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Stanford's all-time best men's basketball teams, No. 6
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The No. 6 team on our top-10 list of Stanford’s all-time best men’s basketball teams still holds a significant Division I single-season record and was the first Cardinal team ever to be ranked No. 1 in the country. If that Stanford team, which played during the 1999-2000 season, is only No. 6, it suggests some awfully good teams will be popping up over the next few days as the ascent toward the No. 1 Cardinal team continues.
The 1999-2000 Cardinal featured a number of the school’s top players, some of whom were not even in the starting lineup. Not many Cardinal teams had as much depth as this one, and it was clearly one of the best teams in the country that season. But as was often the case, a disappointing showing in the postseason marred the team’s season, and dropped it out of the top five – barely.
No. 6: 1999-2000:
Stanford returned only one starter from the previous season’s 26-7 team, and that one starter, Mark Madsen, injured his hamstring in the opener and missed the next eight games. But with freshman Casey Jacobsen and the Collins twins leading the way, this Cardinal team did some amazing things during the regular season.
It limited opponents to 35.2 percent shooting, which is still a Division I record for single-season field-goal percentage defense. Through the regular season, Stanford outscored its opponents by an average margin of 20.2 points a game, which was tops in the country that season. And on Dec. 20, the Cardinal was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll, the first time Stanford had ever been on the top rung. Stanford remained No. 1 for three weeks as it started 12-0 with several impressive victories. At one point, Stanford was 25-1 and was ripping through opponents by whopping margins before a disappointing finish left the Cardinal with a final 27-4 record.
Even though Jacobsen did not start the first 13 games, he led the team in scoring and became the second Stanford freshman to be named to the all-conference team (Todd Lichti was the other).
Madsen was the other member of the 2000 Cardinal to be named all-conference, and he was around long enough at the start of the season to help the No. 13 Cardinal beat No. 10 Duke in overtime in its opener at Madison Square Garden. Madsen was injured late in that game, but he was hardly missed as sophomore Jarron Collins and freshman Jason Collins (he redshirted the previous season with an injury) handled the inside duties well. In its second game the Cardinal beat Iowa, which had beaten No. 1 Connecticut the previous night, and then beat No. 2-ranked Auburn before November was done.
Besides the Collins twins and Jacobsen, the Cardinal had Mike McDonald in his first season as the starting point guard, succeeding Arthur Lee, and David Moseley starting at the other guard spot and winding up as the team’s No. 2 scorer, at 13.0 a game.
Ryan Mendez was back after missing nearly all the previous season with an injury, and he started the first 13 games before being replaced in the starting five by Jacobsen.
They continued to roll past opponents, including a 15-point road win against UCLA, losing only to Arizona as the season moved into March.
In the four games leading up to the March 4 home game against UCLA, the Cardinal had beaten Cal by 51 points, Washington State by 37, Washington by 25 and USC by 43. But Stanford lost to UCLA in its next-to-last game and to Arizona in the finale.
Stanford still got a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but after a routine win over No. 16 seed South Carolina State in the opener, Stanford lost to a North Carolina team that was 18-13 in the regular season and seeded No. 8. The Tar Heels eventually made it to the Final Four, but Stanford’s loss to UNC was a major disappointment at the time. It left the Cardinal with three losses in its final five games, and that, along with the fact that the Pac-10 was not strong that season (only one Pac-10 team made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and UCLA lost in the round of 16), were reasons enough to drop the 1999-2000 Cardinal out of our top five.
Madsen and Moseley were the only seniors on the team, though, providing the ingredients for what would be a better season in 2000-2001.
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