Jarrett Mann the key to Stanford's basketball hopes

Jarrett Mann (3)/Associated Press photo

Jarrett Mann is not the best Stanford player, but he is the most important. How he performs at the point-guard position will determine how well the Cardinal does this season.

The Cardinal coaching staff has him watching tape of the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo, hoping Mann picks up some things from an NBA point guard with a similar style. If Mann learns enough over the next few months and can transfer it to the court, Stanford has a chance to make a move in the Pac-10, because so many teams seem vulnerable.

It’s a lot of responsibility for a sophomore who was the team’s No. 3 point guard when the season began and did not make his first collegiate start at point guard until the fourth game this season. But Stanford is 3-1 with Mann as its starting point guard, the only loss being the overtime defeat against Kentucky, and if the first seven games are an accurate indication of his potential, Stanford has solved its point-guard concern. And that was a big concern, the one that had everyone outside the Cardinal team believing Stanford was destined for a last-place finish in the Pac-10.

Heading into Sunday’s home game against UC Davis, Mann leads the Pac-10 in assists at 5.9 a game, and his assist-to-turnover ratio of 41-to-16 is more than acceptable. It is the turnover column that Mann looks at first, and his four turnovers in Stanford’s most recent game against Portland State were annoying, even though he had eight assists as well.

It would be nice if Mann improved on his 7.6 per-game scoring average, but that is less important than his game management and his defense against opposing point guards, which has been pretty good.

"He could be one of our best defenders," Fields said.

And Mann gives Stanford something none of the other point guards on the team can – the ability to penetrate and dish.

“He’s not a true point guard,” Stanford forward Landry Fields said. “He’s really a wing player who’s a slasher who makes good decisions. And he can be a threat.”

Mann is more like the modern college point guard, who can beat his defender and get into the lane, and less like the typical Stanford point guard, who is more of a playmaker but not much of a threat off the dribble. The notable exception was Brevin Knight, one of the best penetrating point guards in college basketball history and an apt model for Mann.

Mann is a long way from being as good as Knight, and probably will never get to that level, but Mann supplies a different dimension, a dimension Trent Johnson saw when he recruited Mann out of Blair Academy in New Jersey.

“Coach Johnson told me he wanted me to play point guard,” Mann said.

Mann was a wing player at the time, but after Mann committed to Stanford following his junior year, Blair’s coach obliged Johnson’s interest by having Mann play point guard as a senior. By the time Mann came to Stanford, however, Johnny Dawkins was the coach, Mitch Johnson was the point guard and Mann played the wing almost exclusively as a freshman.

Midway through last season, when Mitch Johnson was hurt, Mann got a few minutes at the point and was effective enough for Dawkins to throw him into the mix at point guard to start this season.

“Every day in the offseason, I worked on my ball-handling – one-ball drills, two-ball drills,” Mann said.

But he did not start the team’s exhibition game, and Drew Shiller and Da’Veed Dildy got the first two shots at playing the point. Mann got some time at the position later in the exhibition, but at that stage, Dawkins said he planned to have a “point guard by committee,” a nice way of saying he had no point guard.

Mann started the opener against San Diego, but only because Shiller had been sidelined with an injury, and Mann opened the game on the wing with Dildy at the point. The point-guard position was still unsettled.

“I don’t think anyone knew what to think,” Mann said.

It was in the fourth game, a two-point loss to Oral Robert, when Dildy was limited by a foot injury, that Mann distinguished himself at the point. He has been the starter ever since, and it is not just coincidence that Stanford has played better with Mann manning the point. He has a knack for making passes that lead to baskets, something the other prospective Cardinal point guards cannot do. In fact, Shiller, who figured to have the best chance to be the starting point guard this season, is now playing shooting guard to make room for Mann.

“It’s a process, but I love playing point guard,” Mann said. “It’s one of the most important positions on the floor. For this team my role is to get the ball to Landry and getting it to Jeremy (Green) for three-pointers, and then give big guys scoring opportunities by penetrating. Coming in here that was my best attribute, I came in as a slasher. I want to become a better shooter. I hesitate a little now.”

Indeed, like Rondo, the outside shot has been his weakness. Mann has attempted only five three-point shots (making two), and although his slashing style has given him a lot of free-throw opportunities, he is hitting just 55.3 percent of his foul shots. And he missed an opportunity to salt away a victory over No. 5 Kentucky when he missed two free throws with 10 seconds left in regulation and the Cardinal ahead by two points.

But Mann held his own in that game, scoring nine points and committing just one turnover, which was four turnovers fewer than the Kentucky point guard that night, John Wall.

”Once you get comfortable at the point, it’s a lot easier,” Mann said. “If you hesitate, it’s difficult.”

One would expect Mann to feel more confortable the more he plays the position.

(Is Landry Fields the best player in the Pac-10? Click here.)

(The small forward on Stanford’s women’s team is also putting up big numbers. See story here).

(Jeanette Pohlen does it all for Stanford. Click here for story.)

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