Stanford (5-4) played their first game in two weeks on Sunday, but they showed no signs of rust jumping out to a 19 point halftime lead before ultimately defeating Idaho (6-5) 82-64.
"The last two weeks we've taken a lot of time to reflect on ourselves as a team and as people," said freshman Andrej Stojakovic. "Taking that time off from games, practicing, working on what we need to accomplish for the rest of the year and then focusing on finals."
The Cardinal always have this unique break in their schedule. It is no secret: Stanford is a serious academic school. And as Head Coach Jerod Haase pointed out, there are players studying everything from Math to Computer Science to Economics, and even a few getting graduate degrees.
"You can tell on their faces and in their demeanor that they're grinding pretty hard these two weeks," said Haase.
But with all of that finally behind them, they could just play loose.
Stanford shot better than 63% from the field in the first half as they built an insurmountable advantage. Freshman guard Kanaan Carlyle made his Stanford debut early, and had an impact almost immediately. He brought energy and aggression, and announced his presence from the moment he stepped on the court.
"We were super excited when we found out the news that he was good to go today," said Stojakovic. "He's a guy that brings energy, a very versatile player, very athletic as you as you guys saw today."
Andrej was the beneficiary of Kanaan's best play of the day. Near the end of the first half Stanford looked to push the pass off a defensive rebound. Andrej was streaking down the court behind the Idaho defense, and Kanaan threw a pinpoint pass from beyond half court for the alley-oop finish.
Stanford finished the game shooting 56% from the field and 43% from three. In a game in which fifth-year Spencer Jones missed with a leg injury, the Cardinal saw all nine players who played make a field goal, with all but one of those also notching an assist. They finished +16 on the glass as a team.
Andrej Stojakovic led all scorers with 17 points on 7-11 from the field. Michael Jones added 14, Maxime Raynaud had 12 to go with 11 rebounds, and Kanaan Carlyle scored 11 on just 5 shots.
Idaho was led by former Washington Husky Tyler Linhardt's 16 points. They shot just 3-16 from three in the first half, and made only 24% of their threes on the game.