SETTING THE SCENE
Departing Maples Pavilion for the second time this season, and for its first true road contest, Stanford men’s basketball will take on San Jose State on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 4 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.
THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford is out to a 7-2 start with wins over Minnesota, Saint Louis, Portland State, Montana, Montana State, Louisiana and Portland, outscoring its opponents by an average of 9.7 points per game.
• Stanford won the Acrisure Invitational with wins over the Gophers and Billikens, with Benny Gealer’s buzzer beater on Nov. 28 sending Stanford home victorious.
• Ebuka Okorie ranks 14th in the country in scoring at 21.0 points per game and second among freshmen. He joins only Duke’s Cameron Boozer as freshmen nationally north of 20 points per night. Chisom Okpara is averaging 14.7 points per night, which ranks 20th in the ACC.
• The Cardinal posted a successful first season under the leadership of Kyle Smith, winning the program’s most games since 2014-15 (21) and matching a program record for wins on its home court (17). 2025-26 marks the program’s second year in the ACC, after Stanford finished seventh in its maiden season. The Cardinal was postseason bound for the first time since 2018, appearing in the NIT.
• Maxime Raynaud graduated from Stanford in 2025 after posting one of the top seasons in program history, and the All-American was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in June. Raynaud, Spencer Jones and Ziaire Williams have each scored 20 or more in the NBA since Dec. 1, including career highs for Jones (28) and Raynaud (25). Raynaud is averaging 15.6 points per game over his last five outings with Sacramento.
BAY AREA BATTLE
Stanford will square off with the Spartans for the first time since Nov. 15, 2021, when it tallied a 14-point victory at Maples Pavilion, 76-62, and the first time in San Jose since Dec. 14, 2020, when it won by 20, 78-58. San Jose State’s last victory in the series came on Dec. 3, 1992, while the series turns 101 years old this season, dating back to the opening matchup in 1924-25. Stanford has won six consecutive Bay Area clashes, including a 5-0 run against rival California.
SHOOTERS SHOOT
Stanford has made nine or more 3-pointers in each of the last three games, including 14 against Portland (Dec. 1) and 13 against Saint Louis (Nov. 28).
The Cardinal’s 14 against the Pilots gave it at least 13 threes in back-to-back games for the first time since at least 2004, and they were the most since making a program record 19 threes on Feb. 10, 2024 vs. USC. Stanford hit 11 in the first half against Portland, just one shy of the 12 from the USC game in 2024. Stanford has nine or more threes for the first time in three straight games since the postseason run a year ago, from March 12-18.
