It would seem Stanford should get back on the right track at USC on Sunday. After all, the Trojans have lost three in a row – the last two by a combined margin of 54 points – and have lost 12 of their last 13 games, including Thursday's 26-point loss to Cal.
The Cardinal beat the Trojans by eight points in their first meeting, and the Trojans have lost two more starters – Aaron Fuller and Dewayne Dedmon – to injuries since then.
However, the Cardinal is slumping rather badly at the moment. Its 72-61 loss to UCLA on Thursday was the Cardinal’s fifth loss in its last six games, and all five losses were by double-digit margins.
A first-place team that looked like a conference title contender in mid-January, the Cardinal has fallen out of the race, standing at 6-6 in the conference heading into Sunday’s game.
And playing in Los Angeles has been a nightmare for the Cardinal. Stanford has not won a single road game against USC or UCLA since Johnny Dawkins became head coach. In fact, the Cardinal has lost 13 games in a row on the road to the L.A. schools, dating back to the 2004-2005 season.
So beating the Trojans is not a foregone conclusion for the Cardinal the way it has played lately.
Stanford needs to get Josh Owens more than four shots against USC and needs to keep him out of foul trouble. He’s been the Cardinal’s most consistent offensive player, and he should be able to do some damage against USC’s James Blasczyk, despite the latter’s five-inch height advantage.
But he attempted just four shots and scored just six points in Thursday’s loss to UCLA, primarily because foul trouble limited him to 16 minutes, and he eventually fouled out.
The Cardinal also needs to get more out of Josh Huestis, who made his fourth straight start on Thursday, but he had just three points and four rebounds. The Cardinal should be able to do some damage in the paint against USC, but Huestis, Owens and Dwight Powell, who had nine points Thursday, need to exert their dominance inside.
Of course, it’s anyone’s guess which players will be in the starting lineup, because Johnny Dawkins has been switching his starting five nearly every game.
NOTES
--- F Andrew Zimmermann started Thursday’s game against UCLA after not playing at all in the previous game against Arizona. He played 23 minutes against the Bruins and scored nine points, one shy of his season high, and had a season-high six rebounds.
---Freshman G Chasson Randle had a good offensive game against UCLA on Thursday, scoring a team-high 16 points and hitting 3 of 5 three-point shots. He is averaging 12.1 points heading into Sunday’s game against USC, just behind team leader Josh Owens, who is at 12.3 a game. However, Randle had one assist against five turnovers, a poor ratio for a guard who spends time at the point.
ON THE SPOT: Coach Johnny Dawkins has an unusual philosophy about his starting lineup. He feels he has enough depth and balance to vary his starting lineup from game to game to get the best matchup against a given team. But Dawkins has taken it to the extreme. The starting lineup he used against UCLA was the eighth different starting lineup he’s used in 12 conference games. Andrew Zimmerman, who had not played more than five minutes in any of the previous four games and did not play at all in the Feb. 4 game against Arizona, was back in the starting lineup against UCLA on Thursday and played 23 minutes. Ten different players have started Pac-12 games this season for Stanford. The approach would be hailed as genius if the Cardinal were winning, but Stanford has lost five of its last six, suggesting the lack of continuity and the absence of established roles are causing Stanford to struggle toward the end of the season while other teams are hitting their stride.
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