SF Examiner: Stanford in the spotlight heading into Oregon matchup

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

For this week’s “Game of the Century,” you are presented a team with the longest major college football winning streak in the land, the Heisman Trophy favorite and the early morning arrival of that “look at me, Ma” presentation, ESPN’s “GameDay.”

Yes, as the Stanford band plays, it’s all right now.

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Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Stanford's Luck Mixing Passes and Classes

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. — The should-have-been No. 1 pick of last spring’s NFL draft, the quarterback who stayed to finish things as student and athlete, was asked now that Stanford has started its academic year, what it was like again mixing classes and passes.

“I love not having school,’’ said Andrew Luck, to which a journalist blurted, “You never had to take a class again.’’ When the laughter subsided, Luck, said, “I guess that’s true. The joke’s on me, right?’’

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: At Stanford, it all starts with with Luck

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

"Athletes at Stanford are not heroes." A sociology professor at the university, one Sanford Dorenbusch, said that to Sports Illustrated in 1972 when the mood in America, trying to extricate itself from Vietnam, was very unheroic and the mood at Stanford was not much different than it is now.

The school takes itself seriously, selects its students carefully and deals with athletic success in a blend of pride and embarrassment ...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Stanford's Chung takes it all in

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He could be called the second-most famous golfer currently at Stanford. He could be called the one Stanford golfer in the Masters field who hasn’t won the tournament. Such negative observations about the most positive of young men.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

Newsday (N.Y.): St. John's women lose to Stanford, 75-49

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

STANFORD, Calif. — It looked so good for the St. John's women when they led Stanford by eight points at about the midway point of the first half of their NCAA Tournament second-round game Monday night. Then it looked perfectly awful.

Practically before anyone could blink, and virtually before St. John's could get off any shot — let alone a good one — Stanford had outscored St. John's by 40 points. Not 4 . . . 40.

As in 55-15 — which turned an eight-point deficit into a 32-point lead.

With a huge second half, Stanford beat the Red Storm, 75-49. And No. 9 seed St. John's understood how the No. 2-ranked Cardinal could have stopped UConn's record 90-game winning streak in December.

It was the 63nd straight win for Stanford at Maples Pavilion and its 24th straight overall.

"Obviously, I'm disappointed," St. John's coach Kim Barnes Arico said, "but they're one of the best teams in the country. We were able to hang with them early, but we ran out of gas. They're an outstanding team."

They're also a bigger team. St. John's tried to jam the middle, and it worked for a while, as Storm led 22-14 with 9:45 left in the first half. But Stanford went outside and started hitting, and St. John's, inside or outside, started missing. And kept missing.

In the second half, St. John's was 5-for-24 from the field, and in one stretch, after trailing only 38-30 at intermission, was outscored 21-0. The Red Storm wound up falling behind by 32 points at 69-37.

"We sort of ran out of energy," St. John's Da'Shena Stevens said. "They hurt us inside. We went cold. We rushed things a little bit, which is what happens when you fall behind. We didn't get stops, so it was hard to get good shots."

Stanford's sister act from Cypress, Texas, made a difference, with junior Nnemkadi Ogwumike getting the points (22) and freshman Chiney Ogwumike getting the rebounds (12). Kayla Pedersen had 14 points, eight rebounds and five
assists.

Centhya Hart led the Red Storm with 15 points and Nadirah McKenith added 10. St. John's (22-11) had beaten Texas Tech on Saturday, but Stanford is one of the elite squads, with a history of NCAA titles and a 31-2 record this season.

St. John's goes home after a season that wasn't all that bad -- except for the final 30 minutes.

"We were just worn down trying to match up with them," Barnes Arico said, "but I'm proud of my team. They worked very hard."

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/college-basketball/st-john-s-women-lose-to-stanford-75-49-1.2774950
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