Undefeated.
The word rolls off the tongue. That’s the case at Stanford, where an 82-72 win over No. 3 Arizona on Saturday pushed the Cardinal to 13-0 this season, including a 4-0 record in Pacific-10 Conference play.
It has become customary for Stanford to start off the season strong. And if it sounds like 13-0 is a huge accomplishment, it is. But not necessarily for the Cardinal, who have had a tendency under head coach Mike Montgomery to start off strong.
To start off the 2000-01 season, Stanford went 20-0 before ending the year 31-3, losing to Maryland 87-73 in the fourth round of the NCAA Tournament.
The year before that, the Cardinal jumped out to a 12-0 start before losing to Arizona. In 1997-98, Montgomery led them to 18 straight wins before a loss.
And so on and so on and so on.
This year’s 13 straight has come with wins against Kansas, Gonzaga and the Wildcats, who were considered the runaway pick to win the Pac-10 this season.
The Cardinal scrambled that prediction.
“They did the little things that it takes to win,” Arizona center Channing Frye told the Arizona Daily Wildcat. “They just put on a clinic, moving without the ball.”
Stanford makes no bones about its ability to remain cool, calm and collected on the court. On the cover of its media guide, forwards Justin Davis and Joe Kirchofer and guard Matt Lottich stand with basketballs by their side and arms folded, eyes covered by sunglasses.
“They must have to have a pretty high GPA to get in there or something,” Arizona head coach Lute Olson was quoted as saying in the Associated Press, “because they really play with poise and intelligence. A lot of that has to do with Mike, too.”
The road gets no easier for Stanford, however, when it plays traditional rival California on Saturday at Maples Pavilion.
The Golden Bears haven’t won at Stanford since an 86-61 victory during the 1992-93 season. But California is back on the winning track after a 74-62 win over Arizona State on Saturday.
“This did a great deal for our confidence,” California forward Amit Tamir told the Oakland Tribune. “We know we didn’t have a good day against Arizona and we know we’re about to play a very good team.”

How ’bout them Bruins
Surprise team of the Pac-10 season to this point?
UCLA takes that claim.
While Washington State going 2-2 in its first four games is certainly something to talk about, the Bruins have started the conference slate off with four wins. UCLA started off by defeating Oregon and Oregon State in Los Angeles, then defeated Washington State and Washington on the road this past weekend.
“People say we are a young team, but we are learning and at the same time showing maturity and coming out with W’s,” UCLA forward T.J. Cummings told the Los Angeles Times after the 86-84 win over the Huskies. “We are really happy.”
The big test for UCLA will come Saturday when it hosts Arizona in a nationally televised game on ABC.

Sink or swim
While most of the conference sits at 1-2 or 2-2 in Pac-10 play, Washington and Arizona State have yet to win their first games of the season.
Forward Ike Diogu leads Arizona State and the Pac-10 with 23.4 points per game, but the Sun Devils have fallen to Arizona, Stanford and California in consecutive weeks.
It is conceivable that both teams could remain winless until they meet on Jan. 31 in Seattle. After that, it’s anyone’s guess as to how the Huskies and Sun Devils will do.
For now, the Sun Devils play at UCLA on Thursday and Washington visits Oregon the same day.