On Sunday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Utah at home by a final score 79-73. Stanford center Maxime Raynaud led the way for the Cardinal with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks while forward Brandon Angel (16 points & 7 rebounds), guard Michael Jones (15 points & 4 assists), and guard Kanaan Carlyle (12 points) also scored in double figures. Utah center Branden Carlson (16 points & 6 rebounds), guard Deivon Smith (16 points, 10 rebounds, & 11 assists), and guard Gabe Madsen (14 points & 5 rebounds) were the top performers for the Runnin’ Utes.
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference | Utah
BOX SCORE: Utah at Stanford-Sunday, January 14th
“Yeah, it was a hard fought game both ways,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “Utah is an excellent team. Both record-wise and just the pieces of their team and how they play. They have exceptional bigs and they have some shooting on the perimeter and no point guard has a triple double, so that’s the making of a challenge for us defensively. I thought our effort, energy, and activity on the defensive end; especially the first half, but both halves I thought was pretty darn good.
“When the lead was cut in the second half, the stability and maturity of the guys was awesome. Made the free throws that we needed to down the stretch. Offensively, the numbers weren’t exceptional in terms of shooting percentages, but the efficiency was pretty good. 17 and five assist-to-turnover ratio was obviously off the charts. And I thought we really competed. It was a group of guys that I really love coaching and I really want to see them have success. So tonight was a fun one.”
Utah led 12-10 with 14:43 to go in the first half. It was tight as both teams were going back and forth. Raynaud was already up to five points for the Cardinal, doing a good job of establishing himself.
With 11:50 to go in the half, Utah led 14-13. Stanford had a nice play where they got enough offensive rebounds to find Michael Jones for a wide open three-pointer. He was now on the board.
With 7:38 to go in the half, Stanford 22-21. Carlyle was up to five points while Raynaud had six points and four rebounds. Carlson had five points for Utah. Stanford was winning the rebound battle 12-11.
Utah would then push ahead to lead 29-27 with 3:57 to go in the half. Carlson was up to seven points and two rebounds for Utah while Raynaud was up to eight points and five rebounds for Stanford. Carlyle was making a real impact for the Cardinal on both ends with his energy. He was up to six points. He had a nice deflection that led to a put back dunk that was taken off the board due to basket interference.
With 24.5 to go in the half, Utah led 32-31. Stanford had the ball and called for time. Out of the time out, Carlyle found Raynaud for the hoop plus the harm off a nice pick and roll. Raynaud converted the foul shot. It was a nice way for the Cardinal to close the half as they led 34-32 at halftime. Raynaud was up to 12 points and five rebounds for Stanford while Carlyle and Angel each had nine points. Carlson was leading Utah with nine points.
“Maybe one of the things he does best is pass the basketball after he gets into the paint,” Haase said of Carlyle. “And we want to be able to lean on that especially when he’s at the point guard position, but he has a lot of value and is doing a great job with that.”
With 14:58 to go, Stanford led 44-39. Raynaud was making his presence felt with 17 points, six rebounds, and two blocks. He was balling out.
“I think just trying to be as dominant as possible,” Raynaud said of his mindset. “Especially on the defensive end first. Most of our game plan is based on how we’re gonna defend and how we’re gonna take care of Branden Carlson, who is of the best big men in the Pac, so I was really just focusing on that and then eventually that led to some open shot on offense and my teammates got me some good looks. So, I was just out there finishing the plays. But yeah, it was mostly defense first and then everything else is just extra, I would say.”
“He’s getting better and better and better on a nearly a daily basis,” Haase said of Raynaud. “And the fun part is I’m looking at him thinking that he has a variety of ways where his upside is still way up there. So, I’m excited every day to go coach him. His attitude is just fantastic. Works exceptionally hard, but he has improved a lot.”
With 11:54 to go, Stanford led 50-43. Both teams had 28 rebounds each. Stanford was doing a much better job on the glass especially on defense. Andrej Stojakovic was starting to get going a bit with four points after making a 3-pointer. Soon, Stojakovic would be up to nine points on 2-2 shooting from deep. It was a 55-43 lead for Stanford with 10:45 to go.
“Yeah, Andrej’s three, we were up five, I think it was four seconds on the shot clock, ball is in the dead corner and we called a play for him to come off and hit a three that put it up to eight points, which I thought was another momentum play for us,” Haase said of Stojakovic. “He’s a young man with a great deal of confidence and he should have a lot of confidence and we have a lot of confidence in him. We’re gonna keep putting the ball in his hands to make big shots and believe it’s gonna happen.”
With 7:25 to go, Stanford led 58-48. After being out for a bit due to an injury, Carlyle had checked back in and now was up to 10 points after making his first 3-pointer of the afternoon.
Utah then came back into the game as it was a 62-60 lead for Stanford with 3:49 to go. Carlyle had fouled out, so Stanford was going to have to navigate the rest of the game without him. He was a little too aggressive at times, but his energy on the whole was fantastic. Raynaud’s 17 points and nine rebounds led the Cardinal while Carlson’s 14 points and six rebounds led Utah.
“Yeah, that’s a dynamic situation because I absolutely do not want to kinda put him in a box of hey run this play, go to this spot, defensively do exactly this because some of the best things he does is have great instincts,” Haase said of managing Carlyle’s energy. “Have great aggression, play loose, and play free. We want those things to be the case. Now I as a coach and with him, I want to be able to give him some guard rails to kinda make sure that he’s playing his best, but I do not want to take his passion and aggressiveness. Those are things that we want and we need on this team.”
Stanford led 68-65 with 2:22 to go. Raynaud was up to 20 points for the Cardinal while Angel had 15 points after making a triple. Madsen was up to 16 points for the Utes after making a triple of his own.
From there, Stanford would fend Utah off to win 79-73. Foul shooting was crucial as Michael Jones went 4-4 for down the stretch. Rather than leaving the door open for Utah to pull off a miracle, Stanford did what was needed to close it behind them and secure the win.
“Never lost confidence this year,” Jones said. “This year I’ve not shot really well from the line but hoping to improve on that. I’ve been in the gym with David Berkun making fifty a day. Just keeping up on the shot and trusting this process. So, it was fun to see them go in today and hopefully keep doing that in the future.”
For Stanford, this is an excellent win. Utah came with a strong record having defeated some quality teams. To win the way they did and finish strong in crunch time has to feel good for them. It feels like earlier Stanford teams would have found a way to blow this game, but in this one Stanford showed some growth by putting the Utes away. It’s a quadrant one win according to the NET rankings.
“Yeah, I’d love to give you an answer that I know is the right one and it’s hard because we’ve had some close games that we didn’t finish out and I don’t know that we have some magical change coaching or playing,” Haase admitted when asked about his team’s key to winning a couple close games as of late. “But the guys I think had a great deal of maturity. We continue to harp on the same things. I told the guys one thing is if we want good things to happen we have to earn it.
“And the other kinda message is we don’t need to be surprised if something good happens. We should actually expect good things to happen. And then with that just go earn it. But we shouldn’t look and expect bad things to happen. We should expect good things to happen because of our preparation and our work during the game.”
“Yeah, for the most part, just a great growth in our team,” Jones said of their ability to win a couple close games in a row. “Guys get more experience and we feel like we’re at spot where we know what to do down the stretch. We’re not gonna shy away from the moment. Not that we were doing that early, but just being able to execute and make simple plays down the stretch and fall back on your highest level of training and we’ve been able to do that and have success the last couple of games.”
As for Utah, this is a disappointing loss, but one they shouldn’t lose sleep over. Stanford is a solid team and playing a lot better with Carlyle now in the lineup. They’ll face Stanford again at the end of February with a chance to get even in Salt Lake City. They can use this loss as extra motivation for that game.
“Well, I think for the main part, I mean they’re a great team,” Jones said of why facing Utah has been such a battle the past couple of years. “And that really, it’s not easy to beat them regardless of where it is. And you know that I think in terms of style of play, they’re one of the teams that plays most similar to us, they like to shoot a lot of threes, the like to punch the ball inside to their dominant big men and so I think it’s a clash you know and they’re a great team. I think we’ll get them again at least one more time this year, so just trying to keep doing all the same things that we’ve been able to do the last couple of times we’ve played them.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Washington State on Thursday. That will tipoff at 8:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
Note: Stanford was without Jared Bynum (lower body injury), Max Murrell (head), and Jaylen Thompson (head). All three are considered day-to-day.
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook & X (Twitter): @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
