Dual Recap: Stanford MBB & #2 Stanford WBB win Monday doubleheader
Since both Stanford men’s and women’s basketball opened their regular seasons on Monday, I figured I would roll with a dual recap. Something new is always fun to try! Both teams got the victory, though they did so in different fashions.
In the morning/early afternoon game, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Pacific 88-78. Stanford grad transfer guard Michael Jones led the way for the Cardinal with a career-high 31 points and 5 rebounds on 9-15 shooting from the field while sophomore center Maxime Raynaud had a career-high 22 points to go along with 9 rebounds and 2 blocks. Pacific guard Jordan Ivy-Curry was the top scorer for the Tigers with 23 points on 9-17 shooting from the field and 4-10 shooting from 3-point range while guard Donovan Williams chipped in 17 points.
“Before we jump into the game completely, I wanna just mention a couple of things,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said to open his post-game remarks. “Number one, Don Austin the superintended of schools in Palo Alto was a great working relationship with us and our marketing department and our administration working with them to get a large number of kids at the game, which I think was mutually beneficial. What a great opportunity for them and for the game environment today was absolutely fantastic. So, I wanna give that a big thank you there.
“And then there were some former players here. It was really neat to see them in the stands and at this point I’m awfully proud of what our former players are doing and I could go into long detail with guys like Oscar da Silva and KZ doing great in the NBA, but Sam Beskind in particular has done a lot with All Vote, No Play. Which basically means that’s why we didn’t play this game tomorrow night is encouraging people to get out to vote to really be active in our world and Sam’s been a great ambassador to that and our guys on our current team I know believe in that and do a lot of things there. So, those are two off-topic deals.
“In terms of the game, excited to get a win. In the second half it would have been nice to play a little bit smoother and continue to have things build, but at the same time, I think there was going to be a lot of positives. The number one thing going into the next couple days, gonna talk about not hurting ourselves. Not put in our position to make that silly turnover, a simple mistake offensively that we forget a play.
"Defensive breakdowns, is probably the number one thing. I think there was a mistake and a lot of them are solvable. And I think that’s gonna be the message moving forward is that look, it’s early in the year, we’re gonna be one of the first teams in college basketball to have a win this year, so we understand that. But I think there’s a lot of solvable mistakes that we made and we’ll certainly address those over the next couple days.
“Michael Jones obviously had a heck of a game for his debut. Played well, obviously scored a lot of points, but his presence I think was the biggest thing I saw in timeouts and situations where we weren’t playing well. Just wasn’t fazed and I think that’s gonna be something that really bleeds into the rest of the team in a really positive way. So, excited about that and we can dive into the rest of it. But, good win for us, good starting point.”
Prior to the game, it was announced that Stanford senior forward Spencer Jones would be out and would be day-to-day going forward. So, that forced Haase to switch things up a bit with his lineups/rotation.
With 15:08 to go in the first half, Stanford led 11-8 as Michael Jones was up to 6 points. He was in a nice groove from the opening tip off and doing a great job of providing the kind of energy and leadership that Stanford is going to need from him this year.
“We got going early,” Jones said. “We got out in transition. Got some stops and were able to push the ball. So it was good for us. Got a couple easy looks early, saw the ball go in the rim, and then my teammates just put me in great position throughout the whole game. Got to the line a little bit and that’s pretty much what it is. You gotta do a little bit of everything to get 30, I guess.”
With 10:57 to go in the half, Stanford led 20-14. Jones was up to 11 points on 4-6 shooting from the field and 3-5 shooting from 3-point range. He was feeling it.
“With Michael Jones, I would not say that I was surprised,” Haase said of Jones’ performance. “We understand from recruiting him, but then also seeing him in practice that he’s very very capable. Very talented. And he has a great deal of confidence in his abilities and when he’s open he’s gonna shoot it and obviously it was very very effective.”
Stanford would continue to lead, up 25-20 with 7:41 to go in the half. Jones was in need of some help from his friends. Harrison Ingram had just 2 points and needed to get cracking.
Stanford would finish the half strong to lead 44-32 at halftime. Jones (13 points) and Raynaud (13 points) were leading the way for the Cardinal while Ingram was starting to assert himself a bit more with 5 points and 5 assists.
The second half started out well for Stanford as they led 61-47 with 11:06 to go. Jones (22 points) and Raynaud (15 points) were continuing to lead the way.
“I think same as Michael, the team put me in good position to get some easy looks,” Raynaud said. “Starting off pretty strong, like six-for-six all assisted by my teammates. So I guess they really helped me put myself in the best box to get that many points and also I think offensively, we were talking about that in the locker room. Like, we got 18 assists as a team. I think that kinda showed what we have that many people that are still good at scoring. And I think overall, the team, like 88 points, minus some couple free throws with misses. So I think we overall had a very good offensive performance as a team.”
Over the next few minutes, Pacific would close the gap as it was a 63-55 lead for Stanford with 7:55 to go. Pacific made 5 of their last 7 field goals. Raynaud was off the floor for Stanford, getting a rest as he had played 16 minutes and only one foul. It stood to reason that he would be back soon to help curb the Tigers’ comeback.
Pacific would close the gap to three points (63-60 with 7:01 to go; 66-63 with 6:30 to go), putting real pressure on the Cardinal. Fortunately for Stanford, buckets from Michael Jones and James Keefe pushed the lead back to five points, preventing Pacific from getting within one point or tying the game.
“I think there was a combination of things,” Haase said of Pacific’s run. “They made some difficult shots. But I also think a lot of their scores were based off our struggles. Whether it was transition defense, not playing a ball screen correctly, not being positionally in the right place. So I think some of those mistakes led to their success and then when they did score and their press was not something that impacted us in terms of a lot of turnovers, but it did impact the pace of the game, it took us a little bit longer, I don’t think we attacked it quite as well as I would like to and it just kinda, the vibe of the game, the feel of the game was impacted in those ways and it turned into a grind. Big picture, I would have liked to extend a lead when it was 18 or 19 points and that didn’t happen. But having said that, for our team right now I think we got a lot of benefit from being in a game like this.”
With 3:17 to go, Stanford led 72-65. Raynaud was up to 15 points and 7 rebounds, finally back in the game. Jones was up to 27 points, leading the way. Both guys were really having fantastic outings, which were much needed with Ingram being more passive and Spencer Jones being out.
“Maxime would have made his last little layup there, he would have been 10 of a 11,” Haase said with a smile. “But he was obviously very effective. The size advantage was important, he was able to get a lot of different shots around the rim in a lot of different ways, whether it was a post-up or a high low or offensive rebound. So, he looked very comfortable out there, which I think is really a positive thing and I think the work he put in the offseason with the weight room and kinda changing his body paid off and it’s still a growing process for him, but I think today was a great step forward.”
From there, Stanford got the job done, winning 88-78. It got a bit dicey, but they pulled it out. The career-nights from Michael Jones and Maxime Raynaud were the big stories, but it really was a team effort. Brandon Angel had 10 points on 4-4 shooting from the field while Michael O’Connell had 9 points and 4 assists. While having a quieter game, Harrison Ingram wasn’t totally silent as he had 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. Freshman Ryan Agarwal got some action and sophomore guard Jarvis Moss, who didn’t play much last year played 8 minutes.
“Yeah, Jarvis was, he’s really earned those minutes today,” Haase said of Moss. “Obviously there was a void without Spencer being out there, but when Jarvis was in I thought was a net positive. He didn’t hurt us on the defensive end at all, provided some good energy, and on the offensive end at least had a certain level of comfort. Hopefully the shots go in next time, but at the end of the day, I do have confidence putting him in.”
As for the 11:00 AM start time, Stanford really viewed it as a positive. They weren’t going to play on Tuesday due to the All Vote, No Play initiative and with the women playing later at night, they decided to make it a day to give back to the community and allow kids from the Palo Alto Unified School District to see some college basketball.
“We’ve practiced fairly early,” Haase said when asked about the start time. “We practiced early the last couple of days. So that part was not hard. We had daylight savings time in our favor. As everybody got an extra hour of sleep right there. Logistically it was just a situation we had to play the game early in the day. There’s a game in Maples with the women playing later today and no games tomorrow with the All Vote, No Play. So it was just one of those things and I turned into a positive about being able to get the guys up, play early, have some fun, get some excitement, have the school kids here, and so we didn’t really make a big deal out of it. And really felt like it was a positive.”
“It was great,” Jones said of the atmosphere. “We had the elementary school kids here today, so it added. They brought a ton of energy. So give some credit to them. They brought it as good as a crowd as I think as I’ve seen bring it. Throughout the whole game they were really loud, they were really into the game. So, it was a great atmosphere and I’ve been welcomed coming out here by the guys, by the community, by the school, so it’s been great.”
Touching more on Michael Jones, it really is impressive he had this kind of impact in his first game with the Cardinal. While he is a veteran guy, it’s still amazing he came in and made this kind of splash, scoring more points than anyone else in a Stanford debut. At least as far back as the team’s online archival records could show.
“It’s different joining a new team,” Jones said. “Having to make chemistry with new guys, learn a new system, new principles on defense and offense, but the guys here and the coaching staff has made it such a seamless transition for me. It helped me throughout the way and I can’t give my teammates and my coaches enough credit for being able to put me in a place to succeed and it’s, yeah, it’s been great.”
Up next for Stanford men’s basketball will be a virtual road game in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where they’ll face the Wisconsin Badgers at the home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Having a basketball game in a baseball stadium is an interesting idea and will certainly be fun to watch. That will tip-off on Friday at 4:30 PM PT on FS1.
“One of the things we want to do here is play on the big stages,” Haase said of the Wisconsin game. “And we’re doing that a lot in this preseason and once we get to conference and beyond but, this is an opportunity to play in a venue that nobody else is going to do. It’s a very unique situation and have a lot of attention and a lot of excitement around it and I think our guys are excited for that and they deserve that. They worked really hard to get to this point and I think we look at it right now as a great opportunity to play a really good team and we’ll call it a neutral site. I don’t know if it will truly be neutral, but we’re excited to get out there.”
Note: Jerod Haase was asked about Spencer Jones’ availability for Friday after the game and said the following:
“Yeah, it’s gonna be day-to-day right now. I don’t know exactly with the practice or the game what’s gonna transpire. So it really is a day-to-day situation.”
Switching gears to the women’s basketball game at night, #2 Stanford defeated San Diego State 86-48. Sophomore forward Kiki Iriafen (16 points & 6 rebounds) and sophomore guard Elena Bosgana (15 points & 6 rebounds) led the way for the Cardinal while San Diego State guards Alex Crain and Meghan Fiso each had 9 points.
“It’s great to start a season when we can get everyone in the game and really have a lot of different people play really well,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “And I’m really excited about our super sophomores. Kiki had a great game. She’s worked so hard in the offseason as Elena has, too. Elena came in and really helped us a lot. They were reserves a lot last year and now they’re saying it’s my turn and I love how they’re stepping up and just can really help our team.
“As you saw, we have a pretty deep team. A lot of different people can contribute. So it was I think a really good first game. We have things to improve on, but we did some really nice things.”
From the jump, this one was All-Cardinal as Stanford led 25-4 at the end of the 1st quarter. Cameron Brink was up to 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Stanford was shooting 9-15 (60.0%) from the field while San Diego State was shooting 1-13 (7.7%) from the field.
“I think we started off really well, “Iriafen said. “We just carried that over throughout the game. Cam hitting that first three, that was kind of like a momentum for us. Also defensively, getting those stops. I think that just pushed us offensively as well.”
Stanford would continue to keep their foot on the gas as they led 31-12 with 4:27 to go in the half. The Cardinal were really dominating the Aztecs inside with a 19-9 rebounding advantage. The Aztecs were also continuing to struggle as they were shooting just 4-21 (19.0%) from the field.
At halftime, Stanford led 42-19 after Bosgana made a nice corner three to beat the buzzer. It rolled around the rim before deciding to fall. She was up to 6 points. Freshman guard Indya Nivar was having a nice debut for Stanford with 8 points and 4 rebounds.
“I thought she had a great game,” VanDerveer said of Nivar. “She helped us at both ends of the floor. She really, she scored for us, she’s very aggressive defensively, and she can help handle. She’s a competitor. And like these guys have already talked about, they might be freshmen, but you don’t know it. I mean Talana, Indya, Lauren, they’re really, they’re really ready. College ready.”
With 4:46 to go in the 3rd quarter, Stanford was leading 52-23. Brink was up to 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 blocks while Iriafen was up to 10 points and 3 rebounds.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, it was a 69-34 lead for Stanford as Iriafen was up to 16 points and 6 rebounds. She was really balling out there. Freshman guard Talana Lepolo had just 2 points, but she was up to 8 assists.
Stanford’s lead would be 76-36 with 7:15 to go. Bosgana was having a very nice night for the Cardinal with 15 points and 5 rebounds on 6-9 shooting from the field and 3-6 shooting from 3-point range. And she did this coming off the bench.
“When I’m at the bench I’m trying to concentrate on like what they’re doing, what my team does well, what doesn’t work,” Bosgana said. “So when I get in I’m trying to do whatever I can to help my team.”
In the end, Stanford walked out with an 86-48 victory. Just an all-around dominating performance by the Cardinal as nobody for San Diego State scored in double figures. This went as expected, but even so, it’s still impressive to watch such dominance.
Similar to the men’s game, this was a true team victory. Haley Jones had only 6 points, but like Harrison Ingram, she did other things, finishing with 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Brink was her usual dominant self in the paint with her 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 blocks and then freshmen guards Indya Nivar and Talana Lepolo were both really solid. Nivar finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds while Lepolo had 2 points and 11 assists.
“We didn’t really have a pure point guard on our team and Talana is kind of a pure point guard,” VanDerveer said. “Indya I think is kind of more of a combo one-two, but they both, they both really work hard at the defensive end of the floor and are just very talented and smart players. I mean, you can tell them something and they can make the adjustment in the game. They’re extremely competitive and like you said, very poised. So, it’s exciting to have them up there.
“I also thought Jzaniya did well. She had three assists and no turnovers. Some of it is just figuring out who to play with who and watching kinda different combinations. I think Agnes has been working really hard. She just, her shot just didn’t go in for her today. But, we’re counting on a lot of new perimeter people. Elena, Talana, Indya, some really young players and they’re doing really well.
“I’m not surprised at all [by Talana’s assist total]. In our scrimmage she had 10 assists, no turnovers. I mean, I’m not surprised at all because I’ve been watching her in practice and I watched her play in high school. She comes out of a great high school program, and she’s an absolute. I mean she just really is a heady point guard and Indya, too. I mean she’s not maybe a pure point guard in how Talana is, she’s more of a scorer, little bigger. But they both work hard defensively and that’s why they’re getting the playing time. They’re playing defense and they’re making smart plays.”
Up next for Stanford women’s basketball is a home game on Wednesday against Cal State Northridge. That will begin at 6:00 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and Varsity Network radio.
Note: After the game Tara VanDerveer explained why the team chose to have a moment of silence for Brittney Griner before the game.
“I know her and it’s really sad what’s happening,” VanDerveer said of Griner. “And I think our team is waiting, but we’re getting patches. They haven’t come in yet. So, I just wanted to just remind everyone that we’re thinking about her and that we love her and that it’s a horrible situation…When we get them, yep [we’ll wear them all season long]. On our uniforms.”
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