Given the academic rigor that comes with being a Stanford student-athlete, Stanford men’s and women’s basketball get two weeks off in early December to focus on finals. Both men’s and women’s basketball will return to action on Sunday, December 12th at Maples for a doubleheader. I first want to address the state of Stanford men’s basketball before switching gears to women’s basketball.
MBB: The Cardinal are 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the Pac-12, dropping their first Pac-12 game on the road at Colorado by a final score of 80-76. Stanford has notched wins over Tarleton State, San Jose State, Valparaiso, and North Carolina A&T, all of those wins coming at home. In addition to the Colorado loss, Stanford also lost at #9 Baylor and at Santa Clara.
In short, Stanford is 4-0 at home and 0-3 on the road. Stanford has had an easier home schedule, but to their credit, they have defended their home floor quite well. As for the road, both the Baylor (48-86) and Santa Clara (72-88) losses were pretty lopsided with only the Colorado loss being close. Stanford came out with great energy in Boulder and just wasn’t able to seal the deal in the end.
Freshman small forward Harrison Ingram has been the top player for the Cardinal so far this season, averaging 12.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. He has a season-high of 19 points (twice) against Santa Clara and San Jose State and two double-doubles on the year against San Jose State (19 points & 11 rebounds) and North Carolina A&T (14 points & 10 rebounds). He’s been a bit quiet as of late, scoring 4 points against Valparaiso and Baylor and also scoring just 8 points against Colorado. But as a whole, he’s been fantastic, already picking up a Pac-12 Player of the Week award.
The rest of the guys on the team have been a bit more in and out. Freshman center Maxime Raynaud looks like the real McCoy, averaging 7.3 points & 5.4 rebounds per game, but it’s still a case of him being more of a long-term project that has been off to a better start than expected. Senior forward Jaiden Delaire is the number two scorer on this Cardinal team, averaging 10.1 points per game, but he too has been streaky. And then everyone else has been more or less the same. Different guys stepping up and taking a lead role on different nights.
If you look at the team stats compared to other teams in the nation, Stanford isn’t doing so hot. They’re 227th in points per game at 69.6 points per game and 219th in points allowed per game at 70.1 points allowed per game. And virtually every other major statistic, they’re kinda scattered among the mid 100s to mid 200s except for offensive rebounding, where they rank 61st with 12.3 offensive rebounds per game.
Turnovers have been a major issue for this Stanford team so far. The gotta take better care of the ball and have cleaner possessions on offense. Point guard play is a bit of an issue as Michael O’Connell and Isa Silva, while talented, are still young and learning how to play the position at this level.
At this point, I’d say Stanford has not done enough to prove that they’ll be an NCAA tournament team, but at the same time, they haven’t stubbed their toe yet. The Santa Clara loss could end up not being that bad of a loss if Santa Clara finishes the season strong. It helps it was on the road. The Baylor loss in and of itself may not hurt Stanford too much, though it was disappointing the second half didn’t go better. And then the Colorado loss being close and on the road once again isn’t likely to hurt, either. Though at the same time it was also a missed opportunity.
The bottom line for Stanford men’s basketball is they’ve won the games they’re supposed to win and the games they’ve lost are understandable and not “bad losses.” However, they need to start picking up some signature wins while also not picking up any bad losses. It all starts with defending their home court. If they can defend their home court and steal a few wins away from Maples, they could find themselves on the good side of the NCAA tournament bubble come March.
WBB: Stanford women’s basketball is off to a 5-2 start with wins over then-No.4 Indiana and then-No.2 Maryland in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving break. They suffered a loss to then-No.18 South Florida in between the wins over Indiana and Maryland and also lost to then-No.25 Texas back on November 14th. As a result of their wins over Indiana and Maryland, Stanford is ranked No.4 in the latest AP Poll.
The big star for Stanford this year has been Cameron Brink, who’s averaging 14.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game. She’s been a dominant force for the Cardinal and was a major reason for their victory over Indiana to begin the Bahamas trip.
Haley Jones has been fantastic as well, averaging 10.7 points & 7.3 rebounds per game. She missed one game due to an ankle injury and came off the bench a couple of times due to the ankle, but she’s getting back to full strength and continues to be a leader on this team.
As a whole, Stanford has a lot of depth and that is something that should serve them well as the season goes on. If a player goes down for a little bit of time, they have the depth to fill in until the player comes back.
The biggest issue for Stanford this year has been point guard play. They really miss the presence of Kiana Williams in the backcourt and they’re still figuring out how to make things work at that position. The good news is that despite this flaw, they’re off to the strong start that they are and there doesn’t really appear to be one juggernaut team in women’s college basketball aside from maybe South Carolina. So, everyone seems to have their issues and Stanford’s issues are not ones that they can’t fix.
At this point, Stanford just needs to keep on doing what they’re doing and improve their point guard play. Free throws have also been an issue, but that’s something that they should be able to fix as well. They got a talented and deep team and should be well-served by their tough non-conference schedule. Unlike their men’s counterparts, they know they’re going to be dancing in March with a really good seed. It’s just about keeping March in mind and continuing to sharpen their championship identity.
