If Plato’s city of Atlantis is real, Stanford men’s basketball surely did not find it as they got their clocks cleaned by Northern Iowa to wrap up the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. 73-51 was the final score as the Panthers cruised to an easy victory over the discombobulated and sluggish Cardinal.
Northern Iowa guard Nate Heise was the leading scorer for the Panthers with 15 points and six rebounds while center Jacob Hutson (12 points), guard Bowen Born (11 points), and guard Tytan Anderson (10 points) finished in double figures. The lone Cardinal who scored in double figures was center Maxime Raynaud, who finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, and one block. Northern Iowa improves to 2-4 overall while Stanford falls to 3-4.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Northern Iowa-Friday, November 24th
I’ll keep this as brief as I can because this game really was ugly for Stanford. I don’t know if they were tired from having two close losses to Arkansas and Michigan, if they saw a ghost before tip-off, or if maybe they all ate a pizza that was grossly undercooked. I would guess the first two games drained them but hey, if I saw a ghost or ate bad pizza before lacing up my high tops, I would probably clang a bunch of shots and get beat on defense, too.
To give Stanford some credit, it was tied 6-6 with 16:34 to go in the first half. The problem is for the remainder of the half they came totally unglued. With 14:59 to go in the half, Northern Iowa was up 15-6 following a jumper from Anderson that came off a Stanford turnover. Things then went from bad to worse for Stanford. With 10:44 to go in the half, Landon Wolf nailed a 3-pointer for the Panthers to give them a 25-10 lead. It was clear at this point that this was not going to be Stanford’s night.
Things continued to balloon in favor of the Panthers as they led 41-20 with 2:45 to go following a 3-pointer by Kyle Pock. At halftime, they would be up 49-27 after Heise converted a three-point play to beat the buzzer. Talk about adding salt to an open wound.
The second half would be back and forth as both teams tied 24-24. As a result, Northern Iowa walked out with a 73-51 victory. Stanford at least didn’t get creamed in the second half, but the damage in the first half was too severe for them to overcome. At least, it appears as though that’s how they took it. They were not able to engineer the same kind of comeback that the football team had at Colorado earlier this fall. They weren’t able to put up enough points nor get enough stops. Just a humiliating night of basketball across the board: 36.5% shooting from the field, 19.2% shooting from 3-point range, and 14 turnovers.
One thing that should be noted is Spencer Jones was not a go for this game. He’s the top player for the Cardinal and so not have him out there was a bummer. Also, they are still awaiting 4-star freshman guard Kanaan Carlyle to get the green light to play. So while this game was horrifying, it should be noted that they were not at full strength. As you can tell though, I don’t think their absences can be used as an excuse for their shoddy play.
What makes this all the more disappointing is that the Cardinal went 0-3 in the Battle 4 Atlantis. They came in with high hopes looking to go 2-1 or maybe even go 3-0. To not win a single game in this event could end up being fatal to their NCAA tournament hopes. The NIT might be their best hope right now and if it is, one has to wonder if head coach Jerod Haase can last another season on The Farm without making the NCAA tournament. It’s a question we seem to ask every season, but in the words of Tower of Power, “This time it’s real.” At least it seems so to me.
At this point, all that Stanford can do is move on from this one and pray that if they were haunted by some demon, that demon stayed in the Bahamas and didn’t hop on their flight back to Palo Alto. What a rough flight that must have been!
To end things on a less brutal note, it is November. Pac-12 play hasn’t begun. There is still plenty of basketball left to be played and for the first two games of this event, they put up a competitive fight against two likely NCAA tournament teams in Michigan and Arkansas. They know they are capable of playing well and keeping it interesting against quality teams. They just need to figure out how to close these games. If they do, they could turn this season around. If not, it’s gonna be another disappointing season for a program that with each passing year seems to slip further and further beneath the waves of relevancy.
"The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.”-Plato
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