The landscape of college basketball in the Bay Area looks fairly different since last season ended.
Tara VanDerveer is no longer the coach of the Stanford women’s team, retiring following an unparalleled career. Jerod Haase was fired after eight seasons of coaching Stanford’s men’s team. The Bay lost a lot of talent, headlined by Aidan Mahaney transferring to UConn and Kiki Iriafen departing for USC.
Oh, there’s also the fact that Cal and Stanford are now in the ACC, set to clash with the likes of Duke and Kentucky.
Here’s how the Bay Area’s college basketball teams fared on the first day of the season:
(San Jose State’s women’s teams and San Francisco’s men’s team will play their first games of the season on Tuesday)
Stanford (women’s) def. La Moyne, 107-43
Kate Paye, who has the unenviable task of replacing one of the best coaches in college basketball history, didn’t have to sweat much as Stanford cruised to a blowout win against La Moyne of the Northeast Conference.
After seldom playing in her first two seasons, redshirt junior guard Jzaniya Harriel finished with career-high 24 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists. Senior guard Elena Bosgana also enjoyed a career-high 19 points despite playing just 15 minutes, while sophomore forward Nunu Agara matched her career-high of 18 points.
Christian Babcock has the full story here.
Stanford (men’s) def. Denver, 85-62
Paye isn’t the only new basketball coach down on The Farm. Kyle Smith began his tenure as Stanford’s new head coach with a decisive 23-point win over Denver, the program’s 14th consecutive win in a season opener.
Leading the way for the Cardinal was guard Oziyah Sellers, a transfer from USC who was born in Fremont and raised in Hayward. Seller, the program’s first undergraduate transfer since 2009, totaled single-game career-highs in points (24) and rebounds (7) while recording two steals and a block.
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Senior forward Maxime Raynaud, the reigning Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year, totaled a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double while also totaling a career-high six assists. Graduate guard Jaylen Blakes, a transfer from Duke, totaled 12 points and matched his career-highs in assists (six), steals (three) and blocks (two) while junior guard Benny Gealer poured in 12 points on a career-high four three-pointers.
Cal def. Saint Mary’s (women’s), 90-58
With reigning WCC Freshman of the Year Zeryhia Aokuso still recovering from offseason knee surgery, Cal easily handled Saint Mary’s at Haas Pavilion with a blowout victory.
Sophomore guard Lulu Twidale, a Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention last season, matched her career-high of 24 points, sinking five of her eight three-pointers. Senior forward Marta Suárez totaled 17 points and eight rebounds while graduate guard Ioanna Krimili, last year’s leading scorer for the Bears, had 14 points, three rebounds, two assists and had a game-high +/- of +40.
For Saint Mary’s, sophomore guard Emily Foy led the Gaels with 13 points and seven rebounds. Senior guard Kennedy Johnson, a transfer from Idaho who averaged 14 points and seven rebounds last season, had 12 points and five rebounds in her debut for the Gaels.
Cal def. Cal State Bakersfield, 86-73
While Cal ended up with the 13–point win in their season opener, Cal State Bakersfield played with aggression and energy for 40 minutes, unwilling to simply hand the Bears a win. While uncomfortable, Cal walked out of Haas Pavilion with a win to start Mark Madsen’s second season as head coach.
Graduate guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., a transfer from Grand Canyon, led the Bears with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists. Andrej Stojakovic, the son of former Sacramento King Peja Stojakovic who transferred from Stanford, had 16 points and six rebounds in his Cal debut.
San Jose State (men’s) loses to Western Illinois, 59-55
San Jose State’s season-opening loss to Western Illinois of the Ohio Valley Conference won’t qualify as the biggest upset of the night. That distinction belongs to No. 13 Texas A&M, which lost to UCF, 64-61. That said, the Spartans’ four-point loss to the Leathernecks at home certainly falls into the category of shocking.
The numbers tell much of the story. Despite shooting 19 more free throws than Western Illinois, San Jose State could not overcome a night in which it shot 35 percent from the field and 19 percent from three. The Spartans felt the absence of their three leading scorers from last year — Myron Amey Jr. (transfer), Alvaro Cardenas (transfer), Tibet Gorener (transfer) — was felt as they struggled offensively down the stretch.
San Francisco (women’s) loses to Colorado State, 52-47
San Francisco entered the fourth with a six-point lead, but were outscored, 21-10, in the game’s final quarter in what ended up being a five-point loss to Colorado State on the road.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well; the Dons made 27.1 percent of their field goal attempts while the Rams made 29.3 percent. Senior guard Freja Werth, last season’s WCC Newcomer of the Year, totaled 13 points and nine rebounds over 37 minutes.