Cardinal hit the road for 'make or break' stretch

[IE]

Stanford forward Lawrence Hill said the next few games, starting with today's game against Virginia, "will make or break us," so it's probably a good thing the Cardinal will play today's game away from home.

The Cardinal (8-4) are coming off a home loss to Cal on Wednesday, and for some reason they have played better on the road than at Maples Pavilion.

"It's a funny dynamic," Stanford forward Peter Prowitt said.

That dynamic may not be so funny on Virginia's home floor, though, because the Cavaliers (9-3) are 8-0 at Charlottesville, including a 93-90 win over Arizona in the season opener and a crushing 108-87 victory over Gonzaga on Wednesday.

"That's as bad as we've been beaten certainly in the eight years I've been head coach," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.

The Zags trailed 60-26 at halftime, and were still behind by 36 points with 9 1/2 minutes left before the reserves made the final score a little more respectable. Virginia point guard Sean Singletary played only 25 minutes because of the lopsided score, but it was enough time to score 37 points after he had scored 33 in his previous game.

Stanford needs to get off to a better start than it did in its three home losses.

"We shot 21-for-81 in the first half of those three games," Stanford coach Trent Johnson said, "and 75 percent of them were uncontested, open shots, and that's alarming."

Against Virginia, the Cardinal probably will have the services of Prowitt, who missed the past five games with a knee injury. Taj Finger also is expected to be available; the shoulder injury he sustained against Cal turned out to be minor.

 

[IE]

Cavs look to right a wrong vs. Stanford

UVa hopes to avenge season-ending loss to Cardinal

Using almost any criteria, last season had to be considered a success for the Virginia men?s basketball team.

A year after coach Pete Gillen was handed his walking papers - and a fat settlement check - UVa, with only eight scholarship players, somehow managed to win seven conference games, plus a game in the ACC Tournament.

However, the season ended on a downer out in California.

Physically and mentally exhausted, Virginia had no juice in a somewhat embarrassing 65-49 loss to Stanford in the first round of the NIT. The Cavaliers? 49 points was their lowest scoring output of the season.

?We were at the end of our rope,? recalled Virginia coach Dave Leitao. ?We were playing a team that we thought we could compete against, but didn?t do that.?

Today, Virginia (9-3, 1-0 ACC) should have plenty of juice when it gets another shot at Stanford (8-4, 1-2 Pac-10).

Leitao pooh-poohed the revenge factor, but his players did not.

?I think it?s on all the guys? minds,? said Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds, when asked about the defeat. ?We try not to bring it up too much, but I think all of the guys know that they ended our season last season, so we?re going to come out and be ready for this game.?

Now, Virginia has a full complement of players - and a ton of confidence. The Cavaliers are coming off one of their best shooting performances in recent history in a roasting of Gonzaga on Wednesday night in which UVa nailed a school-record 18 3-pointers.

?I didn?t even know we hit that many 3?s,? said a smiling Reynolds. ?The thing is we haven?t even been practicing shooting. Everything?s been focused in on defense.?

In the first half of the Gonzaga game, Virginia complemented its torrid shooting with stifling ?D,? holding the Zags to just 26-percent shooting from the field.

The only alarming aspect of the feel-good win was the fact UVa continued to get almost no offensive production from its big men.

Will Harris and Lars Mikalauskas, the team?s starters, combined for just five points. Coming off the bench, Jason Cain and Tunji Soroye totaled nine points.

?We understand that we?re not going to hit 17, 18 3?s a game,? Reynolds said. ?We have to mix the game up a little bit. We can?t count on making that many 3?s. We have to get it inside and then let everything else come off of that.?

?You have to score inside? added forward Adrian Joseph, ?because when you do kick the ball inside, it opens up a lot of stuff outside.?

That is something that Stanford, despite consecutive losses to Arizona and Cal, is fairly proficient at. Last year, the Cardinal relied on perimeter players such as Chris Hernandez and Dan Grunfeld. This year, they are leaning more on their big people, such as leading scorer Lawrence Hill (15.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg).

?They?ve got a really good, solid inside attack,? Leitao said. ?They?re big, physical, strong and have nice inside touches, so we?ll have to do a really good job of playing defense inside-out.?

As good as Virginia has looked in its last two wins over American and Gonzaga, Reynolds believes the team can play even better.

?I don?t think we?ve put together a very good game yet,? he said. ?We?ve been playing great defense in the first half, but kind of letting up in the second half. If we can bring that same intensity that we do in the first half, we?ll be a scary team.?

Reynolds realizes it?s important to pick up one more win before conference play kicks into full gear Wednesday.

?It will be a great boost for us since we?ll be going on the road and playing great [North] Carolina and Boston College teams,? Reynolds said, ?but right now we?re just focused on Stanford.

?They ended our season last season. The taste is still in our mouth a little bit. But they?ve got to come to us this time.?

Dunks

Sean Singletary, who scored a career-high 37 points against Gonzaga, sat out practice on Friday. ?It?s typical sometimes,? Leitao said. ?During the week, we may try and give him an extra day off to kind of maintain his hip. It was a little sore after the game the other night, so two days off should get him back to where he needs to be in preparation for [today].? ? Leitao said he wasn?t shocked to look at the stat sheet from the Gonzaga game and see that freshman Solomon Tat had five assists in just eight minutes. ?He does that instinctively,? Leitao said. ?He?s not the most skilled guard I?ve ever been around, but he?s more skilled than anybody else - other than the two playmakers that we have. Hopefully it can happen more often.? ? Stanford features a set of twin 7-footers - freshmen Robin and Brook Lopez. Robin is averaging 10.4 points and 6.9 rebounds, while Brook is averaging 7.7 and 3.0. ? Freshman Will Harris joked that the new beard that he has been growing the last few weeks is somewhat symbolic of his quest to play better defense. ?I?m trying to play hard and a bit more rugged in practice, so I think me looking like this will help me out,? said a smiling Harris, ?because the way you look is the way you?re going to play. If you look scary and big, you?ll play scary and big.?

 

[Bigboss3114]

GOOD INFO THANKS IE!!!!