On Friday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Green Bay 85-40 on The Farm. Stanford freshman Ryan Agarwal led the way for the Cardinal with 11 points on 4-6 shooting from the field and 3-5 shooting from 3-point range while sophomore guard Jarvis Moss, junior forward Brandon Angel, and senior forward Spencer Jones each scored 10 points. Green Bay guard Randy Tucker and Green Bay forward Cade Meyer each scored 10 points for the Phoenix. Stanford improves to 4-6 overall (0-2 in Pac-12) while Green Bay falls to 2-10 overall (1-1 in Horizon League).
“I was pleased overall with our schedule and finals schedule, our break during this time is much more significant than I think anywhere else or at least most schools and with a big layoff like that you always have a level of concern and you’re not so sure how the guys will react,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “And I thought the attention to detail was pretty good. I thought we had some good, spirited practices, tried to address some specific things to try improve upon and again I thought in general the attention to detail was pretty good and I thought there were some positives we can take from the game.”
Stanford led wire-to-wire as they took an early 4-0 lead with 18:38 to go in the first half and never looked back. Brandon Angel got on the board first with a turnaround jumper after which Spencer Jones followed up with a jumper of his own. Tucker would hit a 3-pointer to make it a 4-3 game, but Angel would get a bucket inside off a Green Bay turnover to make it a 6-3 lead with 16:55 to go in the half.
With 11:06 to go in the half, it would be a 19-3 lead for Stanford as they were currently on a 15-0 run. Agarwal was pacing the Cardinal with 5 points on 2-2 shooting from the field and 1-1 shooting from 3-point range. Stanford was shooting 8-12 from the field and 2-4 from 3-point range while Green Bay was shooting an abysmal 1-9 from the field.
“Yeah, I would say it was more defensively than the offensive end,” Haase said of the key to their strong start. “We did some good things offensively when we got shots. We started the game and just had some careless, silly turnovers. But on the defensive end I thought we executed the game plan in what we were trying to do. Trying to have good ball pressure, trying to eliminate driving lanes, but I think start of the game I thought the attention to detail on the defensive end was good.”
Stanford would continue to build their lead, going up 25-9 with 7:50 to go in the half. Angel was up to 6 points on 3-4 shooting from the field while Stanford as a team was shooting 11-17 (64.7%). Green Bay was shooting 2-13 (15.4%), not getting anything to fall.
Stanford would lead 32-15 with 4:00 to go in the half. Spencer Jones was now coming alive with 9 points for the Cardinal while freshman preferred walk-on point guard Benny Gealer made his Cardinal debut, making a 3-pointer.
“Yeah, Benny was really a spark,” Haase said. “He has a pace to his game, a confidence in his ability, obviously can shoot the basketball, don’t expect a finished product right now, but I expect him to go out and play with a reckless abandon and play with confidence and I think he has. And I thought we saw that today. And it was a starting point. I don’t know what tomorrow brings with kind of all the point guards right now. We have four different guys that are playing the point guard position with Michael and Isa, and Benny and Harrison even some. So, we’re going to continue to massage that position, figure out what’s going to be the most effective, and put ourselves in a situation, the best situation we can.”
Stanford would lead 42-19 at halftime. Spencer Jones was up to 10 points while Angel had 8 points. Stanford was dominating Green Bay as they should.
“Yeah, we definitely expected to come out and really kind of punch them in the mouth,” Jones said. “Just because with our little losing streak coming in, we had to try to turn things around. So to come out, start a game like we needed to, it was a big push for us coming forward and moving onto Texas and other bigger teams.”
Stanford would lead 49-23 with 15:58 to go. Agarwal was up to 8 points for the Cardinal on 3-4 shooting from the field and 2-3 shooting from 3-point range. All things were continuing to go Stanford’s way.
With 11:39 to go, Stanford led 59-26. Agarwal was up to 11 points on 4-5 shooting from the field and 3-4 shooting from 3-point range. He was in a nice rhythm. Stanford was shooting 6-18 (33.3%) from 3-point range. Ideally, their percentage would be a bit higher but they were still knocking down some threes at a decent rate.
With 7:57 to go, Stanford led 65-28. All things were going Stanford’s way despite their 12 assists and 13 turnovers. They weren’t playing a clean game from that standpoint. Michael O’Connell was up to 6 points for the Cardinal after a nice layup.
Stanford would continue to lead 75-36 with 3:24 to go. Angel was up to 10 points. James Keefe just completed a nice hoop plus the harm as he was up to 8 points on 2-3 shooting from the field and 4-4 shooting from the foul line. It wasn’t the cleanest game for Stanford, but they were shooting above 50.0% from the field and above 80% from the foul line.
“Well, yeah, this type of game is where you see the chemistry we kinda have,” Jones said. "Everybody standing up when one of these guys or any of these guys or anybody knocks down a three. Everybody’s celebrating. It’s a big, it’s just an example of the culture we have and the type of fun we have with each and every guy.”
In the end, Stanford walked out with an 85-40 victory. All in all, this went according to script. Stanford won by a bunch, got everyone involved, and didn’t stub their toe. Also, they got some guys going who they want to get going in guys such as Agarwal, Moss, and even Gealer.
“Yeah and you see both of them are big-time shooters,” Haase said of Agarwal and Moss. “They’ve both been practicing hard, have good attitudes, we’re gonna continue to give opportunities in practice and give opportunities in games as well, but it always is a positive step when they perform. When the lights are on, I believe in both of them and the reality, too is we have some other good players as well and so just trying to figure out what is the right mixture of playing time and I think that’ll adjust game by game, but to your point, I thought they both played very well and I have a lot of confidence in them.”
“Yeah, I mean at the end of the day, like me including all the other guys, we just put a lot of work in outside of a game that you, like a lot of people don’t see,” Agarwal added. “And so at the end of the day it’s just confidence. We just trust in the work that we see. So, when any of us get one of those looks we’re just shooting it with confidence. So for me, it was just the same thing. The teammates trust in me, which is giving me the ability to have confidence in myself as well and when a lot of guys are playing well, too it makes it easier for me to get in a rhythm, too. So, it just opened up a lot of things to me with my teammates playing well, too. So, it went down.”
“I think just working with the coaches and also my teammates,” Moss said of his development. “Just working on game situations, game shots, always being ready, because you never know when your number is called. So, always just staying ready and once you get in the game, make something happen. Make an impact.”
Up next for Stanford will be a game against #7 Texas on Sunday. That will be in Dallas, a homecoming of sorts for Harrison Ingram and Ryan Agarwal. Tipoff will be at 10:00 AM PT on ESPN2.
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