 Pac-12 Basketball Preview! To get you ready for another season of Pac-12 hoops, here’s a preview of each and every squad in the conference, from the contenders…to the pretenders.
Stanford Cardinal
Head Coach: Jerod Haase
2017-18 Record: 19-16
2017-18 Pac-12 Record: 11-7
Postseason: 2nd Round NIT
Key Losses: Michael Humphrey (10 ppg, 7.3 rpg), Dorian Pickens (15.1 peg, 3.8 rpg), Reid Travis (19.5 ppg, 8.7 rpg)
Key Returnees: KZ Okpala, Daejon Davis
Projected Starting Lineup:
G: Daejon Davis (10.7 ppg, 4.8 apg, 4.4 rpg)
G: Cormac Ryan (Freshman)
G: Isaac White (5.5 ppg, 1.2 rpg)
F: Oscar da Silva (6.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg)
F: KZ Okpala (10 ppg, 3.7 rpg)
Bench: Josh Sharma, Kodye Pugh, Bryce Willis, Jaiden Delaire
2018-19 Outlook: After losing three of their four leading scorers and most importantly, Reid Travis — by far the best Cardinal a season ago has taken his talents to the University of Kentucky via the grad-transfer route. With him and Humphrey and Pickens all gone, Coach Haase will rely heavily on underclassmen, which is basketball code for “they’re Rebuilding.” Not a problem, really. Every program goes through from time to time. But for my scenario purposes, let’s just say that things down look so sunny in Palo Alto.
Best Case Scenario: With playing many a young freshman comes the possibility of great highs…and very low lows. But let’s check out the highs for now:
Stanford’s recruiting class, which is ranked 20th in the nation (and would be 1st in ugliness should that be a form of recurring rankings), will likely be a Stanford fan’s arguing point for future Cardinal basketball success…and it should be. After all, they have two ESPN 100 players coming in. Add them with Juniors Davis, Okpala and da Silva and Jerod Haase has a nice nucleus to work with over the next two years and beyond.
But really, the only hope this team has at making the tournament is if the youngsters massively overachieve and they find a diamond-in-the-rough type guy in the incoming class. And even then, that diamond would have to be like a Zhaire Smith 897 carat jewell. I think the realistic goal for this team is for everyone to take a huge step up in their second or third years, and for the freshman class to come in and show flashes of brilliance, leaving Cardinal Faithful with a future as bright and shiny as the Dirk Diggler sign from Boogie Nights.
Worst Case Scenario: The losses are overbearing. And after being mediocre and missing the tournament a year ago, this team full-on tanks to the bottom of the League and doesn’t even get a high draft pick because of it.
The freshman class, though highly rated, stumbles in year one and obviously needs time that Coach Haase simply doesn’t have. After another year of missing the postseason fun, he’s out as head man and Stanford is left coach-less with an unappetizing program and a lack of true power conference talent 🙂
Bottom Line: Stanford should be in full rebuild mode with a cast of younger players; but will another unsavory season lead to an axing at the Cardinal Coaching position? Only time will tell.