It’s never too early to look ahead to next season. Over the coming weeks, we will examine what comes next for each team in the Power 5 conferences and also those outside the Power 5 who could make noise on the national stage. Today: the Stanford Cardinal
The biggest thing to happen to the Stanford Cardinal basketball this season didn’t happen on the Cardinal campus.
It happened down the road, at Berkeley.
Stanford’s Pac 12 travel rival, Cal, cleaned up on the recruiting trail this year. Coach Cuonzo Martin secured the nation’s fifth best class, anchored by Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, the Nos. 4 and 8 players, respectively, in their class.
That does not exactly throw cold water on the seat already steaming under Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins.
The two academic stalwarts of the conference, separated by just 40 miles, will always be compared to each another. This year, the comparison might not be terribly comparative. The Bears are loaded, good enough to challenge the hierarchy in the Pac 12. Stanford is not.
After losing four of five to finish the season, Stanford did regroup and win the NIT, but those were not the postseason letters fans were clamoring to see -- especially on the heels of a Sweet 16 berth in the 2014 NCAA tournament.
The cold, hard truth is that under Dawkins’ stewardship the Cardinal have made just one NCAA tournament in seven years, and have never won more than 10 league games in a season.
That the road doesn’t look terribly easy this season -- Chasson Randle, Anthony Brown and Stefan Nastic and their combined 48 points per game (out of 72 for the team) are gone -- could give Dawkins a mulligan this year.
Or it could add to the pressure he’s under, especially with things percolating down the road at Berkeley.
What the immediate future holds: Losing the top three scorers from last season ought to mean the cupboard is pretty bare for Dawkins. It’s actually not, because the next four leading scorers return. Rosco Allen, Marcus Allen, Reid Travis and Michael Humphrey are a more than adequate core group to build around.
Though each remained more in the background, allowing Randle, Brown and Nastic to handle the scoring, all played significant minutes and should be able to slide into more critical roles.
Rosco Allen and Travis, who worked the boards well last season, give the Cardinal a decent frontcourt and Marcus Allen will get the assistance of his twin brother, Malcolm, in the backcourt. Malcolm missed all of last season with a broken wrist.
Humphrey showed real flashes in spots, forced into a more active role while Rosco Allen nursed a back injury. Humphrey had 14 and 11 against Cal, then 14 and 15 against Oregon State, but just as he was finding his rhythm, he suffered a sprained ankle and played sparingly down the stretch.
The real key for Stanford, though, will be depth. Dawkins adds three recruits --Josh Sharma, a center ranked No. 100 in the ESPN 100 based largely on his raw potential, and two three-star small forwards -- Marcus Sheffield and Cameron Walker. Walker was a high school scoring machine, averaging 19.8 points per game, and Sheffield, too, has a good knack for scoring.
But none of that adds certainty for Stanford, especially in a Pac-12 that only is getting better.
Especially right down the road, at Berkeley.
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