SETTING THE SCENE
Following a road trip split to Virginia, Stanford opens a three-game homestand with No. 14/15 North Carolina on Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. The contest will air on ACC Network.
THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford is out to a 13-4 start, including wins over Colorado, Minnesota and Saint Louis at neutral sites, marking its best start since 2019-20. Stanford also has ACC wins vs. No. 16/13 Louisville and Virginia Tech.
• Ebuka Okorie ranks eighth in the country in scoring at 22.1 points per game and third among freshmen. He joins only Duke's Cameron Boozer and BYU's AJ Dybantsa as freshmen nationally north of 20 points per night. Chisom Okpara is averaging 13.9 points per night, which ranks 22nd in the ACC.
• The Cardinal earned its first ACC victory, and first ranked win since Dec. 31, 2023, against No. 16/13 Louisville to open 2026. Stanford has won three consecutive ranked battles at Maples Pavilion, and it is set to face a ranked opponent in each of its games at Maples this week, vs. North Carolina and Duke.
• 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.
• 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, Brook Lopez, Spencer Jones and Ziaire Williams have each scored 20 or more in the NBA since Dec. 1. Raynaud is posting 13.2 points and 9.0 rebounds across 14 starts with Sacramento, while Jones is at 8.6 points, shooting 42 percent from 3-point range, in 20 starts with Denver. Williams scores 9.3 per game this year.
CARDIAC CARDINAL
Trailing by 12 points with 2:18 to play, Stanford closed its road win over Virginia Tech on a 14-1 run to leave victorious, 69-68. Ebuka Okorie scored a game-high 31 points - his third game in the last five with at least 30 points - and tied a career-high with six assists in the victory. Donavin Young added a career-high 11 points and Oskar Giltay added eight points and 13 rebounds. Okorie scored or assisted on 40 of Stanford's final 42 points, including making the game-winning triple with 3.3 seconds to play.
CAROLINA ON OUR MIND
Stanford earned its first victory in program history against the Tar Heels a year ago, as Jaylen Blakes splashed the game-winning jumper with 0.9 seconds to play. The 15th matchup in program history, and the second as members of the ACC, the contest is the third between the Cardinal and Tar Heels at Maples Pavilion, previously meeting in 2017 and 1983. The series dates back to the 1967-68 season.
NERDBALL NIGHT
Flex your nerdy side for this exciting matchup, and pick up a free Stanford Men's Basketball puzzle courtesy of Stanford Athletics while supplies last!