SETTING THE SCENE
Stanford heads to Florida for Feast Week, participating in the ESPN Events Invitational at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports complex in Orlando. The Cardinal opens the tournament on Thanksgiving against Ole Miss.
THE OPENING TIP
• The Cardinal is 2-2 to open the campaign, including home wins over Pacific (88-78) in the season opener and Cal Poly (80-43) on Nov. 19.
• Through four games, Michael Jones leads the team with 13.8 points per game, while two other players are averaging double-figure scoring: Spencer Jones (11.0) and Maxime Raynaud (10.5).
• Harrison Ingram, who was Stanford’s first Pac-12 Freshman of the Year since Casey Jacobsen in 2000, withdrew his name from the 2022 NBA Draft to return to The Farm for his sophomore campaign. He is averaging 7.3 points and leads the team with 5.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
• The Cardinal returns eight of its top nine rotation players from a year ago, while also bringing in the program’s first transfer in 12 years and the first graduate transfer in program history in Michael Jones (Davidson). Jones had a debut to remember in the season opener, with his 31 points the most by a Stanford player in his team debut on record. The 31 points were a career-high.
• Stanford is 17-9 all-time against the tournament field in Orlando, but has never matched up against Ole Miss or Florida State. The Cardinal boasts six wins over Nebraska and five over Seton Hall.
WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS
Stanford is competing at the ESPN Events Invitational for the second time, having previously gone 2-1 at the event in 2016 with wins over Indiana State and Seton Hall. The Cardinal also played in the Red Lobster Classic in 1990, splitting a pair of games, and beat Florida in a neutral-site meeting in Orlando in 1988. Stanford will play on Thanksgiving Day for the first time since 2018, at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
The Cardinal went 2-0 last year in it’s MTE, with wins over Wyoming and Liberty at the Diamond Head Classic, but is looking for its first tournament title since 2007’s Basketball Traveler’s Classic, held at Maples Pavilion, and its first bracketed event title since going back-to-back with the 2001 Stanford Invitational and the 2000 Puerto Rico Shootout.