On Monday, December 18th, Stanford men’s basketball freshman Andrej Stojakovic was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. In Stanford’s 82-64 win over Idaho on Sunday, Stojakovic had 17 points and four rebounds on 7-11 shooting from the field, 3-6 shooting from 3-point range, and 0-2 shooting at the foul line. This is Stojakovic’s first Freshman of the Week honor this season.
While Idaho isn’t a strong opponent, it’s still impressive that coming off final exams, Stojakovic played so well. He’s very aggressive with regard to his scoring and isn’t afraid to take the ball to the rim. Physicality is something he needs to continue to work on and is something that head coach Jerod Haase feels he is improving at.
“Andrej as we know is very very talented,” Haase said of Stojakovic after Sunday’s win. “I think he’s done a great job, especially the last couple weeks of buying into the defensive end of the physicality. You know, guarding the basketball, fighting through screens, challenging shots, boxing out, and what I told him is that practice, those repetitions of hitting people, being physical, one of the greatest benefits is gonna help him on the offensive end. Because he just gonna get used to getting bumped when he drives, people slapping at his arms, that kinda thing.
“And I think offensively we know he can shoot the basketball, but he’s getting better and better and better at putting the ball on the ground through contact. You know, against quicker players and then securing that basketball and not turning it over. Which he was doing a little bit earlier in the year. So, he’s doing great, continuing to get better. I think his trajectory is on the right line and I think my hope and expectation is gonna continue moving up.”
Stanford will return to action on Thursday at San Diego State. That will tipoff at 6:00 PM PT on CBS Sports Network. It’ll be interesting to see how Stojakovic performs given it’s such an important game for the Cardinal. They’ll need him to be at his best. Especially if Spencer Jones is unavailable.
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook & X (Twitter): @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
