SETTING THE SCENE
The Pac-12 Tournament begins on Wednesday in Las Vegas, with 10th-seeded Stanford opening the event against seventh-seeded Utah at 6 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena.
THE OPENING TIP
• The Cardinal is 13-18 (8-12 Pac-12) this year, with eight wins since Jan. 19, starting with a sweep of Oregon State and Oregon at home. Stanford added quadrant one wins over the stretch over Utah and No. 4 Arizona.
• Spencer Jones leads the team with 13.9 points per game, and he has moved into 26th all-time in scoring in Stanford history after becoming the 50th to reach 1,000 career points. Jones paces the program in Pac-12 play with 15.4 points per game, which ranks eighth in the league. He also ranks fourth in threes per game.
• 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 11th 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 9.5 per night, behind Spencer Jones (13.9) and Ingram (10.3).
• Brandon Angel has turned on the jets over the last 10 games, posting 13.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game since Feb. 1. He was one of three players league-wide to meet those benchmarks in the month of February, and the only one to also shoot greater than 50 percent from the floor.
• Stanford split the season series with Utah, with both teams winning on the road. The Cardinal clipped the Utes in Salt Lake City, 78-72, behind 22 points from Spencer Jones and 15 from Michael Jones.
VIVA LAS VEGAS
Stanford will face Utah in the Pac-12 Tournament for just the second time, with the Utes winning the first meeting in the 2015 quarterfinals. The Cardinal reached the quarterfinal round last season, winning at the buzzer over Arizona State in the first round, 71-70, and taking Arizona down to the wire in an 84-80 defeat. The Cardinal hasn't won the Pac-12 Tournament since 2004 (Pac-10 Champions), and has not reached the final since 2008, both of which were played in Los Angeles.