On April 3rd, Stanford men's basketball just bowed out of the college basketball crown quarterfinals with an overtime hardbreaker to West Virginia, 82-77 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The Cardinal wraps the season at 20 wins and 13 losses, marking solid progress in year two under coach Kyle Smith. Freshman phenom, Ibuka Okori, dropped 34 points on 13 of 23 shooting, plus five assists. That gives him his 830-point game, shattering the ACC freshman record, previously held by Dukes Marvin Bagley III.
He finished his third all-time at Stanford with 719 points, averaging 23.2 per game. Teammates stepped up, too. Aiden Kamen had 12 points, AJ Rojosi 10 points and 9 rebounds, Ryan Agarwal 8 points and 8 boards, while Benny Gieler added 6 points, 7 rebounds, and climbed to 4th on Stanford's single-season three-pointers list with 85. Stanford owned the boards 47-37, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds and locked down West Virginia's outside game at just 2.
For 20, from deep, they grabbed their first lead midway through the first half and built a 67-59 edge, late, but the Mountaineers forced overtime with a late surge. Coach Smith's squad punched their ticket to back-to-back postseasons for the first time since 2012-15, and he's the first in-program. History with 20-plus wins in each of his initial two seasons, joining elite ACC company like Duke and North Carolina. The Cardinals Foundation feels stronger than ever heading forward.