NEW YORK – Stanford missed an opportunity on Friday. How big it will loom as the season goes along obviously remains to be seen, but the Cardinal missed an opportunity and not just because the NIT Season Tip-Off Championship game was there for the taking and they led for most of it.
Certainly, the Cardinal had a chance to win this game, and losing like that always makes it tough to stomach. They had their largest lead at eight with under seven minutes to play and still led by six with 4:10 left. Then the roof caved in, as missed shots and several costly turnovers denied them a chance to get close or tie the game late.
“It’s awful,” was how Aaron Bright described the feeling. “It’s never good when you lose, especially when you’re up the whole game.”
What’s more, Stanford out-played Syracuse in a lot of respects all game long. They got most of the loose balls and 50-50 balls, and offensively they got inside the vaunted 2-3 zone frequently to make things happen, whether it was layup opportunities or a chance to get offensive rebounds by getting defenders moving. Being able to get inside the zone is a lot of the challenge, and the Cardinal did that for a lot of the game.
All of that will ultimately pale in comparison to the reality that the Cardinal missed a chance for signature win on Friday. They beat Oklahoma State convincingly on Wednesday, and the track record since Travis Ford’s arrival suggests they could be an NCAA Tournament team, although they went 0-2 in New York and have a good deal of youth. But until Pac-12 play, the Cardinal will have few chances at a significant win, so Friday’s loss may ultimately hurt even more as Johnny Dawkins tries to get this team back to the NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinal get NC State at home a week from Sunday, and while the Wolfpack have started 5-1, the jury is out on just how good they are. The one other game that stands out is Butler, and they are in a similar boat to the Wolfpack. They don’t have a very weak non-conference schedule as a whole, but the signature wins matter and the Cardinal missed a very good opportunity for one on Friday.
While a team like Stanford might normally have plenty of chances once conference play gets going, the reality is that the Pac-12 may not present them with such opportunities on a consistent basis. The Pac-12 hasn’t exactly been on a roll lately, as UCLA is 1-4 with its only win coming against Chaminade in Maui and four other teams have losing records entering Saturday’s play. Even the projected top teams there, like Arizona, California and Washington, have clear warts. Arizona lost to a San Diego State team that has been better than projected, while California was simply annihilated by Missouri in the CBE title game a couple of days after Saint Louis convincingly beat Washington. Utah entered Saturday 0-2 in the Battle 4 Atlantis, Washington State lost its first two in the 76 Classic and USC barely pulled out a win over Morgan State on Tuesday. Oregon State looks like they may be ready to turn the corner, but they, too, aren’t likely to rack up a number of signature wins before Pac-12 play.
In other words, Stanford may have missed one of the few chances they will have all year at a signature win. So Friday’s loss may hurt more than it may seem at first.
Dawkins said he feels like this team can be pretty good and liked how his team competed in the two games in New York. If that materializes, they’ll need to win enough games that matter if they are to sniff the NCAA Tournament. They’ll need to pull out games like Friday’s in more ways than one.
