By Aidan Joly
The theme of Jerod Haase’s four-year tenure at Stanford so far has been chipping away and becoming more successful year by year. Behind great returners and a top recruit entering, the Cardinal seem ready to turn the corner in 2020-21 after a pedestrian 2019-20 that saw them go 20-12, 9-9 in league play.
The recruit coming and is one that is sure to bring a lot of attention to the program is Ziaire Williams. He is the No. 6 recruit in the country according to 247 Sports coming out of the famed Southern California high school, Sierra Canyon.
Williams oozes with talent and potential and should be an immediate star in Palo Alto. However, he struggles to have a killer instinct and be extra aggressive. That might not necessarily be a bad thing though. The fact that he doesn’t need to be the guy might help him alongside the other star of the frontcourt, Oscar da Silva.
da Silva exploded into stardom last year, averaging 15.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game as a junior last season. He is very smart as well, a good passer and effective moves on the court make him a guy that the offense can run through, even without Williams. It sounds weird to diminish the potential role of a top-ten recruit, but that’s a testament to how well da Silva’s development went last season and the fact that that role can become bigger.
The last piece in the frontcourt is Spencer Jones. He had a solid freshman year where he averaged 8.8 PPG, but his value comes on the defensive end of the floor, where he thrives.
The two starting guards, Bryce Wills and Daejon Davis, also excel on the defensive end. Wills was named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive team last season and had made a name for himself as a star on defense. Both have their limitations on offense but make up for it as being lockdown in the corners as well as their ability to shut down an opposing team’s best offensive player as well as another dynamic scorer at the same time and it almost doesn’t matter who the opponent is. They just do it.
Jaiden DeLaire, another forward, does that as well and has some skill on offense too. He averaged 6.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game last year as a sophomore and may have a larger role this year, especially against big teams with great frontcourts such as Arizona and UCLA. However, he has competition in freshman Max Murrell.
Murrell, a four-star prospect out of Omaha, is very skilled and versatile. He is fast and can get down on the block and is one of the better athletes on this Cardinal team. Simply put, he is too good to keep off the floor year one.
Other pieces of depth include junior Lukas Kisunas, who played 11 minutes per game last year, sophomore James Keefe who played sparingly in his freshman year and three incoming freshmen: Noah Taitz, Brandon Angel and Michael O’Connell.
During Haase’s tenure in Palo Alto, he has seen his fair share of criticism. However, a breakthrough will not happen without a decent amount of progression, which he has done year to year since he arrived in 2016. If things fall into place, this may just be the year for that breakthrough to happen.
AJ Hoops 