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Stanford's all-time best men's basketball teams, No. 9
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The No. 9 team on our list of the top-10 Cardinal men’s teams was the first to be burdened with huge expectations. It was a new barrier for Stanford, which had not begun a season with an elite-caliber team since college basketball started receiving broad national media attention.
The 1998-99 team handled it as best it could and finished with the school’s first outright Pac-10 title and the school’s highest final national ranking. But the season ended poorly, and that’s what a lot of people remember about the 1999 team. Unfortunately. Were it not for that one loss, this team might rank several notches higher.
The top eight Cardinal teams will be revealed in the coming days. Today we focus on a team that ranks No. 9.
No. 9: 1998-99
It’s crazy to say this Cardinal team was a disappointment. Afterall, Stanford finished alone in first place in the conference for the first time in 57 years. In fact, it won the Pac-10 title by two games. And its No. 7 final ranking was the best in school history (Associated Press began its rankings in 1948-49).
Two issues diminished its accomplishments in the public’s eyes, however, causing it to get less credit than it deserved. One was the aforementioned high expectations for this team. It returned all five starters plus most of the key reserves from a team that had reached the Final Four the previous season, so a good many people figured the Cardinal should be competing for a national championship in 1998-99. In fact, Sports Illustrated had Arthur Lee on the cover of its preseason college basketball issue, proclaiming Stanford as its No. 1 team. Coach Mike Montgomery tried to warn the world that Stanford might not be deserving of its lofty preseason placement, but who listens to a coach trying to downplay expectations? The 1997-98 team had begun the season with a relatively comfortable preseason ranking of No. 15. That team was eager and hungry. The 1999 team was protective.
The other major detraction was Stanford’s second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Gonzaga, a No. 10 seed that had not yet developed its reputation as a national basketball power. The season ended with losses in two of the final three games, a road loss to an Oregon State team that finished tied for seventh and the heart-breaking upset loss to Gonzaga.
The pressure of expectations seemed to weigh on this team from Day One. Mark Madsen was the only returning starter whose scoring average improved from the previous season, going from 11.7 in 1998 to 13.1 in 1999. The other four starters – Lee, Pete Sauer, Tim Young and Kris Weems – all saw their scoring average go down.
Injuries also played a role. Jason Collins missed all but the first seven games after dislocating his wrist. Backup point guard Michael McDonald missed 16 games with an ankle injury. Ryan Mendez played just five games because of a knee injury. Jarron Collins, an important ingredient throughout the season, missed the final three games (two of which Stanford lost) with a sprained ankle.
Stanford began the season ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press poll and No. 2 in the USA Today coaches poll, but it lost two early games – first to No. 9 North Carolina, then to No. 2 Maryland – before winning 13 in a row. A road loss to an Arizona team that would finish ranked No. 12 and a lopsided home loss to eventual national champion Connecticut were acceptable, but a home loss to unranked USC was tough to take.
Stanford finished strong, including a 15-point win over Arizona, to claim its first Pac-10 championship, but Stanford appeared to be playing uphill all season. It led at halftime in less than half its games in 1998-99 and seemed tight in most games, playing not to lose.
The team wore down at the end. After its loss to Oregon State in the final regular-season game, Stanford, a No. 2 seed, played poorly against No. 15 seed Alcorn State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The game was tied with less than five minutes left, before the Cardinal prevailed, noting afterward that it could not beat Gonzaga if it played like that.
Two days later, Stanford played from behind virtually the entire game against Gonzaga, which simply outplayed the Cardinal. The fact that all three of the other Pac-10 teams in the NCAA Tournament lost in the first round further tarnished the reputation of the 1999 Cardinal.
Most people agree Stanford’s 1999 team would have beaten its 1998 version, but the ’98 team did not have the burden of expectations and had success when it mattered most. The NCAA Tournament draw had a lot to do with each team’s postseason results. The ’98 team was fortunate enough to play a string of teams whose style was favorable to Stanford, and those results raised the bar for the following season. The 1999 squad had the bad luck to draw Gonzaga, whose uptempo offense and excellent guard play were the qualities that bothered Stanford the most.
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Stanford's all-time top women's teams
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