Perfect season becoming possible
as Stanford heads into second half
Stanford kept its winning
streak alive with a close
win over Oregon last week
By Jon Wilner
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The question
comes at Stanford from all angles, at
all times — from media and fans,
from friends and students, on cam
pus, around town and along the
West Coast.
"Can we go undefeated? Sure. Are
we going to? No," Coach Mike Mont
gomery said Saturday after Stanford
rallied from a 19-point, second-half
deficit to beat Oregon.
"This was a loss waiting to hap
pen. So was the USC game. They're
out there. The next one is all we want
to win.
"Thinking in terms of running
the table would guarantee we'd lose
the game."
A better question might be, does
Stanford want to be undefeated head
ing into the NCAA tournament?
Well, it does and it doesn't.
No one wants to lose — not the
players, coaches or managers. Stanford
hasn't won 18 games in a row, beaten
Kansas, Gonzaga and Arizona, over
come Oregon and reached No. 2 in
the national rankings without being
fiercely competitive.
But no one is salivating at the
prospect of entering the NCAAs with
a zero in the loss column, because that
would mean a bull's-eye on the back
— not to mention enormous pressure
and media scrutiny.
At least that's how former Nevada
Las Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian re
members it.
His 1990-91 Rebels were one of the
most feared teams of the past quarter
century. They were the defending na
tional champs, had three future Lot
tery Picks (Larry Johnson, Greg Antho
ny and Stacey Augmon) and spent the
regular season pummeling all comers.
UNLV took a 30-0 record into March
Madness and came out with a semifi
nal loss to Duke — leaving the 76 In
diana Hoosiers as the last perfect team.
"We didn't want to lose No coach
ever does," Tarkanian said last week.
"But it might have been better if we
had lost one. We never talked about
being undefeated, but it was in the pa
pers. Everybody brings it up. It really
might help to lose."
If the Rebels, with all their talent,
swagger and savvy, struggled with the
distractions, how could Stanford pos
sibly cope?
"I would only feel good about it if
we were playing well and truly an
unbeatable team, one that met every
challenge and had the bravado to dig
in and take on all comers," Cardinal as
sistant Eric Reveno said. "But I don't
think that state of mind exists in college
basketball. There's too much parity."
The undefeated season, it seems,
has put Stanford in a no-win situation.
"Would it be increased pressure in
the tournament? Yes, absolutely,"
Montgomery said. "But I don't want to
lose just to get that offus."
Just how realistic is an undefeated
regular season?
Stanford has nine games left, plus
the Pacific-10 Conference tournament.
As soon as the Cardinai thiiiks it won't
lose, it will. It doesn't have enough in
dividual talent to win consistently with
modest effort — especially without
power forwarc Justin Davis, who will
miss at least ti tree weeks because of a
partially tern cnee ligament.
But let's assume that Stanford plays
hard every gime, that it defends v eil
and makes a reasonable percentage of
shots. Then what?
Could it become the rirst Pac-10
team since UCLA in 1978 to run
the table?
If so, could it then win three games
in three days in the league tourna
ment, where it has lost in the first
round the past two years?
Based on venue; matchups and cur
rent performance, six games would
appejir to be tougher than others:
• Arizona on Saturday at Maples
Pavilion. The Wildcats, whose start
ing lineup is loaded with NBA
prospects, have won their past four
games at Maples.
• At Cal on Feb. 14. Stanford has
lost two in a row in Berkeley, and the
Bears served notice by hanging tough
for 28 of 40 minutes of the Maples
game a few weeks ago.
• At USC on Feb. 19. Although Ari
zona is the most talented team left on
Stanford's schedule, the Trojans are
the toughest matchup because of their
quickness, toughness and structureless
style. USC has won four of the past
seven meetings.
• At Washington on March 6, the
season finale The Huskies are similar
to USC in athleticism and style, and
thev play awfully well at home. Just
ask Arizona.
• Two game? in the conference
tournament, it depends on the draw,
of course, but if the Cardinal gets USC
or Washington in the first round, then
it's looking at three tough games.
Could Stanford go 6 for 6? It's ex
tremely unlikely, but not impossible
(c) 2004, San Jose Mercury News (San
Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
SPORTS BRIEF
Title winners
top recruiting trail
NEW YORK — The University of
Southern California and LSU, which
split the national championship last
season, have used that momentum to
secure the top two recruiting classes in
the country.
The Trojans, who are building a
Pac-10 dynasty, not only seized total
control of talent-rich Southern Cali
fornia, but also expanded their influ
ence, signing Jeff Byers of Loveland,
Colo., the best lineman in the coun
try, Keith Rivers of Lake Mary, Fla., the
best linebacker in the country and
wide receiver Fred Davis of Toledo,
the best wideout in Oh io.
LSU, which got a huge boost when
Nick Saban turned down an offer from
the Chicago Bears to stay in Baton
Rouge, closed the gap between the two
co-national champs when the SEC
Tigers locked up every good player in
their states including wide receiver Early
Doucet of St. Martinville and defensive
tackle Marlon Favorite of Harvey West
Jefferson. These players are two of the
np 15 prospects in th e country, accord- ,
ing to ESPN's Torn Lemming. Then
LSU went to Florida for wide receiver
Xavier Carter of Melbourne, Fla., Palm
Bay, a Top 101 irospect. '
The rest of the Top 10: Florida State,
Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, Mi
ami, Texas, Georgia and a tie between
Texas A&M and Tennessee.
— Dick Weiss
New York Daily News
FIELD
continued from page 13
together to support each other,"
Vaughn said. "It is such an unusual
occurrence that most of us rarely
would have to deal with such a grave
situation. It really makes us value
each other as team members,"
Vaughn said.
Oregon rugby players would not
comment on Sims'death.
Finally
Oregon's Club ice hockey team fi
nally found what it had been looking
for all season: a win.
On Friday, the Ducks won their
first game of the season against Stan
ford. Oregon, after going 0-16 in
league play before last weekend's
contest, beat the Cardinal, 13-4, in
Palo Alto, Calif.
Going into Saturday's game, Ore
gon felt confident about its chances
against Stanford.
"This was a pretty big game for us, *
Oregon's Ben Greenberg said. "Both
teams expected a lot out of each other
and since we had seen their past
scores, we knew we were capable of
beating them."
Although the Ducks won by nine
goals, Stanford dominated the first
period and scored the first goal of
the game. Stanford's one-goal lead
would be its last as the Ducks scored
the next three goals of the game and
capitalized on their offensive mo
mentum. Oregon's next goals came
only minutes apart. Forward Ben
Ziegler spearheaded Oregon's attack
and had a career night, recording a
seven-point game.
... We had a lot of energy and a
will to win, * Greenberg said.
The Ducks faced the Cardinal again
on their second night of action. In
stead of running away with the lead,
the Ducks found themselves trailing
by two goals at the end of the first pe
riod. Oregon came back in the second
period and finished the game with
their second win on the road, 8-7.
Kirsten McEwen is a freelance
reporter for the Emerald.
SUCCESS
continued from page 13
basketball player. She grew up train
ing almost every day, working to
harness her abundance of natural
athletic ability.
It is Haring's love for basketball that
has kept her focused in life while trav
eling around the world.
"She's always had to travel to get to
competition and to get to experiences
that are going to help her," Smith
said. "I just give her a lot of credit for
being open-minded and having a vi
sion of what she wants to do and hav
ing to go to the most extreme ends of
the world to capture that."
On the court, Haring possesses
physical talents that can't be taught.
Her offensive arsenal includes the
ability to create her own shot off the
dribble, shoot over the top of a de
fender and knock down perimeter
jump shots.
Haring is the Ducks' third-leading
scorer at eight points per game and
second-leading rebounder, grabbing
nearly four boards per contest. She
has reached double figures in scor
ing in five consecutive games and is
second to UCLA's Noelle Quinn in
scoring for Pacific-10 Conference
freshmen.
Haring is still raw defensively but
has improved on her technique as the
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season has progressed.
"Eleanor is a tremendously versatile
athlete; we can play her at (four differ
ent positions)," Smith said. "Offen
sively, she's a gold mine. Defensively,
she still has some work to do in terms
of being solid in her stance and using
her athleticism and quickness to get
to rebounds."
Haring also benefited greatly from
her time spent in the Women's Na
tional Basketball League. Playing
against older, more experienced ath
letes has made her a smarter player
and taught her how to cut down on
mental mistakes.
Off the court, Haring said she's a
fan of "vegetating," watching "
Finding Nemo" or listening to Cold
play with her roommate, guard
Kaela Chapdelaine.
"Eleanor is a great, funny, outgoing
person," Chapdelaine said. "She's
kind of shy at first but when she gets
out of her shell she's so much fun to
be around."
Despite being an independent
person, Haring still misses not being
able to share important moments
with her family.
"I miss family and friends but it's
more like I miss them because I
wish they were here experiencing it
with me," Haring said. "It's not like
I want to go home ... I don't really
get homesick."
'*> I
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While Haring has shown maturity,
she has also shown a humorous side.
"We kind of goof around when
we're together," said forward Carolyn
Ganes, a native of Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan. "If you look up at the
balcony in section 309 and 310, we
made Canadian and Australian flags
to look at for the national anthem.
We thought we were really sneaky."
With three more years at Oregon
in front of her, Haring has plenty of
time to figure out what she wants to
do with her life. Until she figures
anything out, there will always be
one constant.
"I still feel like a little kid kind of
looking up going, 'whoa,'" Haring
said. "I just want to play basketball
and I'll play as much as I can.
Whether that's in the under-40 league
at home... I'll play wherever."
Contact the sports reporter
at jonroetman@dailyemerald.com.
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