San Jose, Calif. ? The question comes at Stanford from all angles, at all times — from media and fans, from friends and students, on campus, around town and along the West Coast.

“Can we go undefeated? Sure. Are we going to? No,” coach Mike Montgomery said Saturday after Stanford rallied from a 19-point, second-half deficit to beat Oregon.

“This was a loss waiting to happen. So was the USC game. They’re out there. The next one is all we want to win.

“Thinking in terms of running the table would guarantee we’d lose the game.”

A better question might be, does Stanford want to be undefeated heading into the NCAA Tournament?

Well, it does and it doesn’t.

No one wants to lose — not the players or coaches. Stanford hasn’t won 18 games in a row, beaten Kansas University, Gonzaga and Arizona, overcome Oregon and reached No. 2 in the national rankings without being fiercely competitive.

But no one is salivating at the prospect of entering the NCAAs with a zero in the loss column, because that would mean a bull’s-eye on the back — not to mention enormous pressure and media scrutiny.

At least that’s how former Nevada-Las Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian remembers it.

His 1990-91 Rebels were one of the most feared teams of the past quarter century. They were the defending national champs, had three future NBA lottery picks (Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and Stacey Augmon) and spent the regular season pummeling all comers.

UNLV took a 30-0 record into March Madness and came out with a semifinal loss to Duke — leaving the ’76 Indiana Hoosiers as the last perfect team.

“We didn’t want to lose. No coach ever does,” Tarkanian said last week. “But it might have been better if we had lost one. We never talked about being undefeated, but it was in the papers. Everybody brings it up. It really might help to lose.”

If the Rebels, with all their swagger and savvy, struggled with the distractions, could Stanford possibly cope?

“I would only feel good about it if we were playing well and truly an unbeatable team, one that met every challenge and had the bravado to dig in and take on all comers,” Cardinal assistant Eric Reveno said. “But I don’t think that state of mind exists in college basketball. There’s too much parity.”

The undefeated season, of course, is a no-win situation.

“Would it be increased pressure in the tournament? Yes, absolutely,” Montgomery said. “But I don’t want to lose just to get that off us.”

Just how realistic is an undefeated regular season?

Stanford has nine games left, plus the Pacific-10 Conference tournament.

Based on venue, matchups and current performance, six games would appear to be tougher than others:

Arizona (Saturday at Maples Pavilion), at Cal (Feb. 14), at USC (Feb. 19), the season finale at Washington (March 6); two games in the conference tournament. It depends on the draw, of course, but the Cardinal could be looking at three tough games.

Could Stanford go 6 for 6? It’s unlikely, but not impossible.