Stanford Basketball Ready to Make Statement in New Conference

Stanford basketball's era in the ACC officially begins and with a new head coach at the helm and a new look program, a fresh start will take place.

Oct 9, 2024; Charlotte, NC, USA; Stanford head coach Kyle Smith during ACC Media Days at The Hilton Charlotte Uptown. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

For the first time ever, Stanford basketball took part in ACC media day, beginning a new era as members of the conference after nearly a century in the Pac-12 conference. A new conference is not the only change that Stanford will experience this season as a new coach will lead the charge, with former Washington State coach Kyle Smith getting hired in March.

Smith, in addition to Maxime Reynaud and new transfer Jaylen Blakes, were the representatives for the Cardinal at media day where they were made available for comments in a press conference.

Stanford ready to make statement in new conference

After spending the entirety of their history up to this point in the Pac-12, a new era is upon the Stanford Cardinal as they will enter their first season as members of the ACC. With a new era means new opportunities, and as the Cardinal look to return to glory, they will also hope to seize every chance they get to make their presence known in some unfamiliar territory.

“I think the ACC matches up with what Stanford stands for and that is excellence and athletics,” Smith said. “And I think that gives us a chance. We’re a global institution and I think being able to play in the best basketball conference and compete against the best, you get to measure yourself, and I think it’ll help bring awareness to what Stanford basketball can be. We’ll cover a lot more time zones and as we compete and hopefully do well, it’ll build our brand.”

The slate of opponents in the conference will no doubt be challenging, but getting to face those top teams not only will challenge the Cardinal and force them to grow, but it will also allow them to attract a new set of fans and get more people to notice the change and evolution that is occurring on The Farm.

Improving the defense has been a primary focus this offseason

Last season, the Cardinal struggled to be a force on defense, being ranked as one of the worst defensive teams in the nation after allowing an average of 76.5 opponent points per game. For Smith and his staff, one of the first areas of improvement that they focused on this offseason was improving the defense, bringing in players such as Jaylen Blakes to help elevate that area of play.

“It’s hard to be very good defensively if you can’t stop the ball in transition or at least put some heat and thus far, he’s been tremendous in that area,” Smith said. “I’m excited to see what that looks like, I think that’ll help. So recruiting is usually a big part of it, and then Maxime has really grown in that area. We’ve made a big emphasis since we got there. Everyone knows he can score, and he’s a really good defensive rebounder, but to be able to get him to be more of a rim protector and just kind of plug things up, that’ll be good.

"I got pretty much the same staff from Washington State and that was our strength up there. And when you take over a program, that’s usually the first thing we address is defending. You’ve got to be able to defend every night to give yourself a chance. And we’re kind of going through the same steps and I expect us to make improvements there.”

Even though scoring in basketball is key, defense is just as vital. In a high-scoring conference like the ACC, being efficient on the defensive side of the ball could see games against teams such as Duke and North Carolina go much smoother for the Cardinal.

‘Nerdball’ will be in full effect this season

Since becoming a head coach, Smith has become known for using a philosophy that he calls ‘nerdball,’ which incorporates analytics into decision making. And now that he is at Stanford, fans can expect to see that same style come to The Farm, an example of just one area that will be different within the program this season.

“We give our guys a lot of feedback, a lot of number crunching,” Smith said. “Best way to say [it] is we quantify all the plays in basketball and kind of give these guys information. So again, I think I’m at the right place. In Stanford, they already identified themselves as nerds before I got here so I think it’s a good marriage, but that’s the best way to say it. Almost everything we do, we give them a lot of feedback.”

Working everywhere that he has used it, there is plenty of reason for optimism as the Cardinal approach the start of the season. With Smith bringing in players that fit his vision, there is no reason to believe that it won’t work again at Stanford.

Stanford’s plan for success

Being in a new conference can bring about a lot of unpredictability, but Stanford is staying locked in and focused on bettering themselves, honing in on doing what they can to grow their program and set themselves up for the most success possible.

“We’re gonna have to defend better, rebound better and take care of the ball,” Smith said. “This is my fourth program that I’ve taken over, and that’s kind of always been the mantra so I feel like I’ve got a good blueprint on how to do this thing, and we don’t really set hard goals, it’s daily improvement. I know that sounds silly to some, but that’s kind of what we did at Washington State too and we were able to get better and better to a point where we were a second round [team], and won a game in the NCAA tournament. I feel like Stanford is going to attract even better talent and really smart guys, and I think that we’re just going to build this thing into something by doing those things to where we can be really competitive in this league.”

Once a perennial NCAA tournament team, Smith’s time at Washington State and the success that he had there bodes well for a Stanford team that has been struggling over the last few seasons. While the rebuild is still far from complete, a campaign with a lot of improvement will go a long way towards the future.

The new talent brought in is immense

Wasting no time, Smith came in and immediately brought in some strong new talent, with Blakes coming from Duke, Oziyah Sellers coming from USC, Chisom Okpara coming from Harvard and Darin Saran coming from UC Irvine. With each of them bringing a skillset that the Cardinal have been in dire need of, veteran leader Maxime Reynaud is excited to see how their additions are able to enhance the team.

“I think all of these guys are really good for us,” Reynaud said. “We also have a couple of good freshmen. I think all are really hard workers, most of them have really specific abilities, whether you shoot or defend, big bodies that can drive down the lane. All of them add something very unique to our team which I think adds a lot of diversity, which is what we need. And all of our freshmen have been so committed to the process of getting better, coming in early, getting their work in and embracing the physicality of college which I think is a big deal for freshmen. So yeah, I’m really happy to have all these guys with us now and I’m also really happy that we form a team as a whole.”

Stanford had a lot of holes to fill at the end of last year, and while it may not have filled every void, being able to add who it did shows just how committed the program is to making a loud entrance into the ACC.