Stanford's Backcourt Is the Most Underrated In the Country

The Stanford Cardinal have one of the premier backcourts in the nation, yet it isn’t receiving the acknowledgement it rightfully deserves. All fingers can be pointed toward one thing — east coast bias. It’s the old adage that the media tends to focus on east coast teams and sleeping, quite literally, on west coast teams. If Chasson Randle and Anthony Brown were playing on the east coast, they would be household names.

Randle has scored 2,055 points in his career for the Cardinal, good for third on Stanford’s all-time leading scoring list. When all is said and done, Randle could leave Stanford as the program’s all-time leading scorer — he needs 281 more points to do so. Randle has been receiving more notoriety, but what about his backcourt mate, Brown?

Brown is a tremendous utility man for Stanford. He can score from all over the court and shoots it well from deep. Brown scores 16.2 points per game, but it would be a mistake to only mention his scoring. The 6-foot-6 guard is a lengthy two-way player who can shut guys down defensively. When Stanford goes small he can play the wing; Brown is versatile and can defend multiple positions. Together, he and Randle combined for 81 points in last year’s NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet 16.

Randle and Brown have a surfeit of experience; it’s been said how crucial veteran guard play is in March. Both were starters as freshmen on the 2012 NIT Championship team and played big roles as juniors in their upset over Kansas on their way to the Sweet 16 last year. The seniors now have a total of 7,032 minutes logged in their college basketball careers.

It’s about time people start to pay attention to Stanford’s backcourt. It’s not just the Cardinal backcourt that makes Stanford so good. They are well coached by Duke legend Johnny Dawkins and have a veteran big man in Stefan Nastic down low. But don’t be surprised if Randle and Brown turn some heads in March. They just might make it to the second weekend of the tournament two years in a row.

James Szuba is a college basketball writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesSzuba.