ESPN Men's Basketball

Jay John will tell you the key is maintaining regimen, that the difficult part is preserving some semblance of normalcy amid the mounting chaos.

"The most important thing is not to change who you are," said John, head basketball coach at Oregon State and former longtime assistant at Arizona. "Come out each game and do what you do as well as you can. And as (outside influence) starts to creep into your basketball family, don't allow things to be built up bigger than they really are.

"Your kids have to have a mind set that they blow off those (distractions). It's still going to come down to playing every possession as hard as possible. Older, more experienced teams have a better chance. Most younger ones never get to 9-0."

Make it 10-0. That's where No. 2 Stanford is entering a home game against Arizona on Saturday, perfect in 19 games overall and unscathed more than halfway through Pac-10 play. No team has ever gone 18-0 in winning the regular-season conference title, but six times a program has managed to finish 17-1.

The Cardinal remained on the road to history after overcoming a 19-point deficit in the final 17 minutes at Oregon on Saturday, when Mike Montgomery's team exhibited the kind of mental toughness conference coaches insist sets Stanford apart this season.

It is primarily the same team that went 24-9 last season, and yet it isn't. Four returning starters were joined by a now-healthy point guard in sophomore Chris Hernandez.

Stanford is simply older, wiser and more athletic.

"You really can't avoid the (going undefeated topic)," Montgomery said. "But those talking about it really don't know anything about the game of basketball. Kids are kids. They hear stuff. Mostly, it's people being silly. It can only be possible because we haven't been beat so far, but I know it has nothing to do with what we're trying to accomplish.

"If it happens, it happens. But in the long term, it's not something we're really trying to do."

This is a different Stanford team in terms of star status and physical presence. There is no Brevin Knight or Casey Jacobsen or Curtis Borchardt or any twin named Collins to dominate headlines. It's about Hernandez leading one night and Matt Lottich the next and Josh Childress the next and Matt Haryasz the next, about five players averaging between 9.4 and 13.0 points and 3.7 and 6.6 rebounds, about hustle and grit and floor burns the color of Stanford shorts.

"It's like (junior center) Rob Little," USC coach Henry Bibby said. "Who is he? Where did he come from? What does he do? Well, he does all the little things you don't read about in a newspaper. His value to that team is unbelievable. It is one of the most close-knit teams I have ever seen. You don't really know who any of them are, but they all realize how much they need each other. They really have it going."

Used to be, Stanford was just plain ol' big and good, with names like Borchardt, Jason Collins and Mark Madsen as focal points. The good part is still true, but no longer are wins created solely by large bodies inside.

"I think when (other coaches) say we're more athletic, the perception in the past was of us being dinosaurs," Montgomery said. "If you look at some of the teams in our league -- USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington, the list goes on -- clearly we have not had those types of numbers (athletically) with great speed and quickness. But we have always been able to hold our own."

Perfection is rarely possible to achieve without some good fortune. Stanford could have easily lost at Arizona State (a 63-62 win on Jan. 8) and, well, it took 22 second-half points from Hernandez and the Cardinal shooting 64 percent over the final 20 minutes to escape Oregon.

Now, senior forward and leading rebounder Justin Davis is out at least three weeks with an injured knee, and an Arizona team that has won four straight at Stanford arrives Saturday.

"To go 18-0 in conference, you have to be very, very good and also get lucky a few times and dodge some bullets," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "I think (Stanford) still has some difficult road trips ahead -- going to the Washington (schools) won't be an easy one for them. The times we got close, I know we never talked about it. There was never any conversation about going undefeated in league."

Montgomery's team has adopted an identical approach, but it's unknown if the stars will align correctly.

Meanwhile, the chaos mounts.

Games to Watch

Rice at Texas-El Paso, Thursday UTEP continues to amaze under second-year coach Billy Gillispie, who has turned a 6-24 team from last season into one that is 15-4 overall and 6-3 in conference, a game back of WAC-leading Hawaii and Rice. The Owls, meanwhile, have won 11 of their past 14 and have not lost consecutive games this season. Pepperdine at Gonzaga, Thursday A disappointing season to date for Pepperdine (9-13 overall, 4-3 West Coast Conference) could appear much better with a win against the first-place Zags (17-2, 7-0), who have won 10 straight and are holding conference opponents to an average of 63.1 points. Arizona at Stanford, Saturday The Wildcats -- who play at Cal on Thursday -- have swept the Bay Area road trip four straight years. Arizona shoots a league-best 77.3 percent on free throws. Stanford joins Arizona, Oregon State and UCLA as programs to have begun Pac-10 play 9-0.

Air Force coach Joe Scott told his team early and often that none of the eight Mountain West teams would survive conference unbeaten. Nevada-Las Vegas made sure of it Monday.

The Rebels handed Air Force its first league defeat by a 63-50 final, but the second-half schedule suggests the Falcons will remain at or near the top for the duration.

Air Force is 15-3 overall, 5-1 in league and plays five of its final eight MWC games at home, where it is 8-0 this season.

"We lost on the second game of a tough road trip," Scott said. "Vegas played very well, and we didn't play as well as we could. We had a hard game against a very good San Diego State team (on Saturday) and somewhere along the line it showed. Vegas made it show. Give them a lot of credit. They forced us into some things we didn't want to do and we gave in."

How did the Rebels snap Air Force's 13-game win streak? Try inside: UNLV out-rebounded Air Force 41-20 and had 40 points in the paint compared to 22 for the Falcons. Rebels senior center J.K. Edwards has been a monster the past two games, making 18 of 20 shots.

"We played well and being on the road, Air Force missed some shots they might normally make," UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour said. "We made it an emphasis to get the ball inside."

Spoonhour wouldn't bite on the suggestion it favored his team to have just one day of preparation, that teams such as SDSU (which had four days of prep time) might be more apt to sway from what they do best when scheming against the Falcons.

"I do think there is such a thing as over-preparing for (Air Force)," Spoonhour said. "You try and come up with all kinds of counters to take something away (that) they do, and really you can't against them. But I would always prefer to have more time to prepare. Maybe that's just me."

Nope. It's pretty much every coach at every level, pee-wee included.

It was thought all the off-court troubles at Fresno State were over for now. Guess not. Second-year Bulldogs coach Ray Lopes has suspended seniors Jonathan Woods and Renaldo Major indefinitely for violating team rules. The players will not travel for games at Louisiana Tech on Thursday and SMU on Saturday.

It is the third suspension this season for Woods and second for Major. Each arrived last season from South Plains College in Texas. The two combine to average 20.7 points and 9.4 rebounds.

Lopes did not discuss the reason for the suspensions.

The defending regular-season champs have lost three of their last four and are suddenly 10-8 overall and 6-3 in conference.

"We anticipated this being a tough race from the very beginning," Lopes said. "Knowing the personnel and talent in this league, we thought it would be pretty balanced and that a number of teams would have a shot at winning this thing. Nine games into it, it kind of looks that way."

Washington State coach Dick Bennett still isn't exactly sure what ailment caused him to miss the Arizona game on Saturday, but he has returned to the team.

"I'm back," Bennett said. "I'm sure the kids wish I were not back."

Bennett fell ill and spent a night in the hospital as his son, Tony, made his coaching debut against the Wildcats.

Arizona won 61-57 and has defeated WSU 37 straight times.

"It could have been anything from an inner-ear infection to the flu," Dick Bennett said. "I have a number of health issues that I'm on prescription medication for, so when one thing goes wrong, everything can go haywire. But I'm O.K. My heart is still hard, but at least it's healthy.

"Maybe I just wanted to see my son go against a Hall of Fame coach (in Lute Olson). Tony did a good job. He handles himself better than I do. He has always had great poise, even as a little kid. He is always very much in the present. When I lose it, I can't think beyond the end of my nose, as big as my nose is."

The Cougars are 8-11 overall and 3-6 in conference as they begin the second half of league play at the Los Angeles schools this week. Before Bennett's arrival this season, WSU had managed just three in its previous 41 Pac-10 games.

Lorenzo Romar credits his team's play of late -- four straight Pac-10 wins, including a sweep of the Arizona schools last week -- to each player better understanding his specific role.

As it is, Washington has improved to 9-8 overall and 4-5 in league. The Huskies are getting tremendous play from sophomore guard Nate Robinson, the conference Player of the Week who averaged 19.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the wins against Arizona and ASU.

"He has lifted everyone else's play," Romar said. "We were trying to play him at the point early on, but then decided to just let him roam and do what he can do. (Junior) Will Conroy has developed into a nice floor leader for us now.

"(Beating Arizona) helped a lot of people around here believe in this group. We hadn't had those kinds of victories to show what we're capable of. It was good to get the community and all of our followers thinking that maybe we have a chance instead of them saying 'Here we go again.' But we're still looking up in the standings. We're 4-5. It's not like we're 10-2. We still have a long ways to go."

Quote to Note

"He is one of the best leaders as a point guard I've seen in this conference, and I've been in it for a lot of years. He is tremendously competitive, a player who does what needs to be done to win. In my opinion, he does more for them -- as good a player as Julius Barnes was -- than Barnes did last year."
-- Arizona coach Lute Olson on Stanford sophomore guard Chris Hernandez.

Ed Graney of the San Diego Union-Tribune is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at ed.graney@uniontrib.com.