There isn't a shortage of athletic ability on Stanford's roster. What has often held back the Cardinal (14-11, 7-6 Pac-12) during the Jerod Haase regime is how well the players consistently maximize that ability on the court.

Stanford's rout of UCLA Saturday and it's rally past USC showed what the Cardinal can do when it has its full complement of players and they get into a flow together.

"It was another step forward," said head coach Jerod Haase after the UCLA win. "It certainly not a situation where we've arrived. It was a really tough fought game against USC. Today our energy was really good and we made shots. When we make shots the whole dynamic changes of our team. A lot of guys contributed in different ways. The other thing is we had everybody out there. We didn't have anybody on the bench because of injury."

The most efficient player during the LA home-court sweep was Josh Sharma. More often than not the past three years Sharma exemplified the problem of talent level not lining up with production. It's rare to be seven-feet tall and move and jump like Sharma. But he'd negate that physical ability with careless mental errors that forced him to watch most of a game from the bench.

That has changed and maybe just in time to help the Cardinal put itself in position for a run through the Pac-12 Tournament. Sharma was named the conference's player of the week for the second time this season after he scored 22 points Sunday and grabbed 12 rebounds in the 104-80 win over the zombie Bruins.

He's averaging 10.8 PPG and 7.3 rebounds during conference games. He's also averaging 25.3 minutes per game and has committed 46 fouls (3.5 per game).

Why is Sharma playing so well now? He's keeping it simple. And when you have his physical skills that approach can accomplish a great deal. His shooting range has been limited to about arm's reach to the basket, he's not lunging on defense, and he knows where to be on the court to help on defense and be available for passes on offense.

A perfect example of his improved mental approach was his perfect form on a two-handed block early in the second half when he had two fouls. He went straight up and became a volleyball player waiting for the ball to come to him.

His last shot Sunday was an air ball from beyond the arc in the final seconds of the shot clock. He laughed because Stanford was up 20 points and gone are the days he'd shoot threes like he wanted to become a Euro center.

"He shot his last three of his career," Haase laughed. "We enjoyed that one. He was fantastic. Not only is he doing a great job but the guys are doing a nice job finding him. He's earned a ton of trust because he's getting in the right spots offensively. The guys are doing a nice job of coming to stops and making the simple pass to him. He's a doing a great job finishing it.

"He's a rim protector. He's seven-foot, he's long, he can jump and on the defensive end it empowers the guards to be able to push up and pressure a little bit more, knowing that if they get beat there is another line of defense. I thought he was fantastic. The cool part is he's losing himself in the game and he's playing really hard. That's showing on both ends of the floor."

Daejon Davis enjoyed finding Sharma waiting for a pass and finished the UCLA game with 11 assists and one turnover.

Another player who looks for Sharma off his drives is youngster Bryce Wills. The freshman is the seventh youngest player in college basketball and he looks more comfortable with each game. His emergence has pushed Cormac Ryan to the bench, where he acts as a "sixth starter" while he works to find consistency with his shot.

Wills has started 11 games in conference play and is averaging 8.7 PPG, 4.3 rebounds and two assists. He's a good partner with Davis and they form arguably the most athletic backcourt in the league.

They like to run and attack the basket. And they do it well. That type of play was apparent in the sweep of USC and UCLA and it's what Haase wants every game.

"I think the vision of the program is we're talking about long, athletic, skilled guys and we want to be able to run up and down the court and pressure defensively," he said. "With all those things hopefully we get some high scores. How cool was it ... when we had that long break at halftime that we had a lot of people who stayed. We had a great crowd and hopefully the crowd is excited we scored more than 100 points and more people come back and their friends, too."

As good as the wins over USC and UCLA felt, and how encouraging it was to see improved play from the unit and several individuals, this is still a team capable of long stretches of befuddling basketball. Haase had to call a timeout Saturday when UCLA reduced a 23-point deficit to nine while not doing anything spectacular.

"We went absolutely brain dead for five, six, seven minutes ... when we had a 20-some-odd point lead," Haase said. "We did exactly what you shouldn't do on the offensive end and on the defensive end. On the defensive end we were fouling and gave up a couple open threes. We were putting them on the free throw line and stopping the clock. On the offensive end we got passive when we should have been aggressive and we were aggressive when we should have been passive."

That's worth remembering on the eve of a historically harsh road trip to the desert. The Cardinal play at Arizona State Wednesday and then look to end the embarrassing 19-game losing streak to Arizona Sunday. That losing streak is one of the darkest marks on the program and Stanford let the Wildcats off the ropes Jan. 9 at Maples Pavilion.

If the Cardinal can avoid the stretches of brain-dead play, and keep things simple, then more progress can be made this week.