Preview: Big Sunday ahead for #2 Stanford WBB & Stanford MBB
On Sunday, #2 Stanford women’s basketball and Stanford men’s basketball will both play important games. Up first will be Stanford men’s basketball as they take on Texas in Dallas at the home of the Dallas Mavericks. That will tipoff at 10:00 AM PT on ESPN2. Right as the men’s game is ending, #2 Stanford women’s basketball will tip-off against Tennessee at Maples Pavilion at 12:00 PM PT on ABC and Varsity Network radio.
Last time out: For Stanford women’s basketball, their last game was on Sunday, December 4th at home against #23 Gonzaga. They won 84-63 behind a career-high 17 points from Brooke Demetre. Stanford improved to 10-1 overall.
Recapping #2 Stanford WBB and Stanford MBB’s final games before finals
For Stanford men’s basketball, their last game was on Friday against Green Bay at Maples. Stanford won by a final score of 85-40. Freshman Ryan Agarwal led the way for the Cardinal with a career-high 11 points. Stanford improved to 4-6 overall.
RECAP: Stanford MBB lambastes Green Bay
On Texas & Tennessee: The Longhorns are in a weird place right now as their head coach Chris Beard has been suspended indefinitely after getting arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman who identified as his fiancé. While the Longhorns are 8-1, they nearly lost in their first game without Beard against Rice on Monday, squeaking out a narrow 87-81 overtime victory. Associated head coach Rodney Terry is serving as acting head coach at the moment.
Prior to Beard’s arrest, the Longhorns notched wins over #2 Gonzaga and #7 Creighton while also playing #17 Illinois tough, losing in overtime. Things were going just fine for them until their coach got arrested for a really serious offense.
The top player on this Longhorns team is graduate student guard Marcus Carr, who is averaging 15.4 points per game on 43.1% shooting from the field, 36.0% shooting from 3-point range, and 75.0% shooting from the foul line. Sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter is number two on the team in scoring, averaging 12.8 points per game to go along with 4.0 rebounds on 48.9% shooting from the field, 33.3% shooting from 3-point range, and 75.0% shooting from the foul line.
Switching gears to Tennessee, unlike most Lady Vols teams, this year’s squad is not ranked. They’re 7-5 overall with losses to Gonzaga, Ohio State, Indiana, UCLA, and Virginia Tech. They are not off to the start that they were hoping to be on. That said, even with their start being slow, Tennessee is still Tennessee, making Sunday’s game still a pretty exciting event on The Farm.
The Lady Vols are led by senior forward Rickea Jackson (16.3 points & 5.9 rebounds) and senior guard Jordan Horston (15.7 points & 6.1 rebounds). Both players are off to fantastic starts and are playing exceptionally well. The problem is they’re not getting a lot of help from their friends. They’re the only two players scoring in double figures and a lot is expected and required of them every night.
Keys to the games: For the sake of efficiency, I’m going to provide one key to the game for each team. For Stanford men’s basketball, they have to get off to a strong start. That’s the key. The first five minutes are going to be crucial. If it’s a close game with 15:00 to go in the first half, even if they are down by 2-4 points, that’ll be a really good sign as they are much more of a second half team. They just can’t get down by a lot of points and expect to win. They’re not the Minnesota Vikings.
As for Stanford women’s basketball, I’m going to say the key is simply balance. They have more weapons than Tennessee and if they get everyone going and don’t just rely on a couple of players, they should be fine. Stanford has more talent top to bottom and they need to take advantage of that.
Prediction: If Stanford men’s basketball was playing Texas in their first game without Beard, I would give them good odds to stun them and with this being their second game without Beard, I still think there’s a chance Stanford faces a Texas team that isn’t fully dialed in mentally and takes advantage. Having your coach arrested for domestic violence has to be really hard on the entire team and I don’t think anyone would fault them if they had an off game against Stanford.
That said, I do think Texas will benefit from having a week to digest this news and while the game is a neutral site game, it’s basically a home game for them with the game being in Dallas. I got the Longhorns winning 76-68. If Stanford finds a way to win this game, even with the Beard news, this would be a massive win for them.
As for the women’s game, I got Stanford winning 82-67. I’m going to say Tennessee actually plays with a lot of fire and makes this game more competitive than expected, but in the end, Stanford will still walk out with a comfortable win. Somebody will go off. I just don’t know who. Hannah Jump is a pretty good guess, though.
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