Roundup: Stanford football's transformation from doormat to title contender
David Lombardi takes us behind Stanford’s transformation from Pac-12 bottom-feeder to perennial title contender. Just 10 years ago, Stanford was so bad it would punt on third down on occasion.
In case you haven’t been watching, former Coug Klay Thompson is lighting it up without teammate Stephen Curry, who is out for now with a knee injury. As Ben Leibowitz of Sports Illustrated tells us, Thompson is shooting 44 percent from downtown in the playoffs and has made at least five 3-pointers in four straight games.
The NCAA Women’s Golf Regionals got underway Thursday, and Washington leads the Baton Rouge Regional after the first round, registering a course-record 2-under 286 on Thursday.
Similarly, USC women’s golf leads the Stanford Regional after one round, firing a 3-over 287 (one stroke better than second-place Virginia and two better than third-place and host Stanford).
Also, Arizona women’s golf is tied for first with Georgia in the Bryan Regional, in large thanks to the play of Gigi Stoll (-3). ‘Twas a good day overall for the Pac-12 (nine teams are in NCAA Regional play).
Colorado men’s golf made the NCAA Regionals as the final at-large team in Alabama. The 11th-seeded Buffs have now made the NCAA postseason four consecutive years.
UCLA men’s volleyball lost a five-set thriller to Ohio State in the semifinals of the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship Thursday night at Penn State, dropping the fifth set 18-16. Keep your eyes out for Micah Ma’a in years to come, though – that dude’s a stud.
Doug Haller reports that Arizona State Vice President of Athletics Ray Anderson supports Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. “I’m fully behind Larry because I think he needs to be tough, I think he needs to be different, and I’m not impatient at all,” Anderson said, according to Haller.
Former Oregon State men’s basketball guard Gary Payton II has been officially invited to the 2016 NBA Draft Combine, where he will be one of 63 participants.
Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian/OregonLive lets us know that former Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams will try out with the Seattle Seahawks.
Kevin Gemmell dives into the Utah quarterback race, featuring Troy Williams (a former Husky), Brandon Cox and Tyler Huntley.
Laurence Miedema of the Bay Area News Group discusses the possibility of Jared Goff starting the 2016 season opener against the 49ers, his favorite team growing up. By the way, no more Jeff Faraudo on this beat, as he took a voluntary buyout a couple of weeks ago. Golf clap for Jeff; he was a good one.