Tonight at 8:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area and Cardinal Sports Network radio, Stanford men’s basketball will take on the San Jose State Spartans of the Mountain West Conference. Stanford comes in at 1-1 overall while San Jose State comes in at 1-0.
Last time out: On Friday night, Stanford lost at Santa Clara by a final score of 88-72. Stanford freshmen Harrison Ingram (19 points & 6 rebounds) and Maxime Raynaud (16 points & 10 rebounds) were the top performers for the Cardinal.
RECAP: Stanford MBB stumbles at Santa Clara
On San Jose State: The Spartans have a new head coach in Tim Miles, who previously was at Nebraska from 2012-2019. As a result, there are a lot of new faces on this Spartans team. In their 78-76 opening night win over Cal State Fullerton, senior guard Trey Smith and redshirt sophomore forward Shon Robinson each scored 14 points while graduate student guard Caleb Simmons, who is in his fifth year with the Spartans, scored 11 points.
In their win over the Titans, the Spartans shot 45.9% from the field, 50.0% from 3-point range on 28 attempts, and 66.7% from the foul line. They out-rebounded the Titans by +3, finished with 18 assists, 4 steals, 5 blocks, and 13 turnovers. The Titans shot 52.9% from the field, 33.3% from 3-point range, and 85.7% from the foul line on 21 attempts.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is defend the perimeter. San Jose State showed that they can shoot the ball in their opening win and if Stanford doesn’t do a good job defending them on the perimeter, the Spartans could hang around thanks to the 3-ball. As an extension of that, Stanford needs to make sure they’re knocking down some threes as well. Stanford is shooting an abysmal 28.3% from deep while allowing their opponents to shoot 38.0%. Stanford needs to reverse that trend tonight. This could be a good game to give freshman shooting guard Jarvis Moss a bit of a run.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is get some shots to fall early and establish a nice flow out of the gates. What got them in trouble at Santa Clara and vs. Tarleton State was a slow start offensively. In the second half of both games, they were fine, but at Santa Clara it was too little too late. They need to make sure they get off to a sound start and don’t get down early. Otherwise, that’ll give San Jose State confidence that they could pull off the upset.
Lastly, Harrison Ingram and Maxime Raynaud need help. Those two guys have been the best two players on this Stanford team so far this year with freshman guard Isa Silva starting to come into his own as well. Where the help needs to come from is from the older guys. Jaiden Delaire, Spencer Jones, Michael O’Connell, and Lukas Kisunas have to produce more and take the pressure off the freshmen.
Prediction: Given that Stanford is at home and also the fact that they are on paper, the better team, I do expect them to win. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first half is a little dicey before they pull away in the second half. Stanford 74 San Jose State 61 is how I see this playing out with big performances from Ingram and Raynaud plus a little more help from their friends.
