Stanford MBB opens the regular season at home against Denver

On Monday at 1:00 pm PT on ACCNX, Stanford men's basketball hosts the Denver Pioneers on the farm to open the regular season. This will be the first game of the Kyle Smith era, who takes over for Jerod Haasewho was relieved of his duties as head coach after eight seasons.

The star player for Stanford this season is the senior big man Maxime Raynaudwho wants to take another step forward after a strong junior season. The Cardinals also bring in a number of transfers and appear to be a much different team than they were a season ago. The Cardinals haven't made the NCAA Tournament since 2014, and while they're not expected to return this season, the hope is that they can at least lay the foundation for a program that can return to the fold in the near future Dancing will return.

On Denver: The Pioneers are coming off a season in which they went 17-17 overall and 6-10 in the Summit League. Their head coach is a former assistant head coach at Stanford Jeff Wulbrun and their operations manager is a former Stanford graduate assistant Jack Frostwho was appointed to this position a season ago. So it's a kind of homecoming for both boys.

The Pioneers' top returning player is the second-year guard DeAndre Craigwho averaged 6.6 points per game. Their top three scorers from last season have either graduated or moved on, so it's a very new looking team. With that in mind, it's hard to say what exactly we will expect from this team, but after today's game we will have a better understanding of what kind of team they are.

Key to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is feed the big man. Maxime Raynaud is their top player. If he gets going and has a great afternoon, I don't think Denver puts up much of a fight. It will be fun to see how Raynaud performs.

Second, Stanford needs to practice what they preach and put more effort into defense. This is a game where you would like to see some runs where Denver struggles to score. Perimeter defense of Jaylen Blakes I'll search.

Ultimately, Stanford has to take care of the ball. This was a problem during the Haase years. I expect better ball security from the Cardinal. If that improves, they'll be fine for this time.

Forecast: I made sure Stanford won easily. It's a little difficult to give an exact score considering Denver has so many new pieces, but I'd say Stanford wins 70-52.

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