On Monday, Stanford men’s basketball’s non-conference schedule was released. This will be the first season for the Cardinal with Kyle Smith as head coach.
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The following is the slate of the games the Cardinal will play before ACC play begins with bold being home, italics being neutral site, and no marking being away:
Monday, November 4th vs. Denver
Friday, November 8th vs. Cal State Fullerton
Tuesday, November 12th vs. Northern Arizona
Sunday, November 17th vs. UC Davis
Wednesday, November 20th vs. Norfolk State
Saturday, November 23rd at Santa Clara
Tuesday, November 26th vs. Grand Canyon (Acrisure Holiday Classic in Palm Springs, CA)
Saturday, November 30th vs. Cal Poly
Tuesday, December 3rd vs. Utah Valley University
Tuesday, December 17th vs. Merrimack
Saturday, December 21st vs. Oregon (San Jose Tip-Off in San Jose, CA).
I’ll have more thoughts once the schedule in full comes out, but a few thoughts do come to mind upon looking at this schedule.
First off, the presence of Denver and Utah Valley on the schedule is due to previous Stanford connections to both programs. Denver head coach Jeff Wulbrun was previously at Stanford as an assistant coach and later associate head coach on Jerod Haase’s staff before taking the head coaching job at Denver. As for Utah Valley, current Cal head coach Mark Madsen, who had stellar playing career at Stanford, was the head coach at Utah Valley before taking the Cal job.
The agreement to play Denver was clearly made with the anticipation of it being a reunion for Haase and Wulbrun at Maples Pavilion. As for the agreement to play Utah Valley, I can’t help but think this was made while Madsen was still the head coach of Utah Valley. Him being a Stanford alum wanting to schedule a game against his alma mater would also make sense. But of course now, Madsen returns to Maples Pavilion coaching the California Golden Bears, who joins Stanford in the ACC. It’s a bit funny to see these two games on the schedule knowing that Haase is no longer coaching Stanford and that Madsen is now at Cal, but that’s the world we live in. Change is constant. You never step into the same river twice.
The game at Santa Clara will be a good test for Stanford as Santa Clara is always tough to beat at their place. Not to mention the fact that it’s a bit of a rivalry game. Santa Clara will bring a packed student section to the game I’m sure, which should make for a fun atmosphere. It will also be the same day as Big Game, the football game played between Stanford and Cal. This year the game will be in Berkeley, so there’s no guarantees I’ll be able to make it to Santa Clara. I’m hoping for the start time of the football game to work out such that I can make it to Santa Clara.
The game against Oregon will be a lot of fun as it will be played at the SAP Center in San Jose, home of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. It’s always cool to play in a professional arena. On top of that, this will be a Pac-12 reunion as both Stanford and Oregon are in different conferences. Oregon now competing in the Big Ten. This game should be a good test for Stanford and a great way to close out the non-conference season.
Lastly, this is overall a pretty light schedule. All the home games are cupcake and Stanford won’t leave the state until conference play begins. They should rack up a lot of wins and build some good momentum going before beginning ACC play.
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