CSU Bakersfield @ Stanford preview
Kaiser Permanente Arena
Last Meeting ( Feb 10, 2009 ) Cal. State - Bakersfield 50, Stanford 85
Now that Stanford has played consecutive games without a disruption, maybe the Cardinal can find out what they have and settle into a groove.
Stanford (4-2), coming off a 78-75 win over Arizona in Saturday's Pac-12 opener, looks for a fourth straight win on Monday against Cal State Bakersfield (3-2) in a nonconference contest at the Cardinal's temporary home in Santa Cruz, Calif.
The game replaces a previously scheduled home game against Sacramento State, and Stanford has had three other games either postponed or canceled for COVID-19 reasons, including what was supposed to be their Pac-12 opener against USC on Dec. 13.
The Cardinal are led by a pair of seniors in Oscar da Silva and Daejon Davis. da Silva leads the team in scoring at 20.3 points per game and had 21 to lead his team against Arizona. Davis averages 13.8 points per game and is one point away from 1,000 for his college career. Davis was injured in the game and may not be available Monday.
The Cardinal defeated the Wildcats for the first time since January 2009.
"It's extremely gratifying," Stanford coach Jerod Haase told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "We're very proud of the program we're building. From the staff, the players, myself, it's a group effort. We think we're building a really solid program with a really strong foundation. So this is something that really validates what we're doing, so for that I'm very excited."
The Roadrunners of the Big West Conference are no strangers to Pac-12 opponents or Santa Cruz. They fell to Arizona in Tucson earlier this season, and lost by six to Santa Clara in Santa Cruz on Dec. 2.
Shaun Williams, a transfer from Kansas State who hadn't played a game in more than a year, scored 17 points off the bench in Saturday's 87-46 rout of St. Katherine, an NAIA school, on Saturday.
The balanced Roadrunners have won three of their last four games and have nine players averaging at least 5.0 points per game.
--Field Level Media