SETTING THE SCENE
Stanford finished non-conference action at 11-2 and opens ACC action at home against Notre Dame on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford is out to a 11-2 start, including wins over Colorado, Minnesota and Saint Louis at neutral sites, marking its best start since 2019-20. Stanford is outscoring its foes by 9.5 points per game this year.
• Stanford won the Acrisure Invitational in Palm Desert with wins over the Gophers and Billikens, with Benny Gealer's buzzer beater on Nov. 28 sending the Cardinal home victorious.
• Ebuka Okorie is tied for third in the country in scoring at 22.8 points per game and third among freshmen. He joins only Duke's Cameron Boozer and BYU's AJ Dybantsa as freshmen nationally north of 22 points per night. Chisom Okpara is averaging 15.4 points per night, which ranks 17th 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. 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. Raynaud, Spencer Jones and Ziaire Williams have each scored 20 or more in the NBA since Dec. 1, including career highs for Jones (28) and Raynaud (25). He is posting 14.3 points and 9.6 rebounds as a starter with Sacramento (eight games).
30, AGAIN
Ebuka Okorie led the Cardinal with 30 points, finishing 9-for-18 from the floor with four 3-pointers and eight free throws in am 88-80 victory over CSUN. Okorie, who broke Stanford’s freshman scoring record with 32 points on Dec. 20 vs. Colorado, is the first Cardinal student-athlete with back-to-back 30-point outings since Landry Fields on Jan. 23 and 28 in 2010. Chisom Okpara tallied his fourth 20-point outing of the campaign, while Benny Gealer finished with 13 points and Ryan Agarwal ended with 10.
IRISH VISIT THE FARM
Stanford and Notre Dame will play basketball's version of the historic rivalry for the fifth time, with Stanford looking for its first win in the series. The Irish's only previous visit to Maples came on Jan. 12, 1993 - a six-point Irish win. Notre Dame won the first ACC meeting, 56-54, in South Bend after the game-winning three with 18 seconds to play.