SETTING THE SCENE
After a comeback victory over Virginia Tech to open the trip, Stanford travels to Charlottesville for an 11:15 a.m. PT (2:15 p.m. ET) tip-off against No. 23/23 Virginia. The action will air on The CW.
THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford is out to a 13-3 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 22.6 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 14.6 points per night, which ranks 19th 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 its next three games, also including Duke and North Carolina at home.
• 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.
ROAD DOGS
Stanford enters the matchup with Virginia at 5-0 away from home this season, going 3-0 in neutral site battles vs. Minnesota and Saint Louis in Palm Desert and Colorado in Phoenix, and 2-0 in true road games, vs. Virginia Tech and San Jose State. The Cardinal is the ACC's only unblemished team away from home.
Stanford will make its fourth trip to Charlottesville in program history, and the first since 2006-07, where it is 2-1 all-time. Stanford holds the all-time series with Virginia, 8-1, including seven straight wins. The Cardinal opened the ACC series a year ago at Maples Pavilion with an 88-65 win, the biggest margin of victory for Stanford between the two programs while the 88 points were the most Virginia had allowed since Dec. 26, 2020 against Gonzaga (98). The Cardinal is looking for its first road sweep (at least two-game trip) since Feb. 20-23, 2020 vs. Washington and Washington State.
THE NET RESULT
Stanford enters the matchup with the Cavaliers at No. 69 in the NET rankings (Jan. 8). The matchup is currently a quadrant one contest, as Virginia slots in at No. 21. 18 of Stanford’s 31 regular season games are currently slated to be in quadrant one or two, including 12 in Q1. Stanford has three quadrant one victories so far, against Saint Louis, Louisville and Virginia Tech, and it is one of three ACC teams that have at least three wins in quadrants one, along with Duke and North Carolina. Only six teams nationally have at least three quadrant one wins with no losses: Stanford, Iowa State, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Michigan and Nebraska.
vs. Quad 1: 3-0 (Wins over Louisville, Saint Louis, Virginia Tech)
vs. Quad 2: 2-1 (Wins over Colorado, Minnesota)
vs. Quad 3: 3-1 (Wins over UT Arlington, Montana State, Portland State)
vs. Quad 4: 5-1 (Wins over Montana, CSUN, Portland, San Jose State, Louisiana)