Stanford players buying into Dawkins' philosophy - San Francisco Gate

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 07:07 PM PST

Not long before the season started, Stanford basketball coach Johnny Dawkins said his heralded freshman class was "light years" away from being effective defenders. Apparently the newcomers are now at least within the solar system.

Two of the freshmen, forward Dwight Powell and point guard Aaron Bright, are starting, and a third, forward Anthony Brown, is part of the regular rotation. Meanwhile, defense has helped Stanford become one of the early-season surprises in the Pac-10.

The Cardinal (9-5, 2-1 Pac-10) have a 7-0 record at Maples Pavilion, where Stanford teams have gone 47-11 over the last four seasons. That home-court domination will be put to the test against 17th-ranked Washington (12-3, 4-0) tonight at 7.

Stanford is giving up a league-low 60 points per game and ranks 28th in the nation in that category, so Dawkins' preaching of the value of defense has taken hold. The Cardinal have already held five opponents under 50 points.

"We've improved defensively," Dawkins said. "We're still not where we want to be yet, but it's exciting to see, especially with the younger group. There are so many new faces, and they've really bought into the importance of defending." The defense, in fact, is "ahead of our offense," he said.

The 6-foot-9 Powell admitted he had to work a lot on his defending. Dawkins "was definitely not satisfied with my defense," Powell said. "There was a lot to learn about things like body angles on plays off the ball."

Bright was inserted into the starting lineup four games ago, taking over the point duties from Jarrett Mann. Mann remained in a three-guard lineup that also includes Jeremy Green, who at 15.9 points per game is the team's leading scorer. Dawkins said the lineup may change, depending on the matchups.

Bright is more of a natural point guard than the slashing Mann. "He was exhibiting leadership in practice," Dawkins said. "He earned the opportunity to be out there, and he's making the most of his opportunity."

Stanford won the first three games that Bright started before losing to Arizona 67-57 on Sunday. McKale Center is a notoriously difficult place for visiting teams, but the young Cardinal were down by just five points with four minutes left.

"We didn't win the game, so there's no real consolation for us," Dawkins said. "I thought we handled the unfortunate circumstances well."

The game had been postponed from Saturday because of the shootings in Tucson.

Forward Josh Owens averages 12.0 points and 6.4 rebounds after returning from a year's absence caused by an undisclosed medical condition. "He's just scratching the surface on how good he can be," Dawkins said.

Briefly: Freshman center Stefan Nastic returned to practice Tuesday after being out four weeks with a foot injury. ... Green was just 2-for-19 from three-point range in three games last season against the Huskies, who won all three decisively.

Pac-10 standings

Team	Conf.	All
Washington	4-0	12-3
Arizona	3-1	14-3
Stanford	2-1	9-5
USC	2-1	10-6
Washington State	2-2	12-4
Oregon State	2-2	7-8
UCLA	1-2	9-6
Cal	1-2	8-7
Arizona State	1-3	9-7
Oregon	0-4	7-9

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?.

Philosophy

Saturday, January 15, 2011