Following the rumors, tweets (Xs?) and commentary of the last few days, I kind of felt that today would come with an announcement, particularly since the season officially kicks off tomorrow.

Running out of finger nails to bite.

A look across the conference here:

Read and watch that here.

Read and watch that here.

Don't know why it was so difficult for some folks to respect rawbbbbbb's request that his thread only discuss breaking news.

It is not too late to actually adhere to his wishes.

Better yet would be to close that thread and start a new one.

And folks could then start their own new threads if they wished.

Less is more.

Read and watch that here.

Saw a post a bit ago from Stanford News Services announcing that Jenny Martinez, dean of the Law School, has been appointed provost. Other than a very impressive academic background and an interest in DEI/social justice, I know nothing about her. Does anyone have perspective? SLS90, please refrain from weighing in. I am sure she has some connection to Shaw and a requisite amount of elitism that offends you.

She was a clerk for Justice Breyer, as was my sister-in-law, and they are approximately the same vintage. I will see if she has any sense of Martinez beyond the resume and job description. Then again, we joke (sort of) that my sister-in-law is where fun goes to die, so not sure how to interpret any comments!

https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/08/23/jenny-s-martinez-appointed-stanford-provost/

Yes, the pac12 has been incompetent. Our leadership as well.
But let’s not forget that not only are we the top academic brand in d-1 sports, contrary to popular opinion, Stanford football delivers tv ratings (!)

Ok, we’ve sucked the last 2-3 years obviously. But when we are decent to good, we get far better ratings than, say UW.

The idea we should have to grovel to find a new conference is absurd. Even over the past 6 years or so - mostly bad - we were #5 in the pac 12. In good years, much higher.

I hope the big 10 is playing chess and not short term checkers. Yes, our timing couldn’t be worse. But over the past 15 years, we actually deliver legit tv ratings - certainly higher than at least 1/3rd to 1/2 of the big 10.

And let’s not forget that 2 pro teams recently left the East bay, opening it up for higher ratings for cal (and for college sports in general).

No way we should be left in the cold. This is a joke. And let’s stop short selling our own ability to deliver viewers.

Some data from the athletic last year:

“The next-highest performer was a mild surprise: Stanford (1.83 million), which edged out Washington (1.73 million). While the Cardinal have been dreadful the past few seasons, they were notable ratings draws in the days of Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love. In 2016, a Friday night ESPN game between No. 7 Stanford and No. 10 Washington drew 3.3 million viewers, third-highest of any Pac-12 game that season.

Stanford also gets significant mileage out of its every-other-year home games against Notre Dame. The two have played every year (save 2020) since 1997. The four installments during this period averaged 4.8 million. While there is no guarantee the series continues forever, an ESPN or Fox might pay handsomely just for the rights in the event it does.”

(https://theathletic.com/3444339/2022/07/25/pac12-big12-tv-viewership/?source=user_shared_article)

Observations from Stanford's game against N92:

N92 is a very solid team and Stanford played reasonably well given this is an exhibition and their first game together. C- grade if this were a regular season game but I'll give them a B- grading on a curve.

Recap:

The starting 5 was, as expected, Bynum (PG), Jones x2, Angel and Raynaud.

PG

Jared Bynum looked like a good, classic point guard, confident ball handling and distributing with strong pressure defense. His only shot in the 1st quarter was a deep 3 to beat the buzzer that went in. He also drew a lot of (non-shooting) fouls on the defense reaching in. He's going to be a major PG upgrade for us. He missed the rest of his outside shots but they looked decent. I would have liked to see him finish around the rim more (only one inside bucket) but he will be good.

Carlyle came in to run point and immediately threw the ball away and then fouled a 3 point shooter. He got yanked for Gealer who was fine but really shouldn't be getting meaningful minutes this season. We need Carlyle to be solid as Bynum's backup with both O'Connell and Silva gone. I'm actually a bit surprised that Silva transferred as his friend/god-brother is still on the team. N92 pressed a decent amount and generated turnovers. Bynum is the only plus ball handler on this team so expect to see more pressure defense this season.

Carlyle's first shot attempt was a 2nd quarter catch and shoot 3 that missed badly. He also missed his shot badly on the play where he was injured. It was a very disappointing outing for him (hopefully he's healthy well before the season starts). At least he seemed confident shooting the ball.

Wings/Forwards

Spencer Jones knocked down two early 3s and was his usual effective scoring self. We need to get him the ball more.

Michael Jones was effective but didn't get enough touches. He's a bit of a wallflower on the court and appears destined for the "Ziaire Williams best Stanford game was his debut" hall of fame. Still, a nice player who needs to be involved more.

Stojakovic didn't flash too much but looked solid enough, a smooth handle and clearly confident with the ball in his hands. 6-6 FTs and a nice 3 pointer. He's probably our 6th man and should be a solid contributor.

Agarwal hit a deep 3 but overall was a bit too sloppy and weak on defense for my liking.

Murrell got very limited run but hit a tough 3. I'm baffled that he can't get on the court more with his combination of size, athleticism and shooting.

Center

Raynaud stayed on longer than the other 4 starters and played most of the game. Perhaps it is the France factor but Keefe barely saw the court. In fact, Angel played center some as well. I actually prefer more of a 30/10 split for Raynaud and Keefe.

Raynaud was heavily involved, catching the ball a lot at the top of the key. He has a good shot to be the team's 2nd leading scorer this season. It wasn't a great game by him, however. Too many turnovers and just didn't look as comfortable with the ball as I would like.

Same for Angel, he had some nice inside buckets and outside shot but wasn't confident enough with the ball and had some bad turnovers.

Overall

B-

The team looked similar to last year, not a strong performance, but the hope is that they should only get better from here. Bynum was the bright spot for me and I do think that he will help this team be better than last year's. The freshmen, collectively, were disappointing, though Stojakovic at least looked the part and could end up being our 2nd best scorer. Raynaud is the other key to this team and turned in a mixed performance.

The team really lacks ball handlers behind him and was very susceptible to the press. The game was very close throughout and Stanford led by 5 early in the 4th before cold shooting and multiple turnovers by Angel and Raynaud doomed them.

Stanford cut the lead to 6 points with 1:40 left and immediately tried to press out of a stoppage. N92 quickly broke the press and hit a layup... game over.
Stanford didn't once get a layup off of their opponent's pressure.

Read and watch that here.

Understandably the discussion here has been about future conference affiliation but we are in the middle of camp, and I want to hear more about this team. Who is our first and second string? Who is our first string OL outside Fisher and Levi? Who is our DL? LB? Safeties? Let's get ready for the new era of Stanford football.

Read and watch that here.

Read that here.

Washington hit with significant injuries. Leading RB Cam Davis and starting guard Gaard Memmelaar are both out for season.

Two more regular season losses plus a third if we make the conference tournament.

You must be out of your friggin' mind.

Do you know how much over 20 teams this will destroy our Directors Cup
ranking?

(Talking to you North Carolina.)

The men's basketball recruiting notes thread for August has arrived. The June/July thread is here in case you missed anything from that. Stanford is yet to land anyone in the 2024 class, so they have some work to do. 4-star point guard Jase Richardson visited at the end of July. I didn't get an exact date for that visit, but I have it marked as July 31st just so it at least got recorded. He's a name they are on pretty heavily. 4-star point guard Trent Perry is another key target. I need to reach out to him again. Last I heard from him, he didn't wanna talk recruiting during the summer sessions. Stanford was wise to get on him as early as they did.

4-star shooting guard Sir Mohammed, 4-star shooting guard Gicarri Harris, 4-star small forward Marcus Allen, and 5-star shooting guard Kon Knueppel remain top targets as well. Allen visited earlier this summer, while Harris, Mohammed, and Knueppel visited back in the fall of 2022. Perry visited last summer as well, so they've gotten these kids on campus, which is good. It's just hard to tell of that group who they have the best odds with. I would say Richardson and Allen visiting most recently is definitely an arrow up for them as is the fact that Stanford made the top six for Mohammed.

Stanford did recently offer a couple other point guards as well who aren't as highly rated: 3-star Elijah Crawford at the end of July and then Jack Stanton back in May. Same with a few shooting guards, one of whom actually is rated quite high: 4-star Andrew Crawford at the beginning of July, Anthony Batson at the end of May, and Angelo Ciaravino in mid-July.

As far as big men are concerned, 4-star 7-footer Trent Burns was offered in mid-June. So, he's kinda the main big man target right now. At least for the 2024 class. All 2025 targets are still on the board. That offers list is here. No 2026 or 2027 offers at the moment.

Finally, I did want to quickly provide a scholarship breakdown. I'm going to post a quick write up on Benny Gealer getting the 13th scholarship since that is worthy of front page news, but before I do I might as well just add the scholarship breakdown in here as well. The following guys are projected to free up a scholarship after the season is over: Spencer Jones, Max Murrell, Michael Jones, Jared Bynum, James Keefe, and Brandon Angel. Murrell and Angel are not graduate students, so they could in theory come back for a fifth year. Graduate school admissions pending. That's six names I mentioned. Not to mention the possibility that Carlyle and/or Stojakovic go pro after the season.

So, there could be a lot of turnover after the season. That makes it all the more critical that they get some guys committed soon for this 2024 class. The one piece of good news, though is that this is an older team than years past, something Jerod Haase semi-lamented about a couple years back when I first came on board this site. So, it is good to see an older team on the floor. I think this team once again will be picked to finish in the top half of the conference with an NCAA tournament bid being expected. Though as you've all come to learn, history tells us it might not be wise to hold our breath on that actually happening. But those are once again the expectations.

Read and watch that here.

Some interesting ideas being kicked around for the upcoming NFL season, brought to you by Sam Schwartzstein:

From Football Scoop

Read and watch that here.

I guess they didn’t want Muir.

Courtesy of Adam Gorney. The Stanford relevant news is 2025 4-star ILB Mantrez Walker (Michigan commit) hoping to visit Stanford this fall. I’ll keep you guys posted on a date once I get that confirmed. Stanford has been making a real effort with him, so this is naturally a positive development.

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Stewart Mandel and their SC writer both take the under on our 2.5 win total.

SC guy makes the above claim. This is objectively false, but this is what people think of us these days.

Listed on the Fall roster as a graduate student. Probably moves back to second base or corner outfield.

I think most of you now know that Tempie Brown and Erica McCall will be assistant coaches this year. Brown in her second stint and McCall returning after five years in the WNBA.

My article on Brown is here.


My article on McCall is here.