Last week, the ACC had their media days for men’s and women’s basketball. Stanford head coach Kyle Smith was joined by senior center Maxime Raynaud and graduate student guard Jaylen Blakes. Below are five takeaways that I have.
VIDEO: Stanford Men’s Basketball: ACC Tipoff 2024 Press Conference
#1. Kyle Smith really believes in Stanford: Kyle Smith reiterated what he said in his introductory press conference a few months back, namely that he really believes in Stanford as a place where you can win. He thinks you can win big at Stanford and be a top ranked program. It’s just a matter of having the right leadership at the top and doing things the right way. He didn’t shy away from saying he thinks it’s the best job in the country and that it has the potential to be another Duke.
#2. Defense will be a major point of emphasis: Everywhere he goes, Kyle Smith makes defense a major point of emphasis when he first gets to a new program. The same is true with Stanford. Defense was a weakness for Stanford during the twilight years of the Jerod Haase era and that’s something that Smith wants to turn around. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of strides they make on defense this year and what kind of impact Jaylen Blakes makes on that end. Defense was his calling card at Duke.
#3. “Nerd Ball” should be a good fit with “Nerd Nation”: Smith explained what “Nerd Ball” is and why he thinks it will be a good fit at Stanford. It’s all about giving the players feedback that is driven by analytics and data. Smith believes Stanford is a place where he’ll be able to recruit a higher caliber of player than he did at Washington State and also players who are intelligent. Given that Stanford is known as “Nerd Nation”, it makes sense that a philosophy called “Nerd Ball” would be a good fit. It’ll be fun to see what impact it has on The Farm.
#4. Maxime Raynaud likes what the newcomers are bringing: Maxime Raynaud had great things to say about the newcomers on the team and what they are bringing in practice. This Stanford team has added a lot of new pieces like UC Irvine transfer guard Derin Saran, USC transfer guard Oziyah Sellers, Jaylen Blakes, and some promising freshmen. This is going to be a very different looking Stanford team on the court. It’ll be fun to see what all these new pieces bring and how the team comes together.
#5. Jaylen Blakes should bring good leadership: Just watching him speak, it’s clear that Jaylen Blakes will bring a lot of good leadership to this Stanford team. He has a good head on his shoulders and is very mature. He didn’t have the most impressive offensive numbers at Duke, but he proved to be a pesky defender who played with a lot of heart and was good at getting steals. I look forward to seeing what he does in a Cardinal uniform.
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