On Thursday, Stanford men’s basketball fell to Oregon at home by a final score of 78-65. Oregon forward Jadrian Tracey led the way for the Ducks with 20 points on 4-5 shooting from 3-point range while guard Jackson Shelstad had 19 points, five rebounds, and seven assists. Stanford forward Brandon Angel was the top performer for the Cardinal with 21 points and six rebounds on 8-14 shooting from the field and 2-5 shooting from 3-point range. Oregon improves to 18-8 overall and 10-5 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 12-14 overall and 7-9 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Oregon at Stanford-Thursday, February 22nd
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference | Oregon
“I thought Oregon, their players made a lot of plays,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “Shot the heck from the three-point line. I did think they were comfortable, but they were comfortable for a reason. They’re quick, they're athletic; we tried to give ground, they're able to knock in those shots and so it's a fine line between trying to make them uncomfortable and then giving up direct line drives to the basket.
“I did think our guys’ look in huddles before the game, halftime was good, they're excited to play the game, but it was a game where our execution wasn't where it needed to be. I thought we had some good looks. I thought we took some ill-advised shots but the momentum, you know, maybe in the middle of the first half or certainly the second half was just never able to shift and were never able to capitalize on getting any kind of continuous stops or continuous scores on the offensive end.”
Stanford jumped out to a 12-7 lead with 14:57 to go in the first half. Brandon Angel (7 points) and Michael Jones (5 points) were off to a strong start for the Cardinal. Stanford was shooting 4-7 from the field while Oregon was shooting 3-8.
Oregon then woke up as they led 17-15 with 11:09 to go in the half. Oregon went on an 8-0 run before Spencer Jones made a much-needed 3-pointer for Stanford. Stanford was trying to make sure Oregon didn’t run away with the lead.
Oregon led 23-19 with 7:28 to go in the half as Tracey was up to eight points and four rebounds. Angel was up to 11 points for Stanford. Stanford was shooting 3-9 from 3-point range. They needed their perimeter shooting to get rolling.
It continued to be tight as Oregon led 32-30 with 3:57 to go in the half. Kanaan Carlyle was up to four points and two assists for Stanford after finding Angel for a pretty bucket inside. Tracey was up to 11 points and four rebounds for Oregon.
Oregon would finish out the half on an 8-2 run to lead 40-32 at halftime. Tracey was up to 16 points and four rebounds for the Ducks, doing a nice job of setting the tone for their offense. As for Stanford, Angel was up to 15 points and four rebounds. He was doing his part but needed more help.
“I mean, the first half he was off the charts,” Haase said of Tracey. “We had no answer. He is a good shooter. We respected him as a shooter, but I thought he got clean looks. I thought our closeouts were a little bit short. There was a couple times we didn’t get a high hand up early in switches. There’s one time in transition we didn’t locate him and then his confidence built early on. Scored from three. Four out of five in the first half and got to the paint as well. Certainly disappointed.”
The second half was all Oregon as they led 52-39 with 14:07 to go. Tracey was up to 18 points and four rebounds for the Ducks. As for Stanford, they had made zero of their last four field goals and currently were on a 3:00 scoring drought.
Oregon would lead 60-45 with 11:55 to go. Oregon had made four of their last five field goals and were really in a nice flow. Angel was continuing to do his part for Stanford with 17 points and five rebounds. The problem was he was the only one who really came to play for Stanford.
Oregon would lead 66-53 with 7:52 to go. Stanford was trying to make a push but every time they looked like they might make things interesting, Oregon found a way to push them away. Just like the Michael Jackson song. Tracey was doing his thing with 20 points and four rebounds for the Ducks. He was continuing to ball out.
Oregon led 69-57 with 6:01 to go as time was running out for Stanford. Michael Jones had a really powerful dunk inside for Stanford that ended up being the highlight of the night for the Cardinal.
From there, Oregon would win by a final score of 78-65. Stanford tried to close the gap but Oregon kept having an answer. In the end, Stanford’s comeback attempt got blown out like a candle in the wind.
“Part of it is they just got hot from three early,” Spencer Jones said of Oregon’s success against them. “You let teams shoot like that early, they get comfortable throughout the game and so when guys get comfortable, they usually do things that may not on the scouting report and stuff like that and they start getting in their bag a little bit. Just gaining confidence and you know, players with confidence at this level get harder and harder to guard, so it’s just being able to get teams more uncomfortable at the beginning of the game.”
For Stanford, this is a painful loss. They have now lost three games in a row and are heading in the wrong direction as the Pac-12 tournament is just around the corner. Rather than gaining momentum, they are losing momentum. An NCAA tournament bid is an air castle at this point for Stanford and quite honestly has been for at least a couple of months. Their best hope is to cobble a couple of wins down the stretch of the regular season and not come totally unglued. Beating Oregon State and Cal at home is still very doable and then maybe steal a game at Utah. That’s possible, but still doesn’t change their tourney odds.
The other thing that I should address at this point is the job security of head coach Jerod Haase. While I don’t know for certain what athletic director Bernard Muir will do after the season, it sure does feel like this is it for Haase. Matter of fact, it was already deemed somewhat of a surprise that Haase was brought back for this season. I really don’t see how Haase can stay on past this season. If Muir is smart, he’s already eying potential candidates and thinking about who would be best to replace Haase. Haase is a great guy and has really worked hard at Stanford, but the results just simply haven’t been what they need to be. And it’s year eight we are talking about. This really was supposed to be the year.
Touching ever so quickly on Oregon, they needed this win. And they’re also going to need to beat Cal on Saturday. They’re still in the mix for a tourney spot and need all the wins they can get. They played like a team that had more on the line in this one and truth be told, they did. Stanford is not playing for anything beyond pride at this point because their tourney chances are deader than disco.
Up next for Stanford is their home game against Oregon State on Saturday. That will tip-off at 2:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
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