A high-powered, multi-threat offense and an aggressive defensive strategy carried Stanford’s men’s basketball to a decisive 85-62 victory over the Denver Pioneers on Monday afternoon.
Over the offseason, Stanford men’s basketball saw significant changes, with former head coach Jerod Haase replaced by Kyle Smith. Smith, who led Washington State to March Madness last season — ending a 16-year drought — now takes the helm at Stanford. The team also recruited nine new players, a combination of transfers and freshmen.
Junior guard Oziyah Sellers, a transfer from USC, commended the team’s Monday performance.
“Going into this I was unsure how it would be, but I trusted in us and we came out with the win,” Sellers said.
Sellers had a breakout performance, scoring a career-high 24 points and making two-thirds of his shots. Junior guard Benny Gealer, graduate student guard Jaylen Blakes, and senior forward Maxime Raynaud all scored in double digits. Gealer provided a spark behind the arc with four three-pointers while Blakes’ defensive performance earned praise from Smith and his teammates.
“We are very fortunate [to have] Jaylen Blakes,” Smith said. “His trait is toughness and his on ball defense.”
Smith had emphasized this aggressive style of defense before the game, and it seemed to pay off.
Stanford’s defense recorded 13 steals and six blocks, with Denver merely tallying four and two respectively.
“We pounded it every day,” Smith said. “Defend, rebound, take care of the ball: we chant it before we go on the floor.”
Raynaud said that Smith told the team “to be dogs on defense.”
“I think we had guys diving on the ball,” Raynaud said, “and that sets the tone for the season.”
Stanford embarked on a 15-2 run near the end of the first half, going into halftime with a 16-point lead. The run was ignited by quick transition points coming off of Denver turnovers on offense.
Oziyah discussed how the team had prepared to counter Denver’s offense.
“They make a lot of threes and we wanted to stop that,” he said. “And it worked.”
The Pioneers converted just three of 17 attempts from beyond the arc, shooting 17.6% on three-pointers. Returning players like Raynaud, who was ranked the Pac-12’s Most Improved Player in 2024, were effusive in their praise for new additions to the team.
“JB’s [defense] makes the game super easy for us,” he said. “Oziyah [made] tons of shots and rebounds as well, it’s really amazing.”
With a dominant performance offensively and defensively, Smith was satisfied with what he saw from the team during the season opener.
“Really pleased for our first home game,” Smith said. “They put some pressure on us but we were able to settle down and play really well.”
The Cardinal will now prepare for another home game on Friday against Cal State Fullerton. Stanford will be looking to hand the Titans their second straight loss to start the season after their opening 79-89 loss to Grand Canyon University.