Stanford walk-on heroically holds back teammates after winning shot by Lopez

ANAHEIM - Stanford coaches and players praised little-used back-up center Tyler Daniels for the job he did holding back his teammates on the bench after Brook Lopez's jumper with 1.3 left in overtime to give the Cardinal an 82-81 win over Marquette in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

"In the time out before the last play, our No. 1 concern wasn't drawing up a play - it was making sure that someone kept our bench players off the court when we made it," said Stanford assistant coach Doug Oliver. "Tyler's been waiting all season for just this moment, and he made the most of it."

Several of Daniels' teammates, lost in euphoria of Lopez's shot, jumped out of their seats at the end of the bench in a way that looked like they might storm the court in spite of the game not technically being over. Daniels, however, was ready, having extended his arms to full reach before the shot even went up in anticipation of such a situation.

"I spend an hour each day after practice working on my technique - spreading my arms out really wide, blocking any access to the floor by overexcited teammates," Daniels said after the game. "You put in all that hard work for an opportunity like this. It feels great to know that after four seasons and 15 total minutes, I could contribute something when the game was on the line."

Lopez, for his part, said it was "a highlight of his career" at Stanford to be able to make the shot and help set up Daniels' heroics.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 4:01 PM 0 comments  

Last Night's Pac-10 Basketball Round-Up

- UCLA beat Stanford in overtime 77-67 to win the regular season conference title. Of course, there wouldn't have been an overtime if Darren Collison hadn't have been...touched?...lightly grazed?...
by Stanford's Lawrence Hill while driving to the basket down by two at the end of regulation:



Which, yeah, it's a terrible call. But keep in mind that a) Stanford blew a big lead in the game and b) how do you not have some sort of way to stop Collison from getting that much penetration at the end of the game to begin with?

- Meanwhile, cross-town, USC was doing their best to blow a game they needed, choking away a 10-point lead in the final two minutes and change before coming back in overtime to beat Cal, 93-89. Yes, the win basically locks up USC's NCAA tournament bid, but as a fan I'm concerned. This isn't the first time USC has failed to hold onto a big lead late and had to go to OT to get the win, and I don't like seeing the defense get torched like that. Actually, "seeing it" was impossible, since it wasn't on TV here in LA. Thanks, Fox Sports!

- Remember how excited Arizona St. fans were getting about beating USC, and how they were already trying to decide on their viewing plans for the Sun Devils' opening round game? Well, I guess they forgot that they had two more games to play on the road, starting with last night against Oregon. Unfocused team + desperate opponent + difficult venue = a 67-61 loss and a return squarely to the edge of the NCAA tournament bubble. (ESPN's Joe Lunardi has them as one of the last four teams in so you would think it would behoove them to win at least one game in the Pac-10 tournament, and for God's sake don't lose to Oregon St.)

Meanwhile, Oregon fans are cute and delusional and still think they have a chance to get into the tournament as an at-large.

- Arizona crushed Oregon St. 81-45, and more importantly perhaps, got starter Nic Wise back from a knee injury that has sidelined him for much of the season. On a related note, I don't think you can overstate how awful Oregon St. is until you see them firsthand. It's rare that you see a team that is physically outclassed that also manages to be less prepared, disciplined or focused than their opponents game after game. It's an impressive display of suckage.

So the bottom line is, how many berths will the NCAA give the Pac-10? I still think five - it will be hard to sell sending two teams with .500 regular season conference records (which Arizona, Arizona St. and Oregon will all have at best).

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 1:47 PM 1 comments