Before Stanford men’s basketball’s season tips off next week, new head coach Kyle Smith spoke with members of the media about his team and how he’s feeling about the upcoming season.

VIDEO: Stanford MBB head coach Kyle Smith looks ahead to 2024-25 season

Smith said he has a good feel for how to take over a program and likes the way guys have picked things up relative to other stops he’s been at. He praised the intelligence of his players and their willingness. He feels a big part of that comes down to senior big man Maxime Raynaud. Smith said he’s been great at embracing what they are doing and that everyone feeds off that.

On how he’s adjusted implementing his system to the guys, Smith said he treats it like a classroom. They’re big on transparency and feedback with the players. Defending, rebounding, and taking care of the ball are the big three things he tries to emphasize up front. He said that’s the biggest challenge is prioritizing those things and getting guys locked in on that side of things. All about creating an identity. Raynaud has been crucial in them getting that identity established.

On his system of “Nerd Ball”, Smith said it is “quantifying the intangibles.” That’s what it’s all about. All about quantifying winning plays that don’t show up on a normal box score minus non-winning plays divided by possessions. That’s the formula. That’s what they call HPP (Hustle Points Per Possession). He said they give that feedback to guys every day and there’s like 55 stats that they keep track of. He said it’s not as complicated as it sounds. The more winning plays you make, the more you’ll get to see the floor.

Smith said it can be hard to get guys to buy into everything about Nerd Ball and sometimes it can be hard for them to like commit to it in full in terms of dotting every i and crossing every t, but it does give guys a good baseline of what they need to work on and what they are trying to achieve. All about rewarding guys for doing the right things. Smith feels it builds good winning habits.

On Maxime Raynaud, Smith said he’s really a better person than he is a player and he’s a heck of a player. Smith said it really helps having a quality leader in Raynaud as he starts building this program, so that part is big. As far as his skills are concerned, Smith said he’s really good offensively with great footwork around the rim and ability to shoot from deep and make plays. All while being a seven-footer. That’s not easy to find. The main thing they’re working on with him is playing better defense. Smith likes his potential on that end. There’s going to be more on his plate this year and thus more that he’ll be expected to do. He said he’s been “pretty special so far.”

Smith said they’ve logged about 500 possessions this fall, which gives them a good feel for where everyone is at. He likes the fact that that they don’t have any bad players, which makes it tough a bit in terms of some good players needing to maybe not play much, but he likes the depth they have and ability for multiple guys to fill different roles. That’s keeping a good positive team energy.

Defense is a big point of emphasis for Smith. He said in a closed scrimmage, they were really good for the first ten minutes. So it’s just a function of being better defensively for longer stretches of time. Some of it is conditioning, so that’s part of it. He thinks they’re ok conditioning wise, but they’re trying to build that out and have some young guys who need to mature.

Smith said he’s not sure they’ll have any stars outside of Maxime Raynaud, but he likes the amount of good two-way players that they have. Oziyah Sellers is doing a great job of being the kind of two-way player that they are looking for and bringing the kind of intensity that they need in that area. Ryan Agarwal has been one who Smith is pleased in as well. Just in terms of his commitment to being a better defender. Aidan Cammann is another guy as well. Freshman Donavin Young, too. Young has been out for a bit, but he’s looked good. Smith said he reminds him of former Stanford player Josh Huestis. So all around, Smith likes the way guys are buying into the defense side of things.

On Young’s injury, Smith said it’s just some tendinitis. Nothing serious. He should be fine. As for freshman Evan Stinson, Smith said he’s had a foot injury and been out for a while. They’re probably going to redshirt him at this point. That’s something they’ve discussed. He’ll be cleared to resume some action soon, but it’ll be a slow process. He feels bad about it and loves the upside Stinson has. He’s had a great attitude.

On freshman big man Tallis Toure, Smith said he’s looked good. He’s had some days when he’s been the best player in the gym. At least one day. It’s just a matter of him becoming more consistent, but it sounds like he has a lot of upside and exciting physical tools to work with. A guy who has gotten a lot stronger and bigger. He can shoot, has a great frame, block shots, rebound in traffic, etc.

Smith said there’s like seven guys who are competing for the starting five: Oziyah Sellers, Jaylen Blakes, Benny Gealer, Chisom Okpara, Aidan Cammann, Ryan Agarwal, and Maxime Raynaud. Anthony Batson, Deran Seran, and Donavin Young are knocking on the door. He feels like they’ll be fluid with their rotations a bit, but that’s how it’s looking right now. It does sound like Raynaud and Blakes, the two guys who were at ACC media day along with Gealer, are the real anchors of the team.

Takeaways: The first thing I took away from this interview is that Maxime Raynaud is going to be THE guy this year. I already knew that going in, but this interview just underscores it. Raynaud is going to be asked to do a lot for this team and it sounds like Smith is pleased with the way he is stepping up to the plate.

The second thing that stood out to me is it sounds like Smith has a good idea of what his rotation will be. That was a challenge for Jerod Haase at times and so it’s huge that Smith already knows what his top seven is. That’s not say Haase didn’t, but it’s just a fact that was a challenge for him and it sounds like Smith has a better grip on that. At least so far.

Third, the comments about Aidan Cammann were very interesting. I had kinda written him off as like a back of the bench big man, but it sounds like he’s got some promise. I’ll be very interested to see what he does.

Finally, just looking at the big picture, it sounds like Smith is settling into Stanford just fine and that the guys are buying into “Nerd Ball.” They’re embracing the analytics, the commitment to defense, and all that Smith is implementing. Having that kind of buy in is huge as you are taking over a program.

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