Jayhawks in Sacramento

 Stanford (6-6) vs. No. 14 Kansas (9-2)
Thursday, Dec. 21 • 8:00 p.m. PT
Golden 1 Center • Sacramento, Calif.
Television • ESPN2
Radio • GoStanford.com | TuneIn
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Game Notes • Stanford | Kansas
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STANFORD, CALIF. – Stanford concludes the nonconference portion of its schedule with No. 14/13 Kansas Thursday at 8 p.m. PT at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. The Cardinal enters the contest winners of three of its last four contest following a 71-59 victory over San Francisco Sunday. Thursday's game is part of a doubleheader at the Golden 1 Center that begins with Sacramento State vs. Portland at 5:30 p.m. PT.
 
JAYHAWK GREAT LEADS THE CARDINAL AGAINST KANSAS
For the second time in his two years as Stanford's head coach Jerod Haase will face his alma mater. He starred as a player for Kansas from 1995-97. Haase earned his Bachelor of Science in business administration in 1997 and his Masters in business in 2000. After playing his freshman season at California, Haase transferred to Kansas where he helped lead the Jayhawks to three consecutive conference titles and still ranks 11th in school history in steals (174) and 13th in three-point field goals (156). Haase started 99 of 101 games at Kansas and scored 1,264 points (which now ranks 33rd all-time). Haase was a candidate for the Naismith and Wooden Awards his senior season.
 
As a senior in 1996-97, Haase started alongside Paul Pierce, Jacque Vaughn, Scot Pollard and Raef LaFrentz as Kansas finished 34-2. He averaged 12.0 points per game despite playing with a broken wrist. As a sophomore, Haase averaged 15.0 points and was named the Big Eight Conference Newcomer of the Year and also tabbed a second-team all-conference selection.
 

For the second time in his two years at Stanford, the Kansas great will face his alma mater.#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/3uZNmvSUFI

— Stanford Men's Basketball (@StanfordMBB) December 20, 2017

PAC-12'S LEADING SCORER IS NEWEST MEMBER OF 1,000-POINT CLUB
Junior forward Reid Travis, a preseason All-American and candidate for several player of the year awards, leads the Pac-12 in scoring at 22.2 ppg. He is averaging nearly 25 ppg over his last five games. The forward matched his career-high with 29 points (first recorded against Kansas last season) in Sunday's victory over San Francisco to become the 45th member of Stanford's 1,000-point club. He enters Thursday's game with Kansas with 1,011 points and 540 rebounds in his 75-game career so far. Travis also ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in rebounding (7.3 rpg)

STANFORD HANDED KANSAS ITS LAST REGULAR-SEASON LOSS IN CALIFORNIA
When Stanford and Kansas last met in the state of California, No. 21 Stanford defeated No. 1 Kansas, 64-58, on Dec. 6, 2003. The game was played in Anaheim in front of 17,816 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center). Matt Lottich led all scorers with 18 points as Stanford earned its fourth win against a top-ranked team. Jerod Haase was in his first season on Roy Williams' staff at North Carolina. Kansas has played several regular-season and postseason games in California since, most recently defeating San Diego St. in San Diego on Dec. 22, 2015.  
   
THURSDAY'S GAME PART OF FOUR-GAME SERIES WITH KANSAS
Last year, Stanford and Kansas announced an agreement on a four-game series. The Jayhawks hosted the Cardinal last year in Lawrence and meet Thursday in Sacramento. Stanford returns to Lawrence on Dec. 1, 2018, and hosts the Jayhawks at Maples Pavilion Dec. 29, 2019.

Your newest member of the Stanford 1,000-point club: @reid_travis_22. #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford Men's Basketball (@stanfordmbb) on Dec 17, 2017 at 4:05pm PST

FLOOR BURNS STAT COMES TO THE FARM
During his standout collegiate career at Kansas, Jerod Haase was known for his energy and passion on the court, diving for loose balls and taking charges, whatever he could do to help his team win. During his time with the Jayhawks, the "floor burns" stat was created in his honor and is still tracked by the program. Haase totaled 167 in the 1996-97 season. For the second season, Stanford is tracking floor burns as an official stat throughout the year.

AGAINST KANSAS
Thursday is the 13th all-time meeting between Stanford and Kansas. The Jayhawks lead the all-time series, 9-3, however, the Cardinal has won two of the last three. In the most recent meeting, Kansas defeated Stanford, 89-73, Dec. 3, 2016 at Allen Field House. Prior to that, Stanford defeated Kansas, 60-57, March 23, 2014, in St. Louis to reach the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

AGAINST THE BIG XII
Stanford owns a 14-18 all-time record against current members of the Big XII Conference. The Cardinal has played Kansas (12) the most of any current team in the league. Stanford's last meeting with a Big XII opponent was against the Jayhawks last year in Lawrence, Kansas. The Cardinal last played a Big XII team in the state of California on Dec, 19, 2015, as Stanford dropped a 75-73 decision to Texas at Maples Pavilion.

CARDINAL AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS
Kansas is Stanford's third ranked opponent of the year. The Cardinal is 0-10 vs. ranked foes in the Associated Press poll in the Jerod Haase era. Stanford's last win against a ranked opponent was against No. 11 Oregon (76-72) on Feb. 13, 2016 at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal's last win against a ranked opponent away from Maples Pavilion was against No. 9 Texas (74-71) in Austin on Dec. 23, 2014. It's most recent game vs. a ranked opponent was Thanksgiving Day against No. 7 Florida in Portland, Oregon. The Cardinal also faced No. 9 North Carolina at Maples Pavilion on Nov. 20, 2017. Stanford has six games against current top-25 teams on the schedule, including dates with No. 3 Arizona St. (Jan. 17, March 3) and No. 18 Arizona (Jan. 20, March 1).

Who's the Pac-12 scoring leader, you ask?

Our very own @2ReidTravis2.#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/OmQVY6D49E

— Stanford Men's Basketball (@StanfordMBB) December 20, 2017

JEROD HAASE AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS
Head Coach Jerod Haase owns a 2-18 all-time record against nationally-ranked teams. He played 10 ranked foes as the head coach at UAB, leading the Blazers to a win over No. 9/10 Iowa State (60-59) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on March 19, 2015 in Louisville, and a victory over No. 16/16 North Carolina (63-59) in Birmingham, Alabama, on Dec. 1, 2013.

MOST POWER FIVE OPPONENTS IN FIVE YEARS
Stanford's challenging nonconference schedule includes four opponents from power five conferences. The Cardinal has already faced North Carolina (ACC), Florida (SEC) and Ohio State (Big Ten), and will play Kansas (Big 12) in Sacramento this week. It's the most power five conference opponents in five years, since the Cardinal faced Missouri (SEC), Minnesota (Big Ten), NC State (ACC) and Northwestern (Big Ten) during its 2012 slate. Stanford went 1-3 in those games, defeating Northwestern (70-68) on the road.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Reid Travis scored Stanford's first nine points and matched his career-high with 29 points to go along with eight rebounds in helping Stanford win its third in four games, beating San Francisco 71-59 on Sunday. Travis' first basket of the second half, a layup 33 seconds in, gave him 1,000 points for his career. Josh Sharma added 13 points for the Cardinal and Michael Humphrey had nine points and nine rebounds. Stanford opened the second half with an 11-3 run and a 25-point advantage. San Francisco made one of its first 11 shots of the second half.
 
WIN NO. 100 FOR HAASE
Sunday's victory over San Francisco was head coach Jerod Haase's 100th career coaching victory. He is in his sixth season as a head coach and second with Stanford, following four successful seasons at UAB. The win was Haase's 20th at the helm of the Cardinal.  

ICYMI: @CoachJerodHaase picked up win number ?? last night.#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/TMFcF4HRok

— Stanford Men's Basketball (@StanfordMBB) December 18, 2017

THREE-POINT PROWESS
After averaging 5.9 three-pointers per game through its first 10 games, Stanford nearly set a school single-game record with 13 three-pointers in the Dec. 15 win over Denver. The school record for three-pointers in a game is 15. The Cardinal had averaged 17.1 three-point attempts per game in its first 10 games, before attempting 50 over its last two contests, including 32 in last Friday's game. Leading Stanford from beyond the arc is freshman Isaac White, who has 28 three-pointers on the year, including nine in his last three games. He ranks ninth in the Pac-12 in three-pointers per game.

THE GOLDEN STATE TOUR
Stanford is in the middle of a stretch of eight consecutive games played in the state of California. It began with a Nov. 29 matchup with Montana at home, followed by a visit to Long Beach State Dec. 3 and home games with Denver and San Francisco at Maples Pavilion. It continues Thursday in Sacramento against Kansas, before California, UCLA and USC visit The Farm to open conference play. Stanford will not leave the State of California for a span of 45 days. The Cardinal will play its first conference road game Jan. 11 at Washington State in Pullman, Wash.

POST PRESENCE
Stanford's starting post players, Reid Travis and Michael Humphrey, have combined to average 33.1 points and 16.0 rebounds per game. The duo leads the conference among starting post players in combined scoring and is third in combined rebounding. Travis leads the Pac-12 in scoring at 22.2 ppg and is 11th in rebounding at 7.3 rpg through Monday's games. The junior leads the Pac-12 with 10, 20-point games in 12 contests this season. Humphrey is nearly averaging a double-double with 10.9 ppg and 8.7 rpg. His rebounding average is fourth-best in the Pac-12 through Monday's games. 

Pac-12's Post Players in 2017-18

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Stanford's roster has played 602 combined games. The Cardinal entered the season with the fifth-most veteran roster (games played) in the nation. While fourth-year players Reid Travis and Michael Humphrey anchor the post, injuries have limited several veteran perimeter players. This has given one of the nation's top recruiting classes a chance to play important minutes as freshmen this season. Stanford has started three freshmen - Daejon Davis, Oscar da Silva and Isaac White - together in six games this season. All three average more than 27 minutes per game. Davis leads the Cardinal in assists (4.6 apg), White leads all freshmen in the Pac-12 in three-pointers (28) and da Silva ranks third on the roster in rebounding (5.7 rpg), second in blocks (12) and third in steals (10).
 
Prior to this season, Stanford last started three freshmen on January 27, 1983 (at Washington) with Keith Ramee, Andy Fischer and Earl Koberlein earned the starting nod in that contest.
 FRESHMAN PRODUCTION

Next-man-up mentality. #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford Men's Basketball (@stanfordmbb) on Dec 7, 2017 at 2:29pm PST

 

R2T2
Junior preseason All-American Reid Travis is living up to his preseason accolades. The forward, who entered the year as the Pac-12's leading returning scorer and rebounder, ranks 16th nationally in points per game, seventh nationally in free throw attempts and 10th nationally in free throws made as of Tuesday. He ranks in the top-11 in the Pac-12 in nine categories as of Tuesday. 
 

  
DAVIS TAKING CONTROL OF THE POINT
Freshman Daejon Davis has started all 10 career games he has played in. After averaging 7.0 ppg in his first five games, he is averaging 12.4 points in his last five contests. In a two-game span against Montana and Denver, Davis totaled 37 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
  
HUMPHREY CONTROLLING THE GLASS
Michael Humphrey, who was among the Pac-12 leaders in rebounding last season, ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in rebounding this season with an average of 8.7 rpg. He posted a career-high 18 rebounds against Pacific on Nov. 12. The senior, who is averaging 10.9 ppg, has three double-doubles this year.
 
CARTWRIGHT WITH CAREER-BEST NUMBERS
After averaging 4.1 ppg over the first two seasons (67 games) of his career, junior Robert Cartwright is averaging 8.7 ppg in 12 games this season. He had a season-high 19 points against Portland State four games ago. He ranks fifth in the Pac-12 in assist/turnover ratio (2.5). Cartwright has started each of the last four games after coming off the bench the previous seven contests.

THE FOURTH-YEAR CLASS
The four members of Stanford's fourth-year class - Reid Travis, Dorian Pickens, Michael Humphrey and Robert Cartwright - accounted for 62.6 percent of the team's scoring and 55.4 percent of the team's rebounding last season. Pickens and Humphrey are true seniors, while Travis and Cartwright have each had their medical hardship waivers granted and are redshirt juniors with another year of eligibility remaining after this season. Cartwright missed the entire 2015-16 season with a compound fracture of his right forearm sustained in preseason practice on Nov. 2, 2015. Travis was forced to miss the final 22 games of the 2015-16 season with a right leg injury.
 
PETER SAUER CAPTAINSHIP
Head coach Jerod Haase announced the establishment of the Peter Sauer Captainship in September, naming Reid Travis, Dorian Pickens and Michael Humphrey captains. The three will wear patches on their uniforms honoring the legacy of the late Peter Sauer, a team captain and leader of Stanford's 1998 Final Four team. Stanford will celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the 1998 Final Four team during the regular-season home finale against Washington State on Feb. 24, 2018.