SETTING THE SCENE
Stanford leaves the Farm for the first time this season, traveling to Palm Desert for the Acrisure Invitational from Nov. 27-28. Stanford opens against Minnesota on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, at 6:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network, and will face either Santa Clara or Saint Louis on Friday, Nov. 28.
THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford is out to a 4-1 start with a trio of Big Sky wins over Portland State, Montana and Montana State, and a victory over Louisiana, outscoring its opponents by an average of 12.2 points per game.
• Ebuka Okorie ranks sixth in the country in scoring at 23.8 points per game and first among freshmen. Chisom Okpara is averaging 16.0 points per night, which ranks 18th in the ACC.
• The Cardinal 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). 2025-26 marks the program’s second year in the ACC, after Stanford finished seventh in its maiden season.
• Kyle Smith enters his second season on the Farm. 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. He 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.
• Maxime Raynaud graduated from Stanford in 2025 after posting one of the top seasons in program history, and the All-American was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in June.
MEETING WITH MINNESOTA
Stanford is 1-5 all-time against the Golden Gophers, with the one win coming in the championship game of the 2012 Postseason NIT, 75-51, at Madison Square Garden. Stanford is competing on Thanksgiving Day for the third time in the last four seasons, and it looks to win its first game on Thanksgiving since a 2000 win vs. Old Dominion at the Puerto Rico Shootout. Kyle Smith and Niko Medved have only met once on the Hardwood, a Colorado State win over Washington State in 2019.
WELCOME TO FEAST WEEK
Stanford is in Palm Desert for Feast Week for the second consecutive season, after facing Grand Canyon in the Acrisure Holiday Classic a year ago. Stanford is looking for its first MTE trophy since 2007 at the Basketball Travelers Classic, though it went undefeated at the 2021 Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii before the championship game was canceled due to COVID.