Stanford men riding high after 4 wins in a row

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There’s a happy tune being sung at Maples Pavilion these days. The Stanford men’s basketball team, picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 in the preseason, is tied with Arizona for first at 4-1.

The Cardinal are 10-8 overall, which doesn’t sound awe-inspiring. But they have won four games in a row, their longest streak in conference play in 10 years.

Their sweep of the Washington schools last week as Stanford’s first road sweep since they beat Oregon and Oregon State in 2010.

Trying to explain the streak, second-year head coach Jerod Haase focuses on their confidence.

“No. 1 is the belief we can do it, even when times are tough,” he said. “After the Cal game (when Stanford blew a 17-point lead), times were extremely tough. In the UCLA game (when it rallied and won in double overtime), when we had absolutely no reason to believe, the guys did.”

It won’t get any easier this week. The Cardinal host No.16 Arizona State on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and No. 14 Arizona on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Haase said the loss to Cal could have set the team back for weeks, but it didn’t.

“I love the way the staff and the team responded to the Cal defeat,” he said. “We were trying to attack adversity and not feel sorry for ourselves. I’d rather learn from wins than from losses, but I think we learned some things from the Cal loss.”

Then one win led to another, he said. “I don’t know if the USC game happens if the UCLA game doesn’t happen. I don’t know if we can win a couple on the road if the home games don’t happen. So it’s building on itself. As the belief was there, now the confidence is growing.”

Early in the Washington State game, Haase chewed out his player during a timeout. It was probably the most animated Stanford fans had seen the coach get.

“I didn’t think we were playing with a passion for the game,” he said. “Sometimes the passion needs to be derived from the head coach. I need to show that passion.”

While the defense and rebounding have been improving steadily, one area in which the Cardinal are still lacking is foul shooting. They made just 15-of 28 against Washington, and are 11th in the conference at 68.5 percent.

Haase thinks that number will improve as the season goes on. “It’s not something I yell and scream about because that can be counterproductive,” he said.

Although it might be expected that practices would have be more energized by the win streak, Haase said that’s not the case, and he’s delighted.

“It hasn’t been that we’re playing harder or practicing better because we’re winning,” he said. “We’ve preached sticking with the process.”

Will the fans finally come out to Maples after years of apathy?

“Anybody who came to the UCLA game would have left and said they had a great experience,” Haase said. “Anybody who came to the USC game would have left and said they had a great experience.”

Personal preference: Standout freshman KZ Okpala was known as Kezie throughout high school and his first months at Stanford, but now he prefers to go by his initials.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald

Wednesday’s game

Who: Arizona St. (14-3, 2-3 Pac-12) at Stanford (10-8, 4-1)

When: 8 p.m.

TV: P12Net