Stanford Gives Kansas a Dose of Reality

Stanford upended the nation’s No. 1 team Saturday with its right hand tied behind its back.

Or, if you prefer, with its best player, Josh Childress, on the bench because of an injured left foot.

What is becoming increasingly apparent after No. 21 Stanford’s 64-58 upset of top-ranked Kansas on Saturday in the Wooden Classic at the Arrowhead Pond is that the Cardinal is quite a complete team even without him.

There is a feistiness about this Stanford team that starts with point guard Chris Hernandez and shooting guard Matt Lottich and extends to the end of a deep bench.

The Cardinal (4-0) beat Kansas with defense and toughness and dagger after dagger from the hard-nosed Lottich, who nailed a three-point shot to take the lead back just after Kansas had taken its only lead with a little less than 8 1/2 minutes to play.

Kansas (3-1) battled back and cut the lead to one point several times in the final five minutes before Lottich buried another three-pointer with 2 minutes 26 seconds remaining as the shot clock ticked down to six.

The Jayhawks never got closer than four points after that, as Stanford made its free throws down the stretch, led by a perfect performance from Hernandez, who was 11 for 11 in the game.

“Lottich made a huge three, Chris was nails from the line, and we didn’t lose our poise,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said.

Lottich finished with 18 points and made five of 10 three-point shots, playing a key role in an upset of the nation’s No. 1 team for the second time in his career.

Last season, Lottich’s three-pointer with 58 seconds left helped the Cardinal upset No. 1 Arizona at Tucson.

“Matt Lottich is the toughest guy I ever met,” said forward Joe Kirchofer, who added 10 points off the bench.

“Me and him almost got in a fight going for a loose ball the other day. We probably play as hard in practice as we did in the game. That’s big. Our goal is to be the hardest-working team in the country.”

The Cardinal’s determination despite Childress’ injury -- he has a condition that is a precursor to a stress fracture -- is born of experience.

“Last year, when Chris went down we had to adjust,” Lottich said. “We’re playing team basketball.”

Hernandez missed all but 18 minutes of last season after breaking his foot twice -- one reason for the caution with Childress, who is out until at least the end of the month.

“When we learned he would not be playing with us for a while, there was no big panic,” Hernandez said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my god, Josh, our No. 1 player, is not going to be with us.’ It was just, ‘OK, get better.’ We know we can go out and do the job. That was the mind-set all along.”

Kansas earned its ranking partly because of a victory over Michigan State, but the Jayhawks have lost the top two players, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich, from the team that lost to Syracuse in the NCAA championship game. They also have a new coach, Bill Self, after Roy Williams left for North Carolina.

“Stanford was better than us today,” Self said. “They defended us well. They played us smart.”

Stanford turned to a zone to help stifle the Jayhawks.

“We thought they were more of a mid-range team than a long-range team,” Montgomery said. “The other thing we wanted to do was keep them out of their transition game. [Point guard Aaron Miles] is not going to stop until you stop him.”

Miles led Kansas with 11 points, and leading scorer Keith Langford was held to 10 on four-for-11 shooting. Wayne Simien, the Jayhawks’ other top scorer, also was held to 10 points.

When the game ended, Childress stood and smiled and pumped his fist, but there was no wild celebration.

Kansas was no overwhelming No. 1, and all told, Stanford has beaten a No. 1-ranked team four times in 29 chances, defeating Arizona last season and in 1988 and upsetting Duke in 2000.

“It’s exciting to see the way the team is playing,” Childress said as he left the arena on crutches, his future this season still uncertain. “We have the players capable of doing this.”