Stanford heads to Oregon on Sunday for an exhibition that will air on Big Ten Plus at 1:30 p.m., taking part in the return game from last year’s exhibition at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal won that meeting 78-70.
The trip comes with Stanford continuing to build under Kyle Smith, who is entering his third season as the program’s Anne and Tony Joseph Director of Men’s Basketball. The Cardinal followed a 20-13 season last year with a 9-9 ACC mark and a trip to the College Basketball Crown, part of a run that has quickly reshaped the program’s profile in the league.
This roster looks different, and deeper, too. Stanford brings back eight players, including two key contributors in Aidan Cammann and Donavin Young, while also adding three transfers who can make an immediate impact: Christian Bliss from Delaware, Austin Maurer from Seattle and Nick Townsend from Yale. The Cardinal also added a top-25 recruiting class, with four players ranked among the top 100 by at least one service.
Smith’s recent work has been hard to miss. The 2024 Pac-12 Coach of the Year guided Stanford to 21 wins in its first ACC season, the program’s most since 2014-15, then followed that with 20 more wins a year ago. Stanford’s postseason appearance in 2026 was its second straight and the fifth in a row for a Smith-coached team, while the back-to-back tournament trips marked the first time Stanford had done that since 2012-15.
The program also keeps sending players up to the next level. Ebuka Okorie was a first-round pick of the Detroit Pistons at No. 17, giving Stanford an NBA entrant for a third consecutive season. He joins Maxime Raynaud and Spencer Jones as recent Cardinal to reach the Association.
Stanford’s latest exhibition also gave a glimpse of what some of the new faces can do. Julius Price scored 26 points in his Stanford debut, but the Cardinal dropped a late 83-78 decision to Santa Clara.
Price went 5-for-11 from the field and 15-for-19 at the line. Anthony Batson Jr. added 16 points, including an 8-for-10 showing from the stripe, and Christian Bliss finished with 15.
Austin Maurer also made his presence felt in his first game for Stanford, grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. The Cardinal got to the free throw line 46 times, which would have been the most in a game since 47 against Washington on Feb. 22, 2018 had the exhibition counted in the regular season. Only four freshmen across the country in 2025-26 took more than 19 free throws in a game, and Okorie was one of them.
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