What Does Stanford Men's Basketball Need to do to Make NCAA Tournament?

With two games under their belt in ACC play, let's assess what needs to happen in order for the Cardinal to have any chance of earning a March Madness berth.

Dec 21, 2024; San Jose, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach Kyle Smith (right) talks to a referee during the first half against the Oregon Ducks at SAP Center at San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The first game back from the holiday break did not go according to plan for the Stanford Cardinal. Suffering an 85-71 loss to Clemson, the Cardinal dropped their second straight game to fall to 9-4 on the season and 1-1 in the ACC.

With conference play now in full swing, with every game from here on out being against an ACC foe, the time is now for Stanford to prove that it can play just as well as other historic basketball schools such as Duke and North Carolina.

Coming off of a 14-18 campaign in 2023-24 and entering this season with a new head coach, the Cardinal came into their first year as a member of the ACC facing an uphill battle, as many of the teams in the conference have established themselves as strong basketball powerhouses.

But with Stanford head coach Kyle Smith being hired from Washington State after leading them to an NCAA tournament berth for the first time since 2008, expectations within the program started to rise.

Stanford has not made the NCAA tournament since 2014 but the chance to play in a conference as strong as the ACC could come with a higher shot of earning a bid if they are able to reach certain benchmarks.

In more recent years, the ACC has seen five of its teams earn bids to March Madness, with the conference postseason tournament winner earning the automatic bid followed by three at-large bids. Stanford, who was predicted to finish last in the standings in many preseason polls, will need to get to double digit conference wins not only for better seeding in the tournament, but so they can stay near the top half of the conference and shoot for an at-large bid.

In the 2024 tournament, the ACC team with the worst regular season record that qualified for the tournament was Clemson, who earned the No. 6 seed in the West Regional with a 21-11 record. NC State, despite winning the ACC tournament, earned the No. 11 seed in the South Regional with a 22-14 record.

By those numbers, the Cardinal will most likely need to win over 20 games to be considered, with the amount of teams being in the mix much higher in the ACC compared to the Pac-12.

Currently, the Cardinal sit in seventh in the conference after their loss to Clemson, with Duke, Clemson, SMU, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Wake Forest making up the teams ahead of them. The rest of their schedule includes some very daunting contests, such as road games against both Duke and North Carolina and back-to-back matchups at home against Virginia and Virginia Tech.

But they will also face some teams that have also struggled to establish themselves as consistent threats in recent seasons such as SMU, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest and could take advantage of some of those favorable matchups and add on some wins to better help with their tournament pursuit.

This season will provide a very good test of grit for the rebuilding Stanford program but it can also help show what they are truly made of and what type of team they will be in the future as they better understand the ACC landscape and the challenges that come with being a member of the storied conference.