SETTING THE SCENE
Heading on the road for the first time in ACC action, Stanford men's basketball travels to Virginia Tech on Wednesday, Jan. 7 for a 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET) tip-off on ACC Network.
THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford is out to a 12-3 start, including wins over Colorado, Minnesota and Saint Louis at neutral sites, marking its best start since 2019-20. Stanford earned its first ACC win on Jan. 2 over No. 16/13 Louisville.
• Ebuka Okorie ranks 10th in the country in scoring at 22.0 points per game and third among freshmen. He joins only Duke's Cameron Boozer and BYU's AJ Dybantsa as freshmen nationally north of 20 points per night. Chisom Okpara is averaging 15.3 points per night, which ranks 16th in the ACC.
• The Cardinal earned its first ACC victory, and first ranked win since Dec. 31, 2023, against No. 16/13 Louisville to open 2026. Stanford has won three consecutive ranked battles at Maples Pavilion, and it is set to face a ranked opponent in three of its next four games, including Duke and North Carolina at home.
• Stanford won the Acrisure Invitational in Palm Desert with wins over the Gophers and Billikens, with Benny Gealer's buzzer beater on Nov. 28 sending the Cardinal home victorious.
• 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, Brook Lopez, Spencer Jones and Ziaire Williams have each scored 20 or more in the NBA since Dec. 1. Raynaud is posting 13.2 points and 9.0 rebounds across 14 starts with Sacramento, while Jones is at 8.6 points, shooting 42 percent from 3-point range, in 20 starts with Denver. Williams scores 9.3 per game this year.
CARD > CARDS
Opening the calendar year with a statement on the national level, Stanford earned an 80-76 victory over No. 16/13 Louisville on Jan. 2. Ebuka Okorie led the Cardinal with 28 points, his seventh game with at least 25 this season, while Chisom Okpara stuffed the box score with 17 points and a season-high eight rebounds, while Ryan Agarwal scored 12 points, including a perfect 4-for-4 mark from three. The Cardinal limited Louisville to just 6-for-27 shooting beyond the arc – season-low marks in both categories.
ROAD DOGS
Stanford enters the matchup with Virginia Tech at 4-0 away from home this season, going 3-0 in neutral site battles vs. Minnesota and Saint Louis in Palm Desert and Colorado in Phoenix, and 1-0 in true road games, vs. San Jose State. The Cardinal is the ACC's only unblemished team away from home.
Stanford will make its first trip to Blacksburg in program history, facing Virginia Tech for the fourth time in a series that dates back to a Dec. 29, 1972 matchup in Norfolk, Virginia. The Cardinal won the first meeting in the ACC a year ago, 70-59 on Jan. 8, led by a 19-point, 14-rebound double-double from Maxime Raynaud.