Graduate student and Duke transfer Jaylen Blakes has made his presence felt through the first two games with the Stanford Cardinal. When he’s on the court, good things tend to happen for Stanford. Part of the reason for that is because his game is to drive to the basket, so when shots aren’t falling, like on Friday afternoon against Call State Fullerton, Blakes was able to get something going by attacking.
In the first half of that game, Stanford went scoreless for about six minutes in between their ninth and tenth points, and it took them another three minutes to score their 11th. It was Blakes that hit the team’s first field goal, a layup, after 11 minutes played with two free throws to show for it. Blakes also knocked down his own free throw, making it a three point play, and from that point on, the Cardinal were off and running.
In that first half, it was Blakes, along with Maxime Raynaud, that led the team in scoring with ten points apiece. Oziyah Sellers and Chisom Okpara added five each to give Stanford 30 in the first. Of those ten from Blakes, only two of them were from the field. The other six came at the free throw line, where he went 6-of-8.
For the game, Blakes finished 8-of-12 from the free throw line, and this came after leading the team in free throws in the season opener against Denver, with the guard dropping in 6-of-7.
From an analytics point of view, Blakes is the only player besides Raynaud to be in the top three on the roster in offensive efficiency through two games. Stanford scored at least one point in 78.9% of his possessions on Friday, and 78.7% against Denver. He’s a high impact player that has also been incredibly consistent to start the season.
While Blakes has served as a catalyst for the offense, head coach Kyle Smith also mentioned that his defense is a big part of their offense as well. “He’s a big part of our offense when he’s forcing some turnovers.” Smtih was seemingly reflecting in real time about why they didn’t have Blakes guarding the ball to begin the game, given that fact.
On the year, Blakes has 11 assists, four steals, and just one turnover in 57 minutes played.
When coach Smith was asked postgame whether he anticipates Blakes to continue to get into the paint frequently throughout the season, Smith smiled and said, “I hope so.”
The Stanford men’s team plays again on Tuesday night, their first evening game of the young season. They’ll be taking on Northern Arizona (2-0) of the Big Sky Conference. Their two wins have involved two big offensive games, beating Park Gilbert 100-49, and Nelson (AZ) 115-67.
