On Tuesday at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX, Stanford men’s basketball will welcome the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks to Maples Pavilion. Stanford comes in at 2-0 overall while Northern Arizona comes in at 2-0.
Last time out: Stanford is coming off an 80-53 home victory over Cal State Fullerton on Friday. Stanford guards Benny Gealer (20 points) and Jaylen Blakes (18 points) both had career-highs in scoring.
Recap: Stanford MBB dispatches of CSU Fullerton
On Northern Arizona: The Lumberjacks have a couple of dominating wins over Park-Gilbert and Nelson, two NAIA schools in Arizona. For some reason, the Lumberjacks are counting those as real games but one of the two schools labeled it as an exhibition. For all intents and purposes, this is the first real game of the season for the Lumberjacks after getting a couple of warmup games in.
The Lumberjacks’ top two scorers so far are senior guard Trent McLaughlin (28.5 points & 5.0 rebounds) and redshirt junior forward Carson Towt (16.0 points & 12.5 rebounds). Both guys have been playing really well through these two games. And then redshirt junior forward Diego Campisano, junior guard Oakland Fort, sophomore forward Jack Wistrcill, and junior guard Ryan Abelman are all averaging 9.5 points per game.
Also on the roster is former Cal swingman Monty Bowser, who graduated from Cal with a degree in sociology before hitting the transfer portal. Bowser is averaging just 4.0 points per game and was arguably the biggest recruit that Cal landed during the Mark Fox era. Just to give you a sense of what their recruiting was like during that time.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is get off to a solid start offensively. Against Cal State Fullerton, they got off to a rocky start before finally settling in offensively. If Stanford can get shots to fall early and maintain a good offensive flow from the jump, they’ll be in a good spot. Obviously a big part of that will be getting senior big man Maxime Raynaud going inside and also getting Benny Gealer good looks from the perimeter.
Secondly, Stanford needs to contain McLaughlin. He’s by far and away the best offensive player the Lumberjacks have. If Stanford defends him well, that’s going to make things really tough for the Lumberjacks to make this game interesting. Look for Jaylen Blakes to be up in his grill all night long.
Finally, Stanford needs to take advantage of their superior size and control the glass. Stanford should have at least a +5 rebounding advantage if not more in this game. If Stanford wins the rebound battle decisively, they’ll be fine.
Prediction: I got Stanford winning by a final score of 82-61. They’ve been pretty dominant against these lower mid major opponents so far. I expect that trend to continue.
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