Cal State Northridge hopes to add to a historic men’s basketball season when it travels to Northern California to take on Stanford in the opening round of the NIT on Tuesday night.
The Matadors (22-10) tied a school record for wins — set 24 years ago — when they beat Hawaii 82-73 in the Big West Conference regular-season finale on March 8.
Northridge had a chance to set the all-time mark in the quarterfinal of the Big West tournament but fell 78-72 to UC Santa Barbara last Thursday.
“I’m really proud of our guys… what they’ve done for the school, to this program and to themselves,” Northridge coach Andy Newman gushed after the Santa Barbara loss. “Setting school records says a lot; that’s huge.”
“The effort, the tenacity, the focus and the sacrifice it takes to do something like that is huge.”
History indicates the Matadors could have their hands full with the Cardinal (20-13), who earned a postseason berth in their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Stanford won the NIT championship in 1991, 2012 and 2015, and has never lost to Northridge (6-0).
The Cardinal, which finished in seventh place in the ACC before beating California 78-73 and losing to No. 13 Louisville 75-73 in the ACC tournament, was selected as a “host” school for the tournament’s first two rounds. With a win Tuesday, Stanford would stay home to face either St. Bonaventure or Kent State in the second round of the 32-team event.
Thanks in large part to the play of star center Maxime Raynaud, who leads Stanford in both scoring (20.1 points per game) and rebounding (10.6), the Cardinal earned a postseason reward after having been almost universally picked near the bottom of the ACC standings in preseason projections.
“We didn’t really pay much attention to it; we just talked about the process and just (doing) your best everyday,” first-year Stanford coach Kyle Smith noted. “They did a really good job of staying present and trying to improve.”
The tall task of having to deal with Raynaud is expected to fall upon Northridge senior Keonte Jones, who will give up more than six inches in the matchup. An All-Big West first-team selection, Jones led the Matadors with 9.2 rebounds per game this season.
