In recent years, the Stanford Cardinal has boasted an A-list cast of players: Brevin Knight, Mark Madsen, Jason and Jarron Collins and Casey Jacobsen.
The Cardinal won three straight Pac-10 titles (1998-99 through 2000-01), its first since 1962-63. The Cardinal also reached the NCAA Tournament nine straight seasons (1995-2003), never failing to advance, and went to the Final Four in 1998. It had the game and the names.
But this season, Josh Childress, Chris Hernandez and Matt Lottich aren't exactly luminaries.
"This year, you don't know these guys; you really don't know them," Southern Cal coach Henry Bibby said. "Who knows Rob Little? Where did he come from? What does he do?
"But what makes this team so good and what's going to take this team down the road, and I think this team has a chance to go deep in the (NCAA) Tournament, is they don't have any superstars and they realize that. They realize they need each other. It's probably the first basketball team I've seen in a long time that has no stars."
The Cardinal enters today's showdown with visiting league rival Arizona second in the AP poll and, at 19-0, joins Saint Joseph's as the lone unbeaten teams in Division I.
Not-ready-for-prime-time-players?
Not hardly.
"I do feel we have a lot of really good players," third-year sophomore guard Hernandez said.
He averages 10.6 points, fourth on the team. But no Cardinal averages more than Lottich's 12.9. No Cardinal is in the Pac-10's top 10 scorers.
"A lot of the older guys were here when we had superstars," Hernandez said, referring to the 2001-02 season with Jacobsen, a second-team All-American, and Curtis Borchardt, an honorable mention All-American. "We had the best talent at that time. But we didn't win (as big). We learned from that."
"We definitely have put ego aside," junior swingman Childress said. "We have a group of 15 guys, all have their strengths and weaknesses, but us being together and playing as a team makes us so much better than if we had a few great players."
That's one reason the Cardinal has been able to overcome injury.
Hernandez missed two games with two bulging discs in his back. Childress was out for the opening nine games with a stress fracture in his left foot. Senior forward Justin Davis, who averages 11.5 points and a team-best 6.9 rebounds, has missed the past two games and will be
Unheralded sophomore forward Matt Haryasz started for the first time in place of Davis at Oregon last weekend and scored a career-high 19 to help the Cardinal come back from a 19-point second-half deficit.
Haryasz sprained his right ankle in practice Tuesday and didn't play Thursday against Arizona State. But Little stepped up big, scoring a game-high 17 in 22 minutes in Stanford's 81-51 win.
"With this group, we've had more of a team concept where everybody is trying to share and carry the load," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. "We've got players who probably in their own right are as good as some of those guys that you would talk about, but this team has not been about superstars; it's been about trying to play together."
Unselfishness is only part of this success story.
Arizona coach Lute Olson said that compared with past Stanford teams, this one has "far and away" the best collection of athletes. The Cardinal has made more free throws (326) than most of its league rivals have attempted. It leads the league in rebounding margin (8.2) and is second in steals (7.7).
"Top to bottom, we have a team that at times can beat you with quickness, at times can beat you with strength and at times can beat you playing straight up," said Childress, who's second on the team in scoring (12.2) and rebounding (6.7). "We're more well-rounded, and that makes you tougher to guard. Matt Haryasz can knock down a 15-footer or dribble by you and dunk on you."
Perhaps the most crucial difference for the Cardinal is more psychological than physical.
"They have a level of mental toughness that's pretty unique," Oregon State coach Jay John said. "That was fairly obvious by how they held themselves together at Oregon."
"We just have a will to win," Childress said. "A lot of that starts with our coaches and then trickles down to the players. As a group, we all know what it takes to win and we have the idea that we're not going to lose. That's the bottom line."
