Pac-12 Burning Questions: Can Stanford Return to Glory with Jerod Haase?
Posted by Mike Lemaire on November 11th, 2016
After eight seasons of slightly better than mediocre basketball, Stanford finally pulled the trigger after a 15-15 season and fired longtime coach Johnny Dawkins. Although the decision barely made a ripple on the national scene, there are many who believe that Stanford — thanks to its idyllic setting, academic reputation and commitment to athletics — is a sleeping giant in basketball and an attractive landing spot for a rising head coach. Enter Jerod Haase, a former player and coach under Roy Williams at Kansas and North Carolina and a native of Northern California. Haase’s local ties and a coaching resume that includes turning around a flagging UAB program made him a worthy candidate for the job, but that didn’t stop many Stanford fans from saying, “Who?” when he signed. Everyone agreed that it was time to move on from Dawkins, but dreams of luring Mark Few away from Gonzaga or Archie Miller away from Dayton did not come to fruition. Instead, Stanford got a coach who has just one NCAA Tournament win under his belt (although a #14 seed over a #3 seed is a very nice one).
Can Jerod Haase Make Stanford Nationally Relevant Again? (Getty)
This is the challenge that Haase welcomed when he took the job on The Farm. Stanford’s basketball program has enough tradition behind it that its fans have NCAA Tournament expectations and semi-legitimate Final Four hopes. They watched the school’s football program go from Pac-12 also-ran to perennial contender in just a few seasons, and considering that the basketball facilities are equally as appealing, it makes sense to think that Stanford basketball can undergo a similar renaissance. It will have to start with better recruiting. Part of the criticism with Dawkins was that, even though he made a Sweet Sixteen and his teams were usually competitive, he never truly made a name for himself on the recruiting trail like league colleagues Sean Miller, Steve Alford and Lorenzo Romar. He certainly deserves a lot of credit for developing players like Dwight Powell, Josh Huestis, Chasson Randle and several others. He also deserves credit for uncovering quality basketball players like Anthony Brown and Aaron Bright. But Powell and Huestis are Dawkins’ only pupils currently playing in the NBA and the current roster looks a lot like the previous versions — good enough to be competitive, but not good enough to get anyone very excited about their potential.
Haase can already point to his first recruiting victory as he convinced top 150 recruits Kodye Pugh and Trevor Stanback to stand by their pledges after Dawkins was let go. But the cupboard isn’t bare in Palo Alto. Wing Dorian Pickens blossomed into an all-conference talent last season; senior Marcus Allen is a solid two-way combo guard; and forward Michael Humphrey was one of the conference’s better rebounders on both ends of the floor. Rising sophomore Marcus Sheffield has also shown flashes of offensive ability, and burly forward Reid Travis should finally be fully healthy and ready to contribute. A healthy Robert Cartwright as well means the Cardinal should finally have a passable point guard.
Haase’s first season should be viewed as merely a starting point at Stanford. There is little doubt that he has both the coaching chops and enough talent to make Stanford competitive this season, but the question of whether he can lead the program back into the national spotlight will dictate if his hiring is ultimately viewed as a success or a failure.
