Preview: Stanford Men’s Basketball welcomes Montana State to Maples Pavilion
On Wednesday at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX, Stanford men’s basketball will welcome Montana State to Maples Pavilion. Stanford comes in at 2-0 overall while Montana State comes in at 1-2.
Last time out: On Saturday, Stanford defeated Montana 91-68. Stanford freshman point guard Ebuka Okorie went off for 29 points. He’s averaging 27.5 points per game on the season.
RECAP: Stanford Men’s Basketball cruises past Montana
On Montana State: The Bobcats are the third straight Big Sky team Stanford is facing to open the season after their wins over Portland State and Montana. Their head coach Matt Logie is entering this third season at the helm. Last season, they went 15-18 overall and 9-9 in the Big Sky, finishing 5th in the conference.
The Bobcats have a 114-44 win over Northwestern Indian College, a team that competes at the Tribal College level. As for their two losses, the Bobcats lost to Colorado on the road 84-78 and then they lost to Denver at home 75-73. Their two losses were pretty close and Colorado is a Big XII team, so they’ve shown they can hang with high major competition.
The top player for the Bobcats is senior guard Patrick McMahon, who is averaging 17.5 points and 3.0 rebounds per game on 65.2% shooting from the field, 50.0% shooting from 3-point range, and 1.000% shooting from the foul line. He’s having a fantastic season and doing all he can to help his team out. Three other players are scoring in double figures on average in senior guard Davian Brown (15.7 points), senior guard Jed Miller (14.0 points & 5.3 rebounds), and junior forward Christian King (11.3 points) are also scoring in double figures. The Bobcats have a lot of scoring balance and different weapons they can go to.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, they gotta keep riding the hot hand. Ebuka Okorie is balling out. Stanford needs to once again let him do his thing and see if Montana State can stop him. Pretty simple.
Secondly, Stanford needs to defend the perimeter. The Bobcats have a lot of weapons at guard and Stanford’s perimeter defense better be ready to contain them.
Finally, Stanford needs to win the battle in the paint. They got some big bodies in Chisom Okpara and AJ Rohosy. If Stanford is the more physical team in the paint, I like their odds of winning this game.
Prediction: Stanford is at home and they’re off to a hot start. I got Stanford winning by 15 points: 84-69.
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