Stanford’s biggest strength may be its senior returnees from last year’s Sweet Sixteen team – Chasson Randle, Anthony Brown, and Stefan Nastic. But with guys like Dwight Powell, Josh Huestis and John Gage now departed, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for a frontcourt player to step into the mix and up his production in a big way this season. Certainly freshman power forwards Reid Travis and Michael Humphrey are going to have a say in how minutes along the front line get distributed, but there are a pair of players from Johnny Dawkins’ 2011 recruiting class who were highly regarded but have yet to make a big splash in the Pac-12: junior center Grant Verhoeven and redshirt sophomore power forward Rosco Allen.
With More Minutes Due, Grant Verhoeven (30) Should Have A Bigger Role For The Cardinal (AP Photo/Steve C. Wilson)
Verhoeven has played in 52 of the Cardinal’s 70 games over his first two years on campus, but he has only received double-figure minutes eight times. His career-high scoring for a game is four points. He grabbed eight boards against Northwestern early last season, but that remains the only time that he’s grabbed more than three rebounds in a game. And still, there is reason to suspect he’s in for a much bigger role this season. While Nastic is the clear starter in the middle, he’s not a guy who is going to eat up all of the minutes and Verhoeven is the player most poised to function as Nastic’s understudy in the paint. He’s a powerful force crashing the boards or setting bone-crushing picks, and although you shouldn’t expect him to turn into a reliable scorer overnight, he’s a physical presence down low who will use up his allotment of fouls (he committed 9.2 fouls per 40 minutes played last season) and getting after the glass (his 14.4 DR% and 7.4 OR% are more than respectable and should increase). He won’t be a flashy player for Dawkins, but he may be an important minutes-eater on the front line.
Allen has not been quite as lucky as Verhoeven in terms of health. Last year he missed all but one game with a stress fracture in his foot, but by all accounts he is back to full strength. During his freshman season, Allen earned 11.8 minutes per game and was a regular part of the rotation for much of the year before Dawkins tightened up his substitution patterns. And he showed a great feel offensively. His numbers as a freshman didn’t necessarily reflect it, but he’s got the reputation of a natural shooter with confidence out to the three-point arc. He also has enough ball skills to be able to dribble in fits and starts and get past someone. What’s more, he can get into the paint at 6’9″ and not only score, but also get after the glass on both ends of the court. In replacing Powell and Huestis (who attempted a combined 116 three-pointers last season), Allen will be asked to play both inside and out, and he’s got the skill level needed to be able to do so. But unlike his counterpart Verhoeven, you may actually notice him for more than his dirty work.