Stanford Hits the Road for Wake Forest – Stanford Cardinal

SETTING THE SCENE
Stanford returns to the road for the second swing to the East Coast in ACC play, starting with a Wednesday, Jan. 15 battle at Wake Forest. The 3:30 p.m. PT tip will air on ESPNEWS.

THE STARTING FIVE
• The Cardinal is off to a 11-5 start (2-2 ACC), including conference wins over California, Virginia Tech and Virginia, and a quadrant one NET win over Santa Clara. The Cardinal is 9-1 at home this season.
• Stanford’s roster holds an exciting mix of returning players, transfers and freshmen, led by one of the premier centers in the country, Maxime Raynaud. The Pac-12 Most Improved Player last season, Raynaud is ninth nationally in scoring at 20.9 points per game and fourth in rebounding with 11.5 per night. He leads the ACC in scoring and rebounding, and his 13 double-doubles this season pace the nation. No other player in the country has more than 11 and no other ACC player has more than seven.
• Three players are averaging double figures, paced by Raynaud but also including Jaylen Blakes (14.5) and Oziyah Sellers (14.2). Both players are posting career-best numbers by a comfortable margin.
• Stanford opened ACC action with an 89-81 victory Dec. 7 on the road over California. The triumph was the first for Stanford at Haas since 2021 and its third straight overall in the series. Stanford added to the conference tally with a home sweep of Virginia Tech and Virginia from Jan. 8-11.
• Kyle Smith joined the Cardinal from Washington State as the reigning Pac-12 Coach of the Year, where he led the Cougars to 25 wins and the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2023-24. Smith brought his entire staff from Washington State to the Farm along with program icon Eric Reveno, who was at Oregon State from 2022-24 and was previously on the Cardinal bench from 1997-2006.

TREE MEETS FOREST
The meeting with Wake Forest will be the second in program history, with Stanford holding a 1-0 record in the series after a six-point win in the 1997 NCAA Tournament, a six-over-three upset in the round of 32. Brevin Knight led the Cardinal in that game with 19 points, five assists and four steals, overcoming an 18-point, 20-rebound performance from Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan.

EXCELLENT COMPANY
Raynaud is putting up historic numbers not just at Stanford, but in the ACC. He would join a select group of players to win both the league’s scoring and rebounding titles, which has only been done 13 previous times in ACC history – nine of those players won ACC Player of…