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MEN'S BASKETBALL

Proving the Pundits Wrong

IF YOU ASKED the pundits, this was supposed to be a down year for Stanford men’s basketball. A November headline in the San Jose Mercury News wondered, “Great unknown: Can the Cardinal win?”

On paper, the team looked inexperienced and appeared to lack depth at key positions. The media—wary of a Stanford squad that had lost All-American juniors Casey Jacobsen and Curtis Borchardt to the NBA—predicted a seventh-place Pac-10 finish. Head coach Mike Montgomery expected a turbulent ride. “We’ll have some tough times,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle before the season.

Then came the games.

So much for the pundits.

Stanford finished 24-9 (besting last season’s 20-10 mark), placed second in the Pac-10 and beat five nationally ranked teams: Florida, Xavier, Oregon, Cal and Arizona.

The Cardinal also kept a trio of impressive streaks alive: it finished first or second in the conference for the seventh straight year, won 20 or more games for the ninth consecutive season and won its ninth consecutive first-round NCAA tournament game. The No. 4 seed in the South region, Stanford defeated No. 13 San Diego, 77-69, before falling to fifth-seeded Connecticut, 85-74, in Spokane, Wash.

Adversity along the way made Stanford’s run even more improbable. Sophomore point guard Chris Hernandez broke his foot during the preseason; after rejoining the lineup in mid-December, he broke it again and sat out the year. Football standout Teyo Johnson, ’04, decided to enter the NFL draft, leaving the Cardinal thin at power forward. And redshirt junior Justin Davis—who was leading the Pac-10 in rebounding until he sprained his knee against Cal—missed five games in January.

So how did Stanford beat top-ranked Arizona in Tucson, its first-ever road win over a No. 1 team? How did the squad compile a 14-4 record in games decided by 10 points or less?

Three words: flexibility, chemistry and hair.

Julius Barnes, the team’s lone senior, demonstrated his flexibility by ably replacing Hernandez at point guard. Better suited to the shooting-guard position, Barnes developed into a floor leader who could run the offense and still light up the scoreboard. He led the team in scoring with 16 points per game, dished out an average of almost four assists and showed a knack for getting hot—he poured in 33 and 29 points in back-to-back games in early February.

Montgomery also proved flexible. An adamant proponent of solid man-to-man defense, the coach adopted a 1-1-3 zone defense early in the year. Several teams, including Xavier and Florida, proved unprepared for Stanford’s new look. Montgomery was named Pac-10 co-coach of the year alongside Arizona’s Lute Olson.

In many games, Stanford became a team better than the sum of its parts, a sure sign of great chemistry. Coaches noted how much they enjoyed working with players without egos and agendas. “If you believe in the basketball gods, [we had] good karma,” says assistant coach Eric Reveno, ’88, MBA ’95. “It was a special group of guys that, quite frankly, overachieved. We won 24 games—we could have easily won 17 instead.”

And the hair? That would belong to sophomore Josh Childress, who elevated his game to match his elevated hairdo. (And don’t forget redshirt junior Joe Kirchofer, whose dense curls earned him a spot alongside Childress and his 3 1/2-inch ’do on ESPN.com’s third annual NCAA Tournament All-Hair Team.) Childress developed into a smooth slasher around the basket who could also hit the deep three-pointer, averaging 14.1 points per contest. And he grabbed more than eight rebounds per game.

Next year, Childress, Davis, Hernandez, center Rob Little, ’05, and shooting guard Matt Lottich, ’04, will all return to the starting lineup, complemented by a battle-tested bench and four eager freshmen. Looks like the ingredients for a top-20 team.

But let’s see what the pundits say.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Third Seed, Second-Round Exit

WHEN THE NINTH-RANKED Cardinal won its first Pac-10 tournament on March 10, the team was flying higher than a Nicole Powell three-pointer.

The 6-foot-2 All-American forward, a junior who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, led the 59-49 victory over No. 22 Arizona with 19 points, five assists and four rebounds, and the win gave Stanford a 26-4 record and a 16th consecutive trip to the NCAA championships. Coach Tara VanDerveer led the team to the NCAA title in 1990 and 1992, and to the Final Four in 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1997.

Stanford was hosting the subregional and the West Regional this year, and the players looked forward to the home-court advantage in Maples Pavilion, where they had a winning streak of 25 games.

In the opener against 14th-seeded Western Michigan, the third-seeded Cardinal got its first taste of postseason physical play. When sophomore guard Sebnem Kimyacioglu—elbowed in the head and bloodied by a Bronco—hit the floor with 12 minutes to go in the first half, the Cardinal retaliated with a 14-1 run. Stanford continued to dominate on inside and outside shooting, connecting on a season-high 60.8 percent of field goals to beat Western Michigan 82-66 and advance to the second round for the fourth consecutive season.

Playing against a taller, more aggressive Minnesota team, however, the Cardinal struggled on offense, suffered a lot of contact in the paint and exited the NCAAs in a 68-56 upset to the sixth-seeded Golden Gophers. “We lost to a very good team on a night when our very good team played really poorly,” a red-eyed VanDerveer said at the post-game press conference. Added scrappy sophomore guard Kelley Suminski, Stanford’s second-leading scorer, “We didn’t play tonight like we played all season. Tough way to go out.”

Kimyacioglu almost rallied the squad by scoring seven consecutive points in the second half, and Powell, who was sidelined much of the game due to foul trouble, finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. Without a consistent offense, however, the effort wasn’t enough. But the team graduates no players in June, and six sophomores—Kimyacioglu, Suminski, Susan King, Azella Perryman, T’Nae Thiel and Chelsea Trotter —will return with experience in the starting lineup. And, perhaps, with a vengeance.

Mayberry at the Bat

It’s hard to put a price tag on the Stanford experience. But if you asked John Mayberry Jr., he might put the figure at a couple million. That’s about how much the freshman reportedly turned down from the Seattle Mariners last summer to play baseball for the Cardinal. Mayberry, the only 2002 first-round draft pick to forgo the majors for a four-year school, hit safely in 22 of his first 23 games and is among the team leaders in nearly every offensive category. With Mayberry’s powerful bat in the lineup, the No. 4-ranked Cardinal is off to a 21-10 start in its bid for a fifth straight trip to the College World Series.

Shaw Joins the 500 Club

Don Shaw became the third Stanford coach in as many months to reach the 500-career-win mark when the men’s volleyball team (14-11) defeated UC-San Diego, 3-1, on February 15. (Men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery and women’s volleyball coach John Dunning both reached the milestone in December.) Shaw recorded 440 of those wins during his 16 years as coach of the women’s squad, which he guided to four national titles. Since moving over to the men’s side in 2001, he is focusing on getting Stanford its first postseason win since the 1997 national championship game.

At the Olympic Training Center, It’s Synch or Swim

As the Stanford synchronized swimming team headed to Arizona in March for the U.S. Collegiate Championships, two of the squad’s top performers were on a plane bound for Colorado. Juniors Erin Dobratz and Katie Norris were headed for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where they are vying for two of the nine spots on the team that will compete at the 2004 Games in Athens. Even without Dobratz and Norris, the Stanford squad was able to claim second at the Collegiate Championships, overcoming a tough field to finish just behind perennial champion Ohio State for the fourth straight year.

Starting the Season with a Splash

When the Stanford women’s water polo team took on the U.S. national team in February, it was sometimes hard to keep track of who was on which side. The national team lineup boasted several recent Stanford grads, while the Cardinal squad was led into battle by senior goalkeeper Jackie Frank and junior driver Brenda Villa, both of whom competed with Team USA at the FINA World Cup over the summer. Stanford dropped the match with the national team, but little else has gone wrong for the defending national champion Cardinal this season. Its NCAA-best 14-2 record includes a pair of wins over rival UCLA.

SWIMMING

Falling Short at the NCAAs

IT’S THE DOWNSIDE to being a dynasty: if you don’t come home with the championship, you feel you have fallen short. That was the situation for the men’s and women’s swimming teams, who finished third and sixth, respectively, at the NCAA championships in March.

It was the first time in 27 years that the women did not finish in the top three. Stanford entered the last day of the meet in third place, but too few Cardinal swimmers qualified for the final races. The champion, for the second year in a row, was Auburn, swimming in its home pool. “We’re not satisfied with sixth; in fact, we wouldn’t be satisfied with second,” admitted women’s head coach Richard Quick. “But now we just need to do what we can to improve for next year and make another run at it.”

The top-ranked men handily won their 22nd consecutive Pac-10 title in early March. “The freshmen and sophomores weren’t even born when the streak started,” says men’s head coach Skip Kenney, who began coaching the team 24 years ago. “This really does bring 22 years of graduates together.”

But at the NCAAs, both Auburn and the host, Texas, bested the Cardinal. “Auburn had one of those special sort of meets when nobody is going to beat them,” Kenney says. “It was really a race for second with Texas.”

The postseason did have some highlights for individual Stanford swimmers. Junior Tara Kirk continued to blow past her competitors, winning national titles in both the 100- and the 200-yard breaststroke. (At the Pac-10 championships in late February, Kirk broke her own American record in the 100-yard event with a time of 58.41 seconds.) The men’s 200-yard freestyle relay team kicked off the NCAAs on a high note, edging favored Auburn to defend its 2002 victory in the event. Junior Peter Marshall also hung onto his title in the 100-yard backstroke.

SOFTBALL

Seniors Step Up to the Plate

WITH BASEBALL BATS cracking on the next-door diamond and field hockey players slashing up and down their nearby turf, the varsity softball team has its share of distractions at home games.

But what’s the only sound Tori Nyberg hears, as she winds up on the pitcher’s mound? “My dad. He loves to sit right behind the backstop, and he’s got a couple of key phrases he likes to throw out.”

Eric Nyberg nods in agreement. “Yeah, there’s ‘Battle!’ and ‘Put her in the books!’ ” the Belmont, Calif., businessman says. And Tori’s mom, Jody? “I’m always nervous when she’s pitching, so I stayed in the bleachers for a couple of years, where I could yell whatever I wanted to.”

The Nybergs, like the parents of the other three seniors on this year’s team, rarely miss a home game. Terry and Loke Ching shuttle over from the East Bay, Mark and Debbie Brangham put in three hours on the trip from Clovis, Calif., and Ed and Mariann LeCocq regularly make the six-hour drive up from the San Fernando Valley. “She’s our baby, and we haven’t missed a game yet,” Mariann LeCocq says about daughter Maureen, a.k.a. Mo, who pitches and plays first base. “We’ve traveled to Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Georgia—all over—and she seems to enjoy it.”

Like their parents in the stands, the four seniors are a tight group. Nyberg, LeCocq, outfielder Cassi Brangham and Kira Ching, who plays second base, even room together: as sophomores they drew into Arroyo House, and they’ve lived in a Jenkins suite as juniors and seniors. “We practice together, eat together, do weight training together and travel together on the road,” Ching says. “It’s sort of amazing how close we are, but we also have our own rooms, and if we fight or bicker we can close our doors.”

Together, the seniors also have seen their team reach new heights, according to coach John Rittman. “They’ve been to three straight postseasons, they’ve been ranked the highest of any team in Stanford history—No. 2—and they went to the College World Series in 2001, where they finished third.”

The seniors clearly have their sights set on a return trip to Oklahoma City for the CWS. “It’s every softball player’s dream,” Ching says. “It’s so intense and there are so many people and—” “And you’re on TV,” LeCocq finishes. Nyberg is definite about the series: “We’re going.” And Brangham ticks off the reasons why: “We lost four seniors [to graduation] and we got four freshmen, and each day we’re learning to play better together. I think we all know we can beat anyone on any day. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

All four began playing the game as young girls. “I was about 8 when I started really getting into it, started throwing the windmill instead of a slingshot—a full circle instead of underhand,” LeCocq says. “At 10, I started getting really competitive, and I thought this could be something I could take and run with.” These days, the seniors are leading the team (No. 13, 28-14), along with ace Dana Sorensen, a redshirt junior. At press time, Sorensen had 13 wins and Nyberg had 12. Brangham had a team-high 29 RBI, and Ching topped the list in doubles, triples and total bases.

The seniors’ leadership extends off the field, too. As a self-described “team/field crew,” they are the first to pick up rakes and smooth the baselines after home games, and Brangham says they actually enjoy hauling the “stinky beast” green tarp that covers the field. In the dugout they compose personalized, hand-clapped cheers for each player at bat, and off the field they have seen one another through difficult times. “Mo and Kira are the ones who’ve had serious injuries and surgeries, and they’re both real troupers,” Nyberg says. “They pretty much just suck it up and play through it, so it’s not hard to support them.”

As for post-Series, postgraduation plans? “We’ll definitely have reunions,” LeCocq says. “Especially for weddings.”

That draws a whoop that could drown out the scrum on the neighboring rugby field.