The Sports Bank’s college basketball season previews undergo a facelift this season. Rather than counting down the top 111 teams in 111 days, we will go conference-by-conference, breaking down each team beginning with the Pac-12.
Coming off their Sweet 16 appearance, the Stanford Cardinal return three starters and bring in McDonald’s All-American, Reid Travis. Johnny Dawkins does have holes to fill on his bench though and that will be the biggest factor in Stanford’s chances of returning to the NCAA Tournament.
STANFORD CARDINAL
Last Season: T-3rd, 10-8 in Pac-10, 23-13 overall
Predicted Pac-12 Finish: 6th
Projected Depth Chart
C: Stefan Nastic (Sr)/Grant Verhoeven (Jr)/Schuyler Rimmer (So)
PF: Reid Travis (Fr)/Michael Humphrey (Fr)/Elliott Bullock (Sr)
SF: Anthony Brown (Sr)/Rosco Allen (Jr)
G: Marcus Allen (So)/Christian Sanders (Jr)/Dorian Pickens (Fr)
PG: Chasson Randle (Sr)/Malcolm Allen (So)/Robert Cartwright (Fr)
Gone: PF-Dwight Powell, F-Josh Huestis, PF-John Gage, SG-Robbie Lemons, PG-Aaron Bright (transfer-St. Mary’s)
2014-2015 Outlook:
The Cardinal will be led by senior combo Chasson Randle who was the team’s top returning scorer. Randle is not a true point guard and is at his best when putting the ball in the hoop. His leadership in the backcourt will be essential since the rest of the Stanford backcourt is young and inexperienced. The Allen twins should see a significant bump in playing time after playing sparingly a year ago.
Randle’s wingman will be the versatile Anthony Brown who is the team’s top three-point threat and capable of playing the two or three. Christian Sanders returns from a hip injury that sidelined him for all of last season and Dawkins will need him to be a key contributor off the bench.
The frontcourt loses Dwight Powell and Josh Huestis but the chippy Stefan Nastic anchors the middle once again. He made solid strides during his junior year as a back to the basket option and isn’t afraid to mix it up inside. Travis should immediately step into the starting lineup. His size and skill around the basket will make him one of the biggest impact freshman in the Pac-12.
Seldom used reserve big men Grant Verhoeven and Schuyler Rimmer return to add depth inside along with Rosco Allen who only played in one game last season due to a stress fracture.
Randle, Brown, Nastic, and Travis will need to carry the load for the Cardinal this season. Until Dawkins can find guys capable of stepping into larger roles off the bench, Stanford might end up being a bubble team come March.
Key Non-Conference Games:
11/20 vs. UNLV (Coaches vs. Cancer Classic)
11/21 vs. Duke/Temple (Coaches vs. Cancer Classic)
11/30 at DePaul
12/20 at BYU
12/23 at Texas
1/17 vs. UConn
OTHER PAC-12 PREVIEWS:
David Kay is a senior feature NBA Draft, NBA, and college basketball writer for the Sports Bank. He also heads up the NBA and college basketball material at Walter Football.com and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities. David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Milwaukee to Honolulu. He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft and the most accurate 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the internet (Yup, repeat champ… #humblebrag), and finished with the second most accurate 2013 NBA Mock Draft (nearly a three-peat.) You can follow him on Twitter at David_Kmiecik.