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Stanford's all-time best men's basketball teams, No. 5
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Josh Childress/AP photo Michael Sohn
The ranking of Stanford’s all-time best men’s basketball teams had reached the top five, and at this point any of the remaining five squads could make a case to be the No. 1 team. But somebody has to be No. 5 and that slot goes to a Cardinal team that nearly became the first Division I team in 13 years to go through the regular season undefeated, a feat that is becoming harder to achieve each passing season.
The No. 5 pick is the 2003-2004 Cardinal, which was No. 1 in the final Associated Press rankings, had the Pac-10 player of the year for the only time in school history, lost but one game during the regular season and finished with the best record in school history at 30-2 (.938 winning percentage). Two things kept it from being ranked higher: The Pac-10 was weak that season, with no other conference team finishing in the top 20, and Stanford had a terribly disappointing showing in the NCAA Tournament, losing in the second round.
The top four teams will be revealed in the coming day. Now we look at No. 5
No. 5: 2003-2004:
Although it lost only one starter (Julius Barnes) from the previous season’s 24-9 team, the Cardinal was ranked only No. 19 to begin the season. So there was no reason to suspect the Cardinal would be a national powerhouse that season, especially since its best player, Josh Childress, missed the first nine games of the season with a stress reaction in his foot.
However, point guard Chris Hernandez, then a sophomore, would have the first of his three all-conference seasons, and in 2003-2004, he began to show how good he was. Hernandez, Matt Lotich and Justin Davis did the heavy lifting in Childress’ absence. On December 6, without Childress and with Hernandez going 0-for-6 from the field, Stanford upset No. 1 Kansas in Anaheim to go to 4-0 and establish itself as an elite team. The Cardinal beat No. 13 Gonzaga later, and Childress returned for the first game of the Pac-10 season.
Not as overpowering as some Stanford teams, this Cardinal squad was tough-minded and found ways to win close games. Three of its first 11 conference wins were by three points or less. The Cardinal did beat No. 3 Arizona by 10 in Tucson in Childress’ first start of the season, but in the rematch at Maples Pavilion, it took a remarkable 35-foot shot at the buzzer by Nick Robinson to beat the Wildcats by three. That was not the only close call.
The Cardinal got to 25-0 and, like undefeated St. Joseph’s, was trying to become the first team since UNLV in 1991 to go unbeaten through the regular season. That’s when Stanford almost lost to eighth-place Washington State. A series of breaks in the closing seconds and a desperation three-pointer by Lotich at the buzzer provided Stanford with a two-point win. The streak would end in the next game at Washington, 75-62.
Still, Stanford won the Pac-10 title by five games, matching the largest winning margin in that conference since 1967, when the conference was known as the Athletic Association of Western Universities.
Stanford gained some revenge by beating Washington in the finals of the Pac-10 tournament, then clobbered Texas-San Antonio in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before one of the most disappointing losses in school history. Against an Alabama team that was 18-12, including 8-8 in the Southeastern Conference, Stanford fell flat at crunch time in an 80-77 loss. The Cardinal had a seemingly safe 13-point lead with 7:40 remaining when the Tide went on a 16-0 run. Childress fouled out with 3:16 to go, but the Cardinal still had a chance for another unlikely late-game victory. After Lotich hit a three-pointer with 7.2 seconds left to close the deficit to three points, Alabama missed two free throws to give the Cardinal a last chance. But Dan Grunfeld’s three-point attempt at the buzzer when awry – as did Stanford’s postseason hopes.
The entire Pac-10 had a tough time in the postseason. Only two other Pac-10 teams, Washington and Arizona, received berths to the NCAA Tournament and both lost in the first round to teams that would lose in the second round. Alabama, at least, upset Syracuse in the third round before getting squashed by Connecticut.
Childress, a junior that season, was named Pac-10 player of the year and a first-team All-American, but he entered the NBA draft in June and was the sixth overall pick. He played in Greece this past season, which is when the photo shown above was taken.
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