SETTING THE SCENE
The second rivalry meeting of the season, Stanford men's basketball welcomes California to Maples Pavilion on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2, while the radio feed can be found on the GoStanford app, Varsity Network App and Sirius XM channel 392.
THE STARTING FIVE
• The Cardinal is off to a 16-10 start (8-7 ACC), including conference wins over North Carolina, California, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Florida State, Syracuse, NC State and Miami, and quadrant one NET wins over Santa Clara and the Tar Heels. The Cardinal is 13-2 at home this season and 6-1 in ACC play.
• Stanford’s roster holds an exciting mix of returning players, transfers and freshmen, led by the premier center in the country, Maxime Raynaud. The Pac-12 Most Improved Player last season, Raynaud is 14th nationally in scoring at 19.9 points per game and third in rebounding with 11.3 per night. He leads the ACC in scoring and rebounding, and his 20 double-doubles this season pace the nation. No other major conference player has more than 16 (Johni Broome, Auburn).
• Three players are averaging double figures, paced by Raynaud but also including Jaylen Blakes (13.9) and Oziyah Sellers (13.9). Both players are posting career-best numbers by a comfortable margin.
• Blakes has showcased his clutch gene this season with game winning baskets in the closing seconds against both Santa Clara and North Carolina. Blakes made national headlines on Jan. 18 with his last-second winner against the Tar Heels, while his sister, Mikayla, a freshman at Vanderbilt, scored a game-winner of her own less than 24 hours later against Tennessee.
• Kyle Smith joined the Cardinal from Washington State as the reigning Pac-12 Coach of the Year, where he led the Cougars to 25 wins and the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2023-24.
IN A YEAR OF CHANGE, CELEBRATING THE PAST
Stanford will honor its history and welcome back legendary head coach Mike Montgomery on Saturday. Montgomery is the program's all-time winningest head coach, going 393-167 over 18 seasons with 16 postseason appearances (12 NCAA, 4 NIT), four regular season Pac-10 titles, a 2004 Pac-10 Tournament crown, a 1991 NIT Championship and an appearance in the 1998 NCAA Final Four.
BASKETBALL'S BIG GAME
Stanford took two of three meetings in 2023-24 against the Bears, including an overtime victory in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, as well as the ACC opener on Dec. 7, 89-81. Despite trailing in the all-time series, 132-154, Stanford has won seven of the last 11 meetings and is 53-29 since the Mike Montgomery era began on The Farm. Maxime Raynaud has scored 20 or more in each of the last three matchups.
Raynaud and Blakes co-led Stanford to victory on Dec. 7 with 20 points each, while Oziyah Sellers (16), Ryan Agarwal (11) and Chisom Okpara (11) were also in double figures. Efficient offensively, Stanford shot 52.6 percent from the floor for the game. Stanford’s defense at the rim was elite, with 13 blocked shots, marking the most for the Cardinal since blocking a program-record 19 shots on Jan. 25, 2007 against USC.