SETTING THE SCENE
On a night where Stanford will honor the 25th anniversary of the Final Four squad from 1998, the Cardinal welcomes California on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. The action will be broadcast on ESPNU.
THE OPENING TIP
• The Cardinal is 8-12 (2-7 Pac-12) this year, including home wins over Pacific, Cal Poly, Green Bay, Chicago St., Oregon St. and Oregon and neutral site wins over Florida St. (Orlando) and Loyola Chicago (Santa Cruz).
• Through 20 games, Spencer Jones leads the team with 13.4 points per game, and joined Stanford’s 1,000-point club on Dec. 29 with a 25-point outing against Colorado. Jones paces the program in Pac-12 play with 16.1 points per game, which ranks fourth in the league. He also ranks second in threes per game and sixth in offensive rebounds and in free throw percentage.
• 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 the first Pac-12 Freshman of the Year to return since Jahii Carson (Arizona State) in 2013-14.
• The Cardinal returns eight of its top nine rotation players from a year ago, ranking sixth nationally in minutes continuity, per KenPom, 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 game 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 remain tied for the best single-game mark by a Pac-12 player this season.
• Stanford is coming off of a weekend sweep over Oregon and Oregon State, where the Cardinal allowed just 55.0 points per game and a 36.4 percent mark from the floor while shooting 47.3 percent itself.
THREE WINS IN A ROW
Stanford men's basketball picked up a pair of wins last weekend, downing the Beavers, 67-46, and the Ducks, 71-64. The 46 points allowed matched the lowest in a Pac-12 game under head coach Jerod Haase, matching the total in the win at Oregon State in 2017. Spencer Jones led the effort with 17 points per game while Michael Jones was close behind at 14 per night, including a 62.5 percent clip from 3-point range. The momentum carried into Wednesday's win over Chicago State, with Spencer Jones scoring 21 points, including six threes, while Maxime Raynaud had a double-double with 17 points and 13 boards.
CELEBRATING 1998
Stanford is welcoming back members of its 1997-98 team, which won 30 games for the first time in program history and advanced to the Final Four. Arthur Lee, who led the 1998 team in scoring, will be Stanford's honorary captain. The 1998 team was ranked as high as No. 4 in the country and won 18 consecutive games during the course of the season. The team featured four future NBA players: Jason & Jarron Collins, Mark Madsen and Tim Young.