SETTING THE SCENE
Stanford men’s basketball posted a successful first season under the leadership of Kyle Smith, winning the program’s most games since 2014-15 (21) and matching a program record for wins on its home court (17). The 2025-26 campaign will mark the program’s second in the Atlantic Coast Conference, after Stanford finished seventh in its maiden season.
THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford’s young roster holds an exciting mix of returning players, transfers and freshmen. Stanford returns two starters and six of the top nine in its rotation while adding in a pair of highly-touted transfers and a strong freshman class.
• Kyle Smith enters his second season as Stanford’s Anne and Tony Joseph Director of Men’s Basketball. The 2024 Pac-12 Coach of the Year led Stanford to 21 wins in its first ACC campaign, the program’s most since 2014-15.
• Smith is also the second head coach in program history to win 20 or more games in his first season, while his seven-win improvement from the previous season matched a program record for a first-year head coach.
• The Cardinal was postseason bound for the first time since 2018, appearing in the NIT. The postseason appearance was the fourth in a row for a Smith-coached program.
• Maxime Raynaud graduated from Stanford after posting one of the top seasons in program history, and the All-American was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in June.
CONTINUITY AT STANFORD
Stanford returns 52 percent of its minutes played from a year ago and 11 of the Cardinal’s players (nine scholarship) are back in 2025-26. The Cardinal is the only program in the ACC with more than 50 percent of its minutes returning, and one of only two with 40 percent or more returning (Notre Dame), while it also brings back 37.4 percent of its scoring, which ranks fourth in the ACC. Stanford joins only Marquette and Houston among power conference programs to bring back nine scholarship student-athletes.