[GK3]

Stanford returns to action after a break for final exams.  Hopefully this will be a "shake off the rust" game against a smaller, less athletic team heading into Saturday's game vs. #10 Oregon.  But I also figured the Cal Poly game was a "shake off the first loss vs. GCU" game against a smaller, less athletic team.

Stanford is favored by 13-1/2 over the Warriors from the Metro Atlantic Athletic League.  Merrimack is 6-5 against a schedule considerably stronger than what Stanford has faced.  They are led by #0 Adam "Budd" Clark, a 5'10"/155 lb soph guard, leading the team in scoring (19.7 ppg) & assists (5.2/game).  Clark was the MAAC Rookie of the Year last season and he has been the MAAC Player of the Week twice already this year.  He is currently one of 50 players on the watch list for the Lou Henson award to be presented to the top mid-major level basketball player in the nation.

The Warriors have had the same starting line-up in all 11 games.  Besides Clark, they start: two 6'4" guards - #3 Matt Becht (7.5ppg) & #5 Devon Savage (9.6 ppg and their most prolific 3pt shooter at 26-80); and two 6'7"/215 forwards - #11 Bryan Etumnu (5.9ppg & 5.0rpg) and #40 Sean Trumper (9.5ppg & 5.8rpg).

FWIW, Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology includes Merrimack as a 16 seed automatic qualifier as MAAC champ.  Also in as AQs are Grand Canyon as a 12 seed and Norfolk State as a 15 seed.  It also has Oregon as a 3 seed.  The ACC  has only 4 teams in (Duke as a 2, Clemson 6, Pitt 7, & UNC 9, with SMU as the 5th team out).  This trails the SEC (13 teams), Big 10 (10), Big 12 (8), & Big East (5).  
 
Another FWIW - I ran across a Syracuse fan site (https://www.nunesmagician.com/2024/12/16...cer-league) with an ACC MBB power rating.  It currently has Stanford ranked 8th behind Duke, Clemson, Pitt, SMU, UNC, Wake, & NC St.  The comment for Stanford is "Maxime Raynaud will be first team All-ACC ... and no we're not talking about men's soccer."  It also has Cal at #15 with the comment "Lost to Cornell so you can't be ranked much higher than this right now."

We have lost our game to a very seak opponent.  My guess is we win by double figures.  No matter how good their guard is, my guess Blakes makes his life miserable.  We have a brobdingnagian size advantage and we should score inside at will.  But there is the issue is that you  do have to play the game.  We shall see.
Another questions about the upcoming season is why are we playing all ACC home games at 8pm except Cal and then playing our road games in the ACC at much more reasonable times.  The East Coast ACC fans are going to have to stay up until 11 PM just to start the watch of the games out here.  Why play our week night games at 8 PM/  I just do not see the sense of it.
What are our travel plans?  Travel seems really difficult.  Play at 6 PM mid week on the East Coast, then again on Saturday.  So we fly Monday and back Sunday.  How much practice can we fit into that mess?  Frankly, if I were an ACC team I would be very unhappy with my mid week West Coast game being on TV at 11 PM at night. For us the mid week ACC road games are on line at a much better time.  Really bad news is that most of our tough league games are on the road.
One last comment.  If we can once again develop a strong basketball program, in the long haul the ACC and Stanford can benefit.

[GK3]

Stanford returns to action after a break for final exams.  Hopefully this will be a "shake off the rust" game against a smaller, less athletic team heading into Saturday's game vs. #10 Oregon.  But I also figured the Cal Poly game was a "shake off the first loss vs. GCU" game against a smaller, less athletic team.

Stanford is favored by 13-1/2 over the Warriors from the Metro Atlantic Athletic League.  Merrimack is 6-5 against a schedule considerably stronger than what Stanford has faced.  They are led by #0 Adam "Budd" Clark, a 5'10"/155 lb soph guard, leading the team in scoring (19.7 ppg) & assists (5.2/game).  Clark was the MAAC Rookie of the Year last season and he has been the MAAC Player of the Week twice already this year.  He is currently one of 50 players on the watch list for the Lou Henson award to be presented to the top mid-major level basketball player in the nation.

The Warriors have had the same starting line-up in all 11 games.  Besides Clark, they start: two 6'4" guards - #3 Matt Becht (7.5ppg) & #5 Devon Savage (9.6 ppg and their most prolific 3pt shooter at 26-80); and two 6'7"/215 forwards - #11 Bryan Etumnu (5.9ppg & 5.0rpg) and #40 Sean Trumper (9.5ppg & 5.8rpg).

FWIW, Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology includes Merrimack as a 16 seed automatic qualifier as MAAC champ.  Also in as AQs are Grand Canyon as a 12 seed and Norfolk State as a 15 seed.  It also has Oregon as a 3 seed.  The ACC  has only 4 teams in (Duke as a 2, Clemson 6, Pitt 7, & UNC 9, with SMU as the 5th team out).  This trails the SEC (13 teams), Big 10 (10), Big 12 (8), & Big East (5).  
 
Another FWIW - I ran across a Syracuse fan site (https://www.nunesmagician.com/2024/12/16...cer-league) with an ACC MBB power rating.  It currently has Stanford ranked 8th behind Duke, Clemson, Pitt, SMU, UNC, Wake, & NC St.  The comment for Stanford is "Maxime Raynaud will be first team All-ACC ... and no we're not talking about men's soccer."  It also has Cal at #15 with the comment "Lost to Cornell so you can't be ranked much higher than this right now."

We have lost our game to a very seak opponent.  My guess is we win by double figures.  No matter how good their guard is, my guess Blakes makes his life miserable.  We have a brobdingnagian size advantage and we should score inside at will.  But there is the issue is that you  do have to play the game.  We shall see.
Another questions about the upcoming season is why are we playing all ACC home games at 8pm except Cal and then playing our road games in the ACC at much more reasonable times.  The East Coast ACC fans are going to have to stay up until 11 PM just to start the watch of the games out here.  Why play our week night games at 8 PM/  I just do not see the sense of it.
What are our travel plans?  Travel seems really difficult.  Play at 6 PM mid week on the East Coast, then again on Saturday.  So we fly Monday and back Sunday.  How much practice can we fit into that mess?  Frankly, if I were an ACC team I would be very unhappy with my mid week West Coast game being on TV at 11 PM at night. For us the mid week ACC road games are on line at a much better time.  Really bad news is that most of our tough league games are on the road.
One last comment.  If we can once again develop a strong basketball program, in the long haul the ACC and Stanford can benefit.