Stanford University’s men’s basketball team will face Saint Louis in the championship game of the Acrisure Invitational on Friday, November 28. The matchup is scheduled for a 4 p.m. tip-off and will be broadcast on TruTV.
Stanford enters the final with a 5-1 record this season, having secured victories over Minnesota, Portland State, Montana, Montana State, and Louisiana. The team has outscored its opponents by an average margin of 10.8 points per game.
Ebuka Okorie has emerged as a standout player for Stanford, ranking fourth nationally in scoring at 24.0 points per game and leading all freshmen in that category. Chisom Okpara contributes an average of 15.2 points per game, placing him twentieth among ACC players.
The Cardinal completed its first season under head coach Kyle Smith with notable achievements, including recording the program’s highest win total since the 2014-15 season with 21 victories and matching a program record for home wins at 17. The current campaign marks Stanford’s second year competing in the ACC after finishing seventh during its debut season.
Kyle Smith is now in his second year coaching at Stanford. He was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2024 after guiding the team to significant improvement—his seven-win increase from the previous season matched a school record for a first-year head coach. Last year also marked Stanford’s return to postseason play for the first time since 2018 with an appearance in the NIT tournament.
Maxime Raynaud graduated from Stanford earlier this year following one of the most successful individual seasons in program history and was selected by the Sacramento Kings during June’s NBA Draft.
A win against Saint Louis would give Stanford its first multi-team event (MTE) title since capturing the Basketball Travelers Classic in 2007. In recent years, Stanford went undefeated at Hawaii’s Diamond Head Classic in 2021 before that tournament’s championship was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols.
Stanford holds a historical edge over Saint Louis with two wins; however, this will be their first meeting in more than five decades. To reach Friday’s championship game, Stanford defeated Minnesota by a score of 72-68 behind Ebuka Okorie’s team-leading 25 points, along with contributions from Benny Gealer (14 points) and Chisom Okpara (11 points). The Cardinal capitalized on offensive rebounding opportunities to generate additional scoring chances throughout that contest.
