Poor Carlos Quentin

By now you've heard that White Sox wunderkind Carlos Quentin broke his wrist by slamming his right hand against his bat after fouling off a pitch on Friday. Methinks Quentin was actually more angry about the fact that his alma mater's game at Arizona State tonight is only on Fox Sports Net Arizona than a silly foul ball.

Meet Toby Gerhart

Some people know Toby Gerhart as the guy who set the California High School career rushing record by more than 1,000 yards (!) at Norco HS.



Other people know Gerhart as the Stanford outfielder who belted a mammoth home run against Florida State in the 2008 College World Series.



And the Oregon State football team? The Beavers know Gerhart as this:



19 carries. 147 yards. 2 touchdowns. 1 improbable season-opening win.

Get on board the Gerhart Train. Next stop: Tempe, AZ.

Let's Take a Look Under the Hood

Little girls carry lunch pails; real men wear mechanic's shirts. Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh gave blue collar shirts to his players this summer, a gesture meant to symbolize the Cardinal's workmanlike effort. I can dig it. Vintage is so in among the college crowd, the marketing possibilities are endless, and it sure beats putting a stump of wood alongside the recently returned Stanford Axe in the locker room. Here's hoping Harbaugh sports his own shirt -- with "Jim" embroidered on the name tag -- on the sideline this season.

This Will Never Get Old

Stanford kicks off the second year of the Harbaugh Era tonight against Oregon State -- the first of three brutal games (@ Arizona State, @ TCU) to start the season. The Beavers' schedule is no joke either, and OSU could be looking ahead to next week's trip to Happy Valley.

Bold predictions: Stanford rushes for more than the -8 yards they racked up in a 23-6 loss in Corvallis last year; Tavita Pritchard does nothing to make Cardinal fans forget about Trent Edwards and nothing to make them yearn for T.C. Ostrander; ESPN's Ron Franklin or Ed Cunningham will refer to Stanford as the "Cardinals" at least once; Jim Harbaugh will show more emotion after one play than Walt Harris and Buddy Teevens did in their too many years combined on the Farm. Oh, and Stanford wins, 28-14.

Not Everything's Bigger in Texas

Texas "big man" Connor Atchley, who averaged nearly 10 points per game for the guard-centric Longhorns, recently checked in from Houston with the latest installment of the Tournament Diary on TexasSports.com. Connor says the elevated court at Reliant Stadium, where Texas should have a decided advantage in the stands, is amazing, while practicing at the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets, was awesome. Amazing and awesome don't even begin to describe the double smackdown that the Lopez twins are prepared to dish out tonight. But you don't have to take my word for it...

Tournament diary: Brook Lopez

Holla Cardinal fans,

It's been a crazy couple of days here in Houston. Yesterday we went to Six Flags -- Disneyland is way better -- and then checked out the Johnson Space Center. It was tight. It would be awesome to be an astronaut. Maybe if the NBA thing doesn't work out I'll give that a shot. Speaking of astronauts, coach Johnson broke out the Moon Walk last night after dinner at a steakhouse downtown. The waitresses ate it up. Robin suggested coach use it again during the game tonight if he feels the need to argue another call with the refs. You think they're going to throw him out of the game if he's doing the Moon Walk? No way.

Robin and I performed our choreographed "Thriller" dance and that brought the house down. We were ridin' dirty around town after that and then came back to the hotel in time for me to e-mail a paper (I remembered this time!). We watched some film this morning, had a good shootaround, and have been chilling ever since. As for tonight, I expect it to be a good game, but their big guys couldn't really match up with us if we were standing on the ground and they were on the elevated court. I'm just sayin'. Hook that.

Fear the Tree,

Brook

Ben Howland Is a Religious Man

Please stop wasting your breath crying foul about the officiating in last night's Stanford-UCLA overtime thriller. If you can't help yourself, well, feel free to chime in here, but there's really no sense in whining about the phantom call on Lawrence "All Ball" Hill that may or may not have cost Stanford the game and a share of the Pac-10 title.

Yes, it was a bad call. Yes, it sucked. Just ask Darren Collison. The Bruins' point guard, who took over the game in the second half and sent the game into overtime with a pair of free throws following the controversial call on Hill, cleared up any confusion about whether or not he was bailed out on his drive to the basket with 2.5 seconds left.

“That was a block,” Collison said in the postgame press conference. “That was a complete block. We were fortunate to get a foul on that call. I heard it was a makeup.”

A makeup, huh? Well I heard it may have been an act of God. He is, after all, a UCLA fan, judging by what transpired shortly before that "makeup." With Stanford leading 61-59, Russell Westbrook stepped to the line for a pair of free throws. The first was a physics-defying shot, which bounced off the back iron, somehow settled on the front of the rim and ultimately fell through. Westbrook also made the second to tie the game. How ever to explain such a thing?

“The free throw by Russell was actually God answering one of my prayers from the bench,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “Trust me. And I mean that; I was there praying right on the bench, and he knocked it down. I just got the tail end of it when it bounced in.”

No wonder Stanford got hosed on the final play of regulation! I don't care if God's on Eastern Standard Time, there's no way he stopped watching after answering the first of Howland's prayers, and not even Lopez quintuplets can stop God. Perhaps Trent Johnson should do a little less cursing and a little more praying from here on out.

Despite the loss, I was very impressed with the Cardinal's showing last night. I honestly don't think it'll take a miracle for Stanford to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. Maybe a rematch with UCLA in the Holy Land that is San Antonio awaits. Pray for it.

You Wear Makeup! Clap, Clap, Clap-Clap-Clap.

This is Cal forward Ryan Anderson. According to the Stanford student section, which directed a loud cheer toward him during the second half of the Cardinal's 79-69 win on Sunday, he wears makeup. While I can't confirm the validity of that claim, I can say that no amount of rouge could mask the ugliness of Anderson's shooting line: 2-for-13 from the field. The big man did shoot 10-for-10 from the line and finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, but he couldn't prevent another cheer that Stanford men's basketball fans have been waiting six years to break out: "Just like football!" It sure sounded good.

I'm still hoping the Cardinal secure a No. 2 seed and a potential second-round date with No. 10 Maryland. If it could happen in Washington, DC, well, that would be all kinds of awesome.