Andrew Zimmermann sports the best beard in college basketball

NEW YORK, NY - There are a lot of reasons that college is one of the greatest times of a young man's life.

You find yourself as person. You discover your calling in life. You figure out what you want to do to earn a living. And that's to say nothing of the acceptability of the rampant alcoholism and utter lack of responsibility that exists between the end of classes on Thursday and the start of class on Monday morning every week.

But the best part? Being able to avoid shaving for three months without having to worry about a condescending bosses or disapproving clients.

Enter Andrew Zimmermann, a 6'8", 230 lb senior forward for the Stanford Cardinal who sports college basketball's most impressive facial follicles:


"Its just something that started before [our trip to] Spain," Zimmermann said while his team was participating in the Preseason NIT Final Four in New York City over Thanksgiving. "It makes me look tougher and they respect me because of that."

Zimmermann started growing the beard in mid-August, before Stanford went on their 11-day tour of Spain. And while he's gotten the beard trimmed once since then, he hasn't yet decided how long he's going to let the beard get; he figures that, eventually, Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins is going to ask him to get a trim.

"I'm worried we're at the point where coach will say 'ehh, its a little too long,'" Zimmermann said.

If Dawkins is superstitious, he won't. Heading into Friday's NIT Final against Syracuse, Stanford is 5-0 on the season and playing well enough be thought of as a potential sleeper in a wide-open Pac-12. Zimmermann's had success from an individual standpoint as well, taking advantage of the minutes made available by the ankle injury suffered by Dwight Powell. Zimmermann has started all five games for the Cardinal, finishing with a season-high seven points in Wednesday's win over Oklahoma State.

"I think if we keep winning and playing well, it will have to stay," Zimmermann said, although he tried to downplay the idea that the beard is a good luck charm. "I think the way we play when we play hard, its luck in itself."

"Its a toughness look, which is something I try to play by and do on the court," Zimmermann said. He's an emotional leader and a glue guy for this Stanford team. Every defensive possession, he can easily be heard calling out screens and talking teammates through their rotations. The beard helps him embody his role.

"This is just a symbol of what we want to do," Zimmermann said. "Not caring what other people think [about how we look], just doing what we gotta do."
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Can a down year in the Pac-12 open the door for Stanford?

NEW YORK, NY - Its now well into Feast Week, which means that we are officially in the midst of the college hoops season. And while its still early, its not too early to begin making judgements on the outcome of the handful of games that have been played.

A consensus opinion is a rarity in March, so you can imagine how difficult it is, in the age of social media and message board journalism, to get everyone on the same page as early as Thanksgiving. But if there is a consensus opinion to be had about this young season, its that the Pac-12 stinks. That's not to say that by March the league is still going to stink, because there is some talent among their ranks. But as of today -- November 24th -- the Pac-12 stinks.

I'm sorry.

Believe me, its not personal.


But the Pac-12 stinks.

Let me sit back and count the ways:

- Arizona was the league's highest ranked team coming into the season, finding their way into the top 20. But already this season, the Wildcats have had two players -- including star freshman point guard Josiah Turner -- suspended and struggle through the early part of their schedule, posting unimpressive wins over mid-major teams and losing to both Mississippi State and San Diego State.

- Cal, one of the league favorites coming into the season, got drubbed by 39 points against Missouri.

- Washington, another one of the league favorites, was handed a 13 point loss by St. Louis in a game they trailed by as much as 30 during the second.

- Where do we start with UCLA? Josh Smith is too fat, Reeves Nelson doesn't care, their guards aren't good enough. Worst of all, their losses to Michigan and Kansas in the Maui Invitational were being called moral victories. It makes sense, I guess, because the Bruins have yet to earn a win this year against a Division I team.

- And then there are the personnel issues. Oregon just had Jabari Brown, their best freshman and probably their most talented player, leave the team. Arizona State is playing without Jahii Carson, who may never end up getting cleared, and lost to Pepperdine at home. USC has too many injuries to count, which is probably why they are able to give up 42 points to Cal Poly and lose.

Oregon State has been the league's one bright spot this season. Jared Cunningham is playing like a superstar and a first round draft pick while Craig Robinson has a couple of young big guys with very bright futures. But the Beavers aren't exactly a top 25 team right now. One of their four wins came against a Division II program, and their banner victory is against a Texas team in a down year that blew an 18 point lead against NC State.

So when we say that Oregon State is a surprising team, it means that they have a shot of making the NCAA Tournament, not that they are a lock for the Sweet 16.

In fact, as of Thanksgiving Day, the Pac-12 has just one undefeated team left: the Stanford Cardinal.

And you know what else?

This Cardinal team has a shot to be pretty good.

Stanford came into tonight's Preseason NIT semifinal against Oklahoma State with the standard, mediocre schedule that you see out of high-major schools that are trying to rebuild. The Pokes aren't exactly a powerhouse, but they aren't exactly a bottom-feeder in the Big 12, either, which is why Stanford's 82-67 win over the Cowboys raised a few eyebrows.

"I think we're scoring the ball better than I thought we would early on," head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the game. "We lost our leading scorer last season. He averaged 17 ppg, a first team all Pac-12 player. Where are our points going to come from?"

Senior forward Josh Brown led the way for the Cardinals with 21 points, scoring 13 of their first 15 and knocking down his first nine shots of the game. He scored in the paint, he finished dump-offs and, on back-to-back possessions in the first half, he jumped a passing lane and went in for a dunk. This performance was all-the-more special for Owens. He missed the entire 2009-2010 season with an undisclosed medical issue.

"I've never played here before," Owens said. "Usually when I come to 34th and 7th, it's to get to Penn Station to catch the train to New Jersey. It was a great experience."

While Owens was providing a punch in the paint, Stanford's backcourt was lighting it up on the perimeter. Chasson Randle and Aaron Bright combined for 32 points on 11-18 shooting, 6-11 form beyond the arc, and five assists. Bright did the majority of his damage in the first half while Randle caught fire as Stanford pushed their 11 point halftime lead up into the mid-20's.

As a duo, Bright and Randle provide an intriguing back court. Neither is really a true point guard, but both are capable of scoring the ball and of running the point. Bright, a sophomore, has really come on this year. He's leading the team in scoring and hitting 51.9% of his threes. While Randle is a bit bigger than Bright, he's more of a playmaker. But Randle is still a freshman and is still plagued by freshman mistakes. He'll only get better as he cuts down his turnovers and improves his shot selection. Wednesday may have been the start; he was 5-9 from the floor and only turned the ball over twice.

"We tell out guys to always stay in character," Dawkins said. "You know the shots you're capable of making. Be ready for those shots when they present themselves. That's all we ask our guys to do."

Andrew Zimmermann and Josh Huestis have played well alongside Owens in the front court for the early part of the season, but the x-factor this year is going to be Dwight Powell. Powell, who was a highly regarded recruit coming out of high school, has gotten off to a slow start to his sophomore year thanks to an ankle injury he suffered earlier this month.

If he can become the shot-blocker and the interior presence that he was expected to be coming out of high school, Stanford may be able to play their way into the NCAA Tournament.

Who knows, maybe a down year for the conference could end up providing an avenue for a banner year in Palo Alto.
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You know how I know hoops season is close? The videos

The anticipation of the 2011-2012 season has been building up these past few days. The practices have finally began, and the first tip-off is not too far down the road. While the NFL and World Series occupy the majority of the public attention, die-hard college hoop-heads are starting to gear up.

In less than just 12 hours, we've been privy to not one, but two entertaining promotional videos to get us excited for the upcoming season.

First, Stanford University pulled out all the stops (i.e. Andrew Luck and Mark Madsen) to recreate one of the mid-90s most recognizable commercials:



Spoof-videos are becoming more and more commonplace in the college hoops realm, and I think we can all agree that videos like this are welcomed addition.

Unfortunately, not all videos are meant for everyone. More specifically, Not everybody likes Duke. In fact, most people either love Duke or they hate them, so producing a video titled "Duke Worldwide" is probably going to elicit some strong opinions.

Roll the footage:



Auto-tune went out of style in 2008, right? Didn't Jay-Z publicly call for an end to it? How much more official can you get?

Good or bad, videos like these help to bide our time until the first tip-off. And once the games do begin, more videos will surface providing us with filler-material between Big Monday and Super Tuesday.
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Stanford's Jeremy Green collapsed after a win over DePaul

Stanford's leading scorer Jeremy Green collapsed after the Cardinal's overtime win against DePaul in the 76 Classic.

He apparently collapsed near a doorway exiting the arena floor and lay on the ground as Stanford coaches and medical staff hovered around him. He was taken to a hospital.

Green, who played 39 minutes this afternoon, has apparently been fighting illness all week. One writer for Rush The Court who is covering the games in Anaheim tweeted that the Stanford SID said that Green fainted.

We will update this post as news comes in.

UPDATE: It looks like Green is going to be fine. He reportedly was suffering from a stomach virus all week and could not keep any food down.

"As Jeremy was leaving the court following the game, he began to experience some dizziness and stomach pain due to exhaustion," Stanford's sports information department said in statement. "After receiving treatment at the arena, Jeremy was then transported to a local hospital for further treatment. Jeremy is currently in stable condition, and expected to travel back with the team later tonight."

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The Cancun Challenge: Ballroom ... ballin'?

Did anyone get a chance to watch any of the games from the Cancun Challenge?

If the games happened to be televised in your area, did you happen to notice anything weird about the "gym" they were in?

Like, that it wasn't actually a gym?

Take a look at these pictures, courtesy of Kentucky Sports Radio:





Yea, that's a ballroom.

The Cancun Challenge is being played in a ballroom, complete with chandeliers and tacky wallpaper. As you could imagine, the floor, which was floor in from the Boston Garden, is not in quite the same shape. Just ask Patrick Patterson and John Calipari:

"It's a floor, at least," Patrick Patterson said. "There are cracks in the floor, spacing missing, parts in the floor where it dips in and makes a 'V' shape all the way down the floor. We were dribbling the other day and balls were going left and right. John (Wall) lost a couple balls. A couple teammates tripped on the court cause of the cracks. The court is in pretty bad shape, but it's still a basketball court."

"It doesn't make sense," Patterson said. "We walked in there were chandeliers on the ceiling. Someone said, 'Make sure you don’t shoot the ball so high.' I was like, 'That's so crazy.'"

"[The locker room is] just a small ballroom," he said. "I figured we would have a basketball court and a real lockerroom but this is what the resort does for us."

"There is a little seam," he said. "Balls are gonna fly. . . . There is a gap in front of our bench you could sprain your ankle. There is a gap about three inches,and I said you could lose your foot down there. So, there are some dead spots in the floor.

"It's a ballroom. You're playing in a ballroom. We go from 24,000 to playing in a ballroom. Which is fine. The good news is the other team is playing on in a ballroom on the same floor too."

This is a major college basketball tournament.

There isn't any other gym in the vicinity of Cancun that can be used and is, you know, an actual gym? A real basketball court that doesn't have to, you know be imported?

Let's just hope it didn't play a factor in Patrick Patterson's ankle injury.
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Friday Lay-up Lines

Pac-10 play starts tonight as eight of the ten teams take the court for the first time in conference play. The best game of the night may be Stanford hosting Arizona State. The Sun Devils are right up there with the Bruins when you talk about favorites to win the Pac-10, but Stanford, who lost Team Lopez and Trent Johnson during the off-season, has started off the season undefeated. These teams are led by two of the best scorers out west in James Harden (23.4 ppg) and Lawrence Goods (18.9 ppg). I like ASU in this one. Stanford may be undefeated, but their best win right now is against a so-so Texas Tech team (albeit by 45 points). And despite the fact that Harden is averaging 23.4 ppg, Arizona State actually has a fairly balanced team, with Jeff Pendergraph inside and Ty Abbott and Rihard Kuksiks on the perimeter all averaging double digits. Stanford may be undefeated and playing at home, but I still need to see them beat someone before I am sold on this team.

• 4:00 PM: USC (9-3) @ Oregon (6-6): Both teams have played below expectations up to this point in the season. Maybe the most interesting match-up of the day comes in this game as USC's big back court (PG Daniel Hackett is 6'5") tries to guard 5'6" TaJuan Porter.
• 8:30 PM: Arizona (9-3) @ Cal (11-2): The Golden Bears have been a pleasant surprise this year as they have gotten out to a 11-2 start. Arizona has also looked better than expected, with a lot of that credit going to Jordan Hill, who is having a break out season. Hill missed Arizona's game against Weber State, but looks like he will be in uniform against Cal.
• 10:30 PM: UCLA (10-2) @ Oregon State (5-5): The Beavers have gotten better as the year has progressed, but they will get a real test when UCLA comes to town.

Here are the rest of the game's happening today:

• 5:30 PM: South Carolina (9-2) @ Baylor (12-1): The Gamecocks gave Clemson all they could handle their last time out. Devon Downey is one of the best scorers in the country. After Arkansas beat Oklahoma, a SC win over Baylor could help the SEC regain some respect as a conference.
• 7:00 PM: Dayton (12-1) @ Toledo (2-10)
• 8:30 PM: Syracuse (13-1, 1-0) @ South Florida (5-7)
• 9:00 PM: Appalaichan State (5-4) @ Texas (10-2)
• 10:00 PM: St. Mary's (12-1) @ Cal. St. Bakersfield (4-10)

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