Homestand Continues with Montana State – Stanford Cardinal

SETTING THE SCENE
The second week of the faculty basketball season continues at house,  as Stanford males’s basketball hosts Montana State on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. The contest will air on ACC Network Extra.

THE STARTING FIVE
• Stanford is out to a 2-0 begin with a pair of Big Sky wins over Portland State and Montana, and it welcomes its third in a row with Montana State on Wednesday.
• Ebuka Okorie ranks third within the nation in scoring at 27.5 factors per recreation and first amongst freshmen.
• The Cardinal posted a profitable first season underneath the management of Kyle Smith, successful this system’s most video games since 2014-15 (21) and matching a program report for wins on its house court docket (17). The 2025-26 marketing campaign marks this system’s second within the Atlantic Coast Conference, after Stanford completed seventh in its maiden season.
• 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 marketing campaign, this system’s most since 2014-15. He can also be the second head coach in program historical past to win 20 or extra video games in his first season, whereas his seven-win enchancment from the earlier season matched a program report for a first-year head coach. The Cardinal was postseason sure for the primary time since 2018, showing within the NIT. The postseason look was the fourth in a row for a Smith-coached program.
•  Maxime Raynaud graduated from Stanford in 2025 after posting one of many high seasons in program historical past, and the All-American was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in June.

MASTERED MONTANA
Stanford earned a 91-68 victory over visiting Montana on Saturday, Nov. 4, led by a career-high 29 factors, to go along with 4 rebounds and 4 steals, from freshman Ebuka Okorie. Benny Gealer scored 13 factors whereas Aidan Cammann and AJ Rohosy scored 12 factors every – a career-high for Cammann and a Stanford-high for Rohosy, who additionally added a game-high eight rebounds. Stanford pressured 20 turnovers and recorded 14 steals – it’s most since having 14 towards North Carolina on Dec. 1, 2020.

EBUKA EXCELS
Through one week of the season, Ebuka Okorie has dazzled for the Cardinal with averages of 27.5 factors, 5.5 rebounds and three.0 steals per recreation. Okorie ranks third nationally in scoring, and first amongst freshmen and gamers within the ACC. He is joined by Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton and Auburn’s Keyshawn Hall as excessive main gamers with a number of video games of at the very least 25 factors this season,  and he’s the one freshman to perform the feat. He grew to become the primary Stanford freshman with back-to-back 20-point video games since Tyrell Terry from Jan. 11-15, 2020. and he’s additionally the primary Stanford participant with back-to-back 20-point video games to open a season since KZ Okpala in 2018.

Okorie’s 55 factors over the workforce’s first two video games are essentially the most for a Stanford participant since at the very least 2004, becoming a member of solely Okpala (52, 2018) and Chasson Randle (51, 2013) in scoring greater than 50 factors over the stretch. The 26 factors in Okorie’s debut marked essentially the most for a Cardinal true freshman in program historical past towards a Division I opponent – solely Mark Pitchford had extra, coming towards Division II Cal Poly in 1977. He was the primary freshman level guard to start out the season opener since Tyrell Terry in 2019 and simply the third freshman total to start out the opener since 2019, becoming a member of Ziaire Williams (2020) and Harrison Ingram (2021).

FUN WITH SMALL SAMPLE SIZES
In addition to Ebuka Okorie main the ACC In scoring, he joins Benny Gealer within the top-15 within the convention in each free throw share (91.7% and 87.5%, respectively) and steals (3.0 and a couple of.5 per recreation, respectively. Aidan Cammann, is one in all three gamers within the ACC averaging at the very least 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per recreation, becoming a member of Wake Forest’s Tre’Von Spillers and Georgia Tech’s Mouhamed Sylla, whereas Chisom Okpara, who scored a Stanford-high of 21 factors towards Portland State within the opener, ranks tenth within the ACC in offensive rebounds per recreation (3.0).

Five gamers are averaging at the very least 9.5 factors per recreation: Ebuka Okorie (27.5), Chisom Okpara (14.5), Benny Gealer (12.5), AJ Rohosy (10.0) and Jeremy Dent-Smith (9.5). The Cardinal ranks first within the ACC as a workforce in turnovers pressured per recreation at 20.5 and third in steals per recreation with 11.5 and second in turnover margin at 9.5 per night time. Stanford is thirteenth nationally in turnovers pressured per recreation and fifteenth in turnover margin.

Additionally, Stanford acquired its first votes within the AP ballot since week two of the 2020-21 season.