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DURABLE: Hernandez played 39
minutes against Washington in the Pac-10 tournament
in March.
Gonzalesphoto.com |
what a difference a year
makes.
Last year: a 26-game winning streak, a No. 1 ranking,
two game-winning buzzer beaters and lottery pick Josh
Childress, ’04. This year: a new coach, a rocky
start to the season and a roster depleted by resignations/ineligibility/injury/you
name it.
Nevertheless, the men’s basketball team nabbed
its 11th consecutive NCAA berth—and an eight seed,
to boot. Although they lost in the first round to Mississippi
State, 93-70, head coach Trent Johnson and his players
were holding their heads high.
“I will remember this year as the year when our
team had to dig down the deepest to elevate our game,”
says redshirt junior guard Chris Hernandez. “I
will always be proud of how we looked past the adversity
and negativity.”
Due to the Maples Pavilion renovation, the Cardinal
began the season with seven straight road games—its
longest away stretch since 1934-35. It hit a three-game
losing streak in late November, but two of those losses
were to eventual Final Four teams Louisville and Michigan
State.
Stanford also went through a rough patch at the outset
of Pac-10 play, dropping its first three games. Sophomores
Mark Bradford and Evan Moore left the team to focus
on football, and redshirt freshman Tim Morris was declared
academically ineligible.
Then, the turning point: a January 8 upset of Arizona,
87-76, which fueled a six-game winning streak. But during
the February 12 home victory over Cal, the Cardinal’s
leading scorer, junior guard Dan Grunfeld, suffered
a season-ending injury to his anterior cruciate ligament.
The remaining healthy players—all nine of them—stepped
up.
Sophomore guard Fred Washington took Grunfeld’s
place in the starting lineup against USC on February
17 and racked up 22 points. Three days later against
UCLA, Hernandez poured in a career-high 37 points, the
highest total posted by a Stanford player since Casey
Jacobsen, ’03, dropped 41 on Oregon during the
2001-02 season. Junior forward Matt Haryasz averaged
more than 16 points and 10 rebounds over the final 15
games.
The Cardinal finished the Pac-10 season in third place,
with an 11-7 record. In the first round of the conference
tournament March 10, senior center Rob Little scored
the final basket to secure the win over Washington State,
60-58. The next day, the Washington Huskies exacted
revenge for their loss to Stanford earlier in the week,
winning 66-63.
Stanford bids farewell to Little, who ranks fifth on
the school’s career games list, and versatile
senior swingman Nick Robinson, whose 107 career steals
place him 10th all-time. The 2005-06 squad should feature
Hernandez and a healthy Grunfeld, both of whom were
named to the All-Pac-10 team. “We have a lot of
players returning and have a good crop of freshmen coming
in,” Hernandez says. “Next year looks very
promising.”
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