Dec 28th, 2009
The one thing Stanford’s men’s basketball team seems ill-equipped to handle is a dominating big man, and that is exactly what the Cardinal will face when it hosts James Madison at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in its final game before the start of Pac-10 play.
Denzel Bowles
James Madison is 6-4, but a more accurate record for the Dukes would be 2-1, because that is what the Dukes have done since 6-foot-10 Denzel Bowles became eligible. He sat out the first seven games after transferring from Texas A&M in the middle of last season.
All Bowles has done is average 25.0 points and 11.0 rebounds in his three games, and he helped the Dukes to their best win of the season last Wednesday when they beat Fordham 85-73. Bowles had 24 points and 13 rebounds in that game, with seven of his boards coming on the offensive end. In fact, Bowles has more offensive rebounds than defense rebounds in his three games, and that will present a major problem for whichever Stanford player guards him, probably Andrew Zimmermann.
The Cardinal (5-6) has lost three in a row and needs to get things going back in the right firection before starting conference play on Saturday at Cal. But James Madison and Bowles will not provide an easy opponent. Stanford is a perimeter-oriented team that lacks strength inside, so controlling Bowles will be difficult. It will be interesting to see how coach Johnny Dawkins tries to defend him..
The other key factor for Stanford is the play of Jarrett Mann. He has struggled with turnovers and foul shooting in recent games, and he must limit his mistakes for Stanford to have success.
