SETTING THE SCENE
Taking on the nation's No. 4 team for the second consecutive game, Stanford men's basketball travels to Los Angeles for an 8 p.m. clash on Thursday, Feb. 16 with UCLA. The action will air on ESPN2.
THE OPENING TIP
• The Cardinal is 11-14 (5-9 Pac-12) this year, including wins in six of the last eight games, and five consecutive wins from Jan. 19-Feb. 2. Stanford beat No. 4/4 Arizona in its last outing on Feb. 11, 88-79.
• Through 25 games, Spencer Jones leads the team with 13.7 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 15.6 points per game, which ranks sixth in the league. He also ranks third in threes per game, sixth in 3-point percentage and seventh in offensive rebounds.
• 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.
• Stanford ranks 10th 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 is one of five players league-wide to score at least 31 in a game this season and ranks third on the team in scoring at 9.4 per night, behind Spencer Jones and Ingram.
• Stanford enters the road trip in the midst of its best basketball of the season, winning six of the last eight. Over the stretch the Cardinal has outscored its opponents by nearly seven points per game while limiting foes to 40.4 percent shooting from the floor. The Cardinal offense is shooting 47.0 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from 3-point range, and it has picked up quadrant one wins over Arizona and Utah.
ARIZONA DOWNED
The Cardinal raced to an 88-79 win over No. 4 Arizona on Saturday. Michael O'Connell scored a team-high and career-high 22 points, helping the Cardinal outshoot the Wildcats 61% to 46% from the field. Spencer Jones scored all 18 of his points in the second half, while Harrison Ingram added 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Five Stanford players ended in double figures, with Brandon Angel (14) and Maxime Raynaud (13) joining the fun. The win was Stanford's third over Arizona in the last six meetings.