Thursday, January 10, 2008

Stanford hoops practice at Mac Court

This was the day before the unbelievable comeback game at Oregon 4 years ago. What a privilege it was to watch a practice directed by Mike Montgomery up close. The man knows how to teach.

Josh Childress: Eugene Mall Tour Guide

Yep, I went to the mall with Josh Childress. I'm not a big fan of malls so visiting one was the last thing I expected to do in Eugene, OR when I made the trip up there in January 2004. But the Valley River Mall happened to be right next to the hotel. And Mr. Childress had a little time to kill and felt like checking out some shoes:

Note: I apologize for the video quality - it looks perfect when captured, but not so good after going through the Youtube compression process.





This mall excursion was the day before the unbelievable 83-80 win over the Ducks at Mac Court after coming back from a 19-point deficit in the 2nd half. Btw, Josh is one of my all-time favorites. Just a great, funny, unassuming, straight-up dude. And, as you know, a helluva basketball player, who is currently having an outstanding season for the Atlanta Hawks.

He's scoring 12.1 ppg on 60% from the floor this year, an unheard of field goal percentage for a wing in the NBA. 55% is #2 in the league right now. Prediction: Josh Childress will be an NBA All-Star within 3 years.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Highlights of Stanford vs UCLA 2004

When Stanford and UCLA met at Maples on January 22, 2004, Stanford won with ease, 67-52 (the Cardinal led 42-21 at half-time).

Stanford came into the game 14-0 and ranked #1 in the nation. UCLA was 9-4 coming in, with a 5-1 record in the Pac-10. This was Ben Howland's first year at UCLA and Monty's last year as the head coach at Stanford. In what was Josh Childress's first game in the starting lineup that season, he filled up the stat sheet: 14 pts on 5-10, 6 rebs, 3 assts, 2 blks, and 2 stls in 32 min. Offensively, Justin Davis was the big star with 21 points on 10-11 from the floor, and 5 rebs (all on the offensive end) in only 26 min.





"You can't slip against them at all, and we did often. They're like poison. They physically beat us up tonight. They beat us on the perimeter, on the glass, and on the break. Every way you can beat a team." - UCLA guard, Cedric Bozeman

"We were beaten today by a vastly superior team in every aspect of the game. They're a very disciplined team, a very unselfish team." - UCLA Head Coach, Ben Howland