MOSCOW, Idaho - Riding a three-game win streak, Idaho men's basketball (6-4) will head on the road to face Stanford (4-4). The Vandals will look to stay perfect in December when they go up against the Cardinal on Sunday, December 17 at 2 p.m. inside Maples Pavilion.

How to Follow 
Idaho vs. Stanford // Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. 
Watch: Pac-12 Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Listen: The Varsity Network or GoVandals.com/Listen

Familiar Faces in Familiar Places 
A trip to the Bay Area will be an opportunity for a handful of players and coaches to return to a familiar place where their basketball careers started. Head coach Alex Pribble grew up in Fairfax, California which is just 55 miles from Maples Pavilion and played college basketball at Cal under head coach Ben Braun for four seasons. Nathan Krill, a graduate assistant on staff, also has ties to the region, growing up in Saint Helena and playing one season at the University of San Francisco. 

Quinn Denker (San Jose, CA), Takai Hardy (Fairfield, CA), Miles Klapper (Hillsborough, CA) and EJ Neal (San Francisco, CA) also call Northern California home. Denker was a three-year varsity letter winner at Bellarmine College Preparatory and played one season each at West Valley College and Cal-State San Marcos. Hardy was a three-time All-State recipient at Vanden High School, where he played four seasons on varsity. Klapper enjoyed a successful high school career, competing for three seasons on varsity and earning WCAL First Team All-League honors at Junipero Serra. Klapper also played alongside Hardy on the Lakeshow AAU team. Neal stayed close to home after graduating from Balboa Prep in San Francisco, as he played his first two years of college basketball at City College of San Francisco. He earned Coast North Defensive Player of the Year and became a two-time First-Team Coast-North honoree. 

Last Time Out
Idaho persevered past an 11-point second-half deficit to earn a 63-62 road win at Utah Tech last Saturday in St. George. After trailing 56-45 with just over 10 minutes to play, Idaho scored 18 of the next 24 points behind an 8 for 9 performance from the foul line and key buckets from Quinn Denker, Tyler Linhardt and Kristian Gonzalez to help earn the Vandals their third straight win and fourth victory in five games.

The Vandal defense stepped up to hold the Trailblazer offense without a basket for the final 7 minutes and 25 seconds of action while forcing five of Utah Tech's 12 turnovers in that stretch to earn a one-point victory. 

After scoring a game-high 22 points in an 83-53 win over Pacific, Denker followed it up with a team-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field. Backcourt teammate D'Angelo Minnis added 11 points, three assists and three steals. For the third straight game, Linhardt scored in double figures with 10 points, four boards, two assists and one block. 

Kyson Rose and Gonzalez each added eight points with two threes apiece. Rose set up his teammates all game, delivering eight passes that led to a Vandal basket for a season-high in assists. 

For the second straight game, Idaho found success from the foul line with a 13-of-15 effort on 87 percent shooting. 

Scouting the Cardinal
Stanford owns a 4-4 record and a 4-1 mark at home. The Cardinal play in their first game in two weeks after earning an 88-64 victory over San Diego at home on Dec. 3. Stanford also owns wins over Cal-State Northridge (88-79), Sacramento State (91-73) and Eastern Washington (95-70). 

Four players average double figures to lead Stanford in scoring, including a team-high 14.9 points per game from Maxime Raynaud. He also leads the team on the glass with 8.9 rebounds. Brandon Angel follows at 14.5 points while Michael Jones adds 12.8 and Spencer Jones posts an average of 12 per game. 

The Cardinal averages 80.2 points per game while allowing 76. They post the 15th most assists per game in the nation with 18.4 and also knock down 3-point shots at a high rate, ranking first in the Pac-12 with 9.2 per game. 

Series History 
Idaho and Stanford meet for the 11th time in the two schools' history, as the Cardinal own a 3-7 overall record dating back to the 1938-39 season. Stanford has won the last two meetings and most recently earned an 86-80 win over the Vandals in 2016.

Vandal Tidbits

• Idaho's 6-4 start is the best 10-game stretch by a Vandal team to begin the regular season since 2017. \
• With three straight wins over Cal Poly, Pacific and Utah Tech, it marks the first time an Idaho team has won the opening three games in the month of December since 2010. 
• Idaho has won three straight and four of their last four games. 
• Idaho is 6-1 when leading at halftime and 5-0 when outrebounding their opponent. Idaho's recent success has catapulted the Vandals up the NCAA men's basketball Net Rankings to 253 - the highest received ranking for the program since
• 2017. The Vandals were listed at 298 when the first rankings were produced on Dec. 3 and since then have risen 45 spots. The 2023-24 season marks the 119th year of Vandal men's basketball. 

Up Next
The Vandals compete in their final non-conference game of 2023 with a matchup at UC Riverside on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 5 p.m. Idaho returns to Moscow to begin conference play against Sacramento State on Dec. 28.

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