Stanford States Case Again and It’s Time to Listen Up

Good morning. This is your NCAA tournament wake-up call. It’s March 4--one week from Selection Sunday--and Stanford now has defeated every team it has played this season at least once.

Really?

Really.

Maybe it’s time to realize 27-1 is pretty good; that No. 1 Stanford is the Cardinal and not the Doughboys; that this bunch has a chance to be the team of destiny Arizona thought it was going to be; that this team is one flu bug against UCLA in its first meeting from being in the midst of a historic run.

There had been a strange undercurrent to Stanford’s sensational season.

Not everyone east of the Mississippi was buying it.

It was too West Coast, too good to last.

“We feel like we’ve kind of been cheated,” guard Casey Jacobsen said. “We don’t get the exposure. They mention us in the top 10, but then they quickly skip over us.”

Saturday’s 85-79 victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion may put an end to the foot dragging.

Stanford’s victory should fortify and solidify the Cardinal’s national standing.

The Cardinal avenged its only loss of the season, on the road, on national television.

Stanford clinched no worse than a tie for the Pacific 10 Conference title and all but locked up a No. 1 seeding in the West Region.

That means first-round NCAA games in San Diego, with the regional finals in Anaheim.

Stanford posted its fourth consecutive victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.

And the thing is?

“A lot of people expected us to lose this game,” point guard Michael McDonald said.

UCLA was the hot-stove school, the talk-show topic, winner of 16 of its last 18 games, the team tearing up the national polls.

What we failed to realize is that Stanford has been there all along, sitting on top.

UCLA played about as well as it could. It got 32 points from Matt Barnes and 19 from Earl Watson. The Bruins shot 50% and committed only seven turnovers.

Yet, Stanford controlled the flow like the switch man at the department of water and power.

Stanford plays with a kind of “Stepford Wives” look.

The Cardinal defeated UCLA with methodical and lethal doses of machine-like precision.

“My job is to keep everything sane,” said McDonald, a senior who finished with 10 points, six assists and five turnovers in 39 minutes.

McDonald said the team takes pride in keeping its emotions in check.

“I take it upon myself to make it look like everything is calm,” McDonald said. “But sometimes, inside, it’s frantic.”

Stanford’s 11-0 road record suggests the concept is sound.

Looking for assembly-line production?

Jarron Collins led Stanford with 16 points. Ryan Mendez added 16. Jason Collins added 16, and Jacobsen chipped in with 16.

“That probably tells you what we’re all about,” Mendez said.

In Thursday night’s victory over USC, Mendez stepped to the free-throw line in the final seconds needing two free throws to help ice the game. Before he shot, television cameras caught him mouthing the words, “Game’s over.”

Mendez, a 93% foul shooter, went 10 for 10 at the line in the second half on Saturday, and now has made 41 in a row. If he makes his first two shots against Arizona on Thursday, he will break USC forward David Bluthenthal’s Pac-10 record.

“That’s our strength,” Mendez said. “We practice the fundamentals. We beat you how Stanford beats you, over and over.”

UCLA Coach Steve Lavin tried to work the emotional angle, suggesting that Jacobsen had publicly guaranteed a Stanford victory over UCLA.

One problem: Jacobsen said he didn’t say it.

“I have no idea where they got that,” he said. “I have never guaranteed anything in my life.”

Nothing on a bulletin board was going to matter in this game.

It’s true UCLA defeated Stanford at Palo Alto on Feb. 3, but also true that guard Julius Barnes did not play because of injury and that two Cardinal players--Jason Collins and Mendez--were flu-ridden. Mendez needed an I.V. at halftime.

UCLA got a different dose of Stanford on Saturday, and a little payback.

Cardinal Coach Mike Montgomery admitted he was not happy with Lavin’s sideline antics in the first game.

“I thought it was a circus,” Montgomery said. “I love Steve. Write that I like Steve. But I was a little upset about that, I have to be honest with you.”

Montgomery told his team that Saturday’s game was not the end-all.

He told his players at the beginning of the Southland swing that they needed to only win three of their last four games to win the Pac-10 title and clinch a No. 1 seeding.

“It’s not like every game was life and death,” he said.

But Saturday’s win answered a lot of questions. UCLA now can’t end up as conference champion with Stanford still No. 1 in the nation.

Stanford now does not have to worry about getting shipped out of the West region.

Stanford is 27-1, with a loss to give. The Cardinal plays host to Arizona on Thursday and closes the regular season at home Saturday against Arizona State.

“Whatever the criteria is, I think we answered it,” Montgomery said of his team’s NCAA portfolio. “This is as good as it gets right now for us. The worst we can get is a tie. We’re headed home. We’re excited.”