Stanford's Oziyah Sellers has big first game with the Cardinal

Jason Burke | Nov 6, 2024

Feb 1, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans guard Oziyah Sellers (4) drives to the basket against Oregon Ducks guard Kario Oquendo (0) during the first half at Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images / Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The Stanford men's basketball team had a nice showing in their season debut, defeating visiting the University of Denver 85-62 and earning new head coach Kyle Smith his first victory with the Cardinal. One of the big standouts from the contest was Oziyah Sellers, a 6-foot-5 junior transfer from USC that figures to be a big part of the Cardinal gameplan in 2024-25.

Hailing from Hayward, California, Sellers is one of three undergrad transfers this season, joining Derin Saran and Chisom Okpara, with the trio being the first such transfers since 2009 when Andrew Zimmerman made the jump.

Against Denver, Sellers played 32 minutes and led the team in scoring with 24 points on 10-of-15 from the field and 2-of-5 from three. He was also one of five Stanford players with at least two steals in the game, and finished second on the team with seven rebounds, with only Maxime Raynaud's 12 outpacing Sellers. Both Raynaud and Sellers tied for the team lead with a +24 in the game, though Benny Gealer's +22 in 25 minutes was also right in that mix.

With coach Smith's implementation of "nerd ball," those plus-minus figures could be a good metric to keep an eye on for how each player on the roster is performing in the new system. When Stanford Cardinal on SI asked for his definition of "nerd ball," he said that it's basically winning plays minus non-winning plays, though he did add that his calculations were done from some stats that aren't found in the box score. The plus-minus total would appear to be a very rudimentary way of looking at this, however.

As for Sellers, he said that what people should expect to see from him in 2024-25 is that he can shoot the ball. He's also been working on his defense and energy, which will be key for him moving forward. In 2022-23 and 2023-24 with USC he averaged 5.2 and 14.3 minutes per game, and in the first game with Stanford he more than doubled his per game floor time last season.

The 24 points from Sellers is also a new career high, beating his previous high of 18 which he set last season against Colorado. He played 28 minutes in that one, grabbing three rebounds while shooting 7-of-14 from the floor.

This one game against Denver was a nice starting point for Sellers to potentially launch into a name-making season for himself, while also helping to improve the Cardinal men's basketball program, which finished 14-18 last year.

In his first season with Washington State, coach Smith went 16-16, an improvement for the program after an 11-21 campaign the previous season. In his five years with Washington State, Smith never had a losing record. After posting a 23-point win over Denver on Monday, the Cardinal are hoping to keep that trend going in 2024-25.