Perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding Stanford’s home game against Arizona on Saturday is what starting lineup Johnny Dawkins will put on the floor.
In the Cardinal’s 68-44 home victory over Arizona State on Thursday, Dawkins used a starting lineup he had not used all season. But that’s not really news. In the 10 Pac-12 games Stanford has played, Dawkins has used seven different starting lineups.
Perhaps he will use this same starting five of Josh Owens, Aaron Bright, Dwight Powell, Josh Huestis and Chasson Randle because it enabled the Cardinal (16-6, 6-4 in the Pac-12) to end a three-game losing streak by dominating ASU.
Beating the Sun Devils, especially when they are without leading scorer Trent Lockett (ankle) as they were against Stanford, is a lot easier than knocking off Arizona, though.
The Wildcats are coming off their best win of the season, a 78-74 road victory over conference favorite Cal on Thursday, and they are much like the Cardinal. Both teams are 6-4 in the conference and feature a balanced offense with no real stars but a lot of long-limbed athletes.
Any one of four players could be Arizona’s leading scorer on a given night, which is the same with Stanford.
It will be interesting to see whether Dawkins uses a big lineup to gain an inside advantage against Arizona’s three-guard lineup or whether he tries to use three guards himself.
The one advantage Stanford has is the site. The Cardinal is 5-0 in conference home games and 12-1 overall at Maples Pavilion. These teams are so evenly matched that the homecourt may be the deciding factor.
Stanford lost to Arizona twice last season, but Josh Owens played pretty well in both. He needs to control the paint against Arizona’s Jesse Perry, and if he does, the Cardinal has a pretty good shot.
PLAYER NOTES
--- Guard Aaron Bright was back in the starting lineup in the Feb. 2 game against Arizona State after coming off the bench for the first time this season in the Jan. 29 loss to Cal. He had just the kind of game Stanford needed against the Sun Devils. He scored a team-high 16 points, but what was more important was that he hit 4 of 8 three-point attempts. He’s the team’s top perimeter threat, but he had made just 5 of 25 three-point shots over the previous five games. He was 0-for-3 from three-point range against Cal, when he had a season-low four points.
---Sophomore forward Josh Huestis made his first two career starts in the Sunday game against Cal and the Thursday game against Arizona State. He had just four points against the Sun Devils after scoring seven against the Golden Bears, so you wonder whether he might be more valuable coming off the bench.
---Walk-on freshmen Jack Ryan and Wade Morgan saw playing time in the blowout of Arizona State, and Ryan made his only field-goal attempt. He is 2-for-3 for his career.
COMEBACK STAR: Stanford's Andy Brown (not to be confused with Anthony Brown) is not really a star, but the nine minutes he played against Arizona State on Feb. 2 demonstrated a certain type of star quality. The 6-7 Brown came to Stanford at the start of the 2009-2010 season from Mater Dei with some pretty high expectations. He had recovered from a torn anterior-cruciate he sustained during his senior high school season, but then tore the same ACL on the first day of practice as a Stanford freshman. He rehabbed and by the end of the 2009-2010 school year, it appeared he would be ready for the 2010-2011 season. Then, during the summer, he tore the same ACL for the third time in less than two years. There was some question whether he’d try to come back again, but he did. Now a junior academically, Brown got on the court for the first time as a collegian against Oklahoma State on Nov. 23, playing just a few seconds. Brown played three minutes against Colorado on Jan. 14 and hit one of two free throws for his first collegiate point. Then he had his first two field-goal attempts against the Sun Devils. He missed both, but being on the court for nine minutes constitutes a significant achievement. He pulled down two rebounds, doubling his previous career total.
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