On Saturday at 7:00 PM PT on ESPN+, Stanford men’s basketball will head to the South Bay to face the Santa Clara Broncos on the road. Stanford comes in at 5-0 overall while Santa Clara comes in at 2-3.
Last time out: Stanford is coming off a 70-63 home victory over Norfolk State. Maxime Raynaud led the way for the Cardinal with 20 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, and two steals while Jaylen Blakes had 18 points, six rebounds, and two steals.
RECAP: Stanford MBB staves off Norfolk State
On Santa Clara: The Broncos have wins over Saint Louis and UC Riverside while losing games at Nevada, at home against North Dakota State, and against Arizona State in a neutral site in Las Vegas. Not the best start for them. That said, they do have some talent on their roster, namely senior guard Adama-Alpha Bal, who is averaging 15.4 points per game on 46.6% shooting from the field, 34.4% shooting from 3-point range, and 75.0% shooting from the foul line. He’s an NBA prospect and has tremendous athleticism.
Junior forward Elijah Mahi is averaging 13.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game while junior center Christopher Tilly is averaging 12.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. So the Broncos have a couple more guys scoring in double figures that can do some damage.
As a team, the Broncos average 78.8 points per game on 44.3% shooting from the field, 30.6% shooting from 3-point range, and 72.1% shooting from the foul line. They average 37.6 rebounds, 12.6 assists, 8.2 steals, 3.0 blocks, and 10.4 turnovers per game. They also average a +1.4 rebound margin and a +3.0 turnover margin. Their opponents average 77.2 points per game on 44.3% shooting from the field, 36.2% shooting from 3-point range, and 73.3% shooting from the foul line.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing the need to do is contain Alpha-Bal. He’s the most talented player on this Broncos team. If they can limit his production and hold him to his average or below, I like their chances of winning this one.
Secondly, Stanford needs to feed the big man. Maxime Raynaud is balling out, averaging 21.0 points and 12.2 rebounds per game. I’m not sure Santa Clara has an answer for him inside. If they get him going, they’ll be in a great position to win this one.
Finally, Stanford needs to win the assist-to-turnover battle. Stanford is averaging a +5.6 turnover margin per game and averaging 14.2 assists per game to their opponents’ 7.0 assists per game. If Stanford is able to win keep that rate of assists to turnovers up, that would be huge.
Prediction: Last time Stanford was at Santa Clara, they lost pretty handily. But that Santa Clara team was better. This year’s Santa Clara team is struggling. I’m going to give Stanford a slight edge in this one: 77-74 Stanford is how I see this one going.
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