On Saturday, Stanford men’s basketball suffered a disastrous road loss at Cal, losing by a final score of 53-39. Cal grad transfer guard Jordan Shepherd led the way for the Golden Bears with 28 points as the only Cal player in double figures. Stanford junior forward Spencer Jones was the only player for the Cardinal in double figures with 10 points. Cal improves to 12-17 overall and 5-13 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 15-13 overall and 8-10 in the Pac-12.
“Yeah, I wanna give a lot of credit to Cal and their team,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “They came out physical, tough, executed their game plan and I thought the crowd was absolutely awesome. They were energetic, they were inspiring. I thought Cal really fed off of that and it was neat. It was a neat environment to be a part of and it fueled them and unfortunately we were not able to respond.”
Cal got off to a hot start, leading 12-4 with 13:53 to go in the half as Shepherd was up to 10 points, really catching fire. Stanford needed to find a way to contain him. Shepherd would soon be up to 14 points as Cal continued to crush Stanford, leading 23-4 with 8:20 to go in the half. Stanford would finally get on the board again as Michael O’Connell nailed a jumper, making him Stanford’s leading scorer with 4 points. It was now a 23-6 Cal lead with 8:10 to go in the half.
The good vibes would continue for Cal as they led 35-12 at halftime. Shepherd was up to 19 points, balling out of his mind. Similar to what he did at Oregon a couple weeks back. O’Connell was still the leading scorer for Stanford with his 4 points.
“Yeah, I need to look at the film, but I think he built some confidence early on with some shots that maybe were a little bit too clean for my liking," Haase said of Shepherd. "We didn’t execute a few ball screens right and challenge his shots accordingly and once he had confidence I think that carried out throughout the game.”
With 15:05 to go, Cal led 39-20. Stanford was trying to claw their way back, but they were in such a massive hole. No Cardinal was in double figures as Jaiden Delaire was the top scorer for them with just 5 points.
Things continued to be all Bears all the time as Cal led 42-22 with 11:42 to go. Shepherd (19 points) hadn’t scored in the second half yet, but Stanford wasn’t able to gain any ground. It just wasn’t their night.
Cal would lead 45-27 with 6:22 to go. Shepherd was up to 22 points after nailing a triple. Harrison Ingram was having a really quiet night for Stanford with just 6 points. It was a really bad outing for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, we need to find ways to get him the ball in the right places and he needs to make those plays,” Haase said of Ingram. “His experiences and his production this year has been unbelievable. It’s very very rare in today’s game for a freshman to have the kind of success he’s had. But we do need to rely on him somewhat and as a coach I need to put him in positions where he can be successful.”
With 3:17 to go, Cal led 49-32. Jordan Shepherd was now up to 26 points for Cal. He had been fantastic. Spencer Jones was the lone Cardinal in double figures as he had finally reached 10 points. Nobody else had been able to get rolling.
“Yeah, it was a really physical game,” Haase said. “They’re big, they’re strong, they’re older guys, and they played a very physical brand of basketball and our guys were not able to do that. We spent a lot of time this week talking about our v-cuts and target hands and basketball 101. But it’s a lot different when we got in the game. We weren’t able to hold it together.”
Stanford would make the final score look a little bit more respectable in the end as Cal walked out with a 53-39 victory. Stanford won the second half 27-18, but it didn’t matter. The damage had been done in the first half thanks to the offensive explosion by Shepherd.
For Stanford, this is just a really disappointing loss. While NCAA tournament chances were basically dead coming into this game, they had a lot on the line in terms of pride and dignity. Not to mention the NIT still being a possibility. By getting boat raced like this, their NIT chances are now in jeopardy.
“The theme is going to be continuing to get better,” Haase said. “Defensively, embracing physicality and finding ways to string stops together and on the offensive end, we have to find a way to be more efficient. We kept the turnovers down today, but our offensive efficiency was about as bad as it gets. But all of this falls on my shoulders and big shoulders and I’ll figure it out.”
As for Stanford head coach Jerod Haase, this is the kind of loss, especially after losing the last two games at home, that has to make his seat at least a little bit warm. It’s one thing to lose a tough game on the road in a hostile environment against a rival. It’s another thing to get dominated to this degree. Especially when the rival quite honestly, isn’t that good of a team. It was basically Jordan Shepherd out there going bananas while the rest of the Cal players weren’t doing much. You gotta find a way to contain a guy like that. Though to Haase’s defense, Oregon head coach Dana Altman couldn’t figure out Shepherd either. And his team was at home.
As for Cal, they deserve a lot of credit for playing the way they did. It was Senior Night and they came out fired up with a great crowd with Cal legends Jason Kidd and Jerome Randle in attendance. Perhaps a bit too fired up as “F-you Stanford” chants (yes, they were saying the real thing) filled the arena at the end of the game. They played harder than Stanford did and it showed in the final result.
At this point, all that Stanford can do is just bounce back from this as best they can and shake this one off. Unfortunately, their next game is not the easiest of games as it will be at Arizona in Tucson. That game will tip-off on Thursday at 6:00 PM PT on ESPN2 and Cardinal Sports Network Radio.
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