Pac-12 Basketball Recruiting: Taking a look at Stanford's Class of 2016

Last season, the Stanford Cardinal went 15-15 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four seasons.

As a result, Johnny Dawkins was relinquished of his duties as Stanford’s head coach shortly after the season ended.

The Cardinal turned to UAB’s Jerod Haase in the end of March, a hire which was lauded by many.

However, given the late timing of the hire, Stanford didn’t get much time to put a recruiting class together. As a result, the Cardinal will be bringing in just two freshmen this season (as of right now).

While the recruiting class isn’t particularly large, at the very least, the two players coming in have the potential to make an impact right away.

Kodye Pugh

Pugh, a four star forward from Maryland, committed to Stanford a week before Dawkins’ firing, but chose to remain with the program. He recently reclassified from 2017 to 2016, so he’s a bit younger than most other players in the class, but interest was high in Pugh who had offers from more than 20 schools across the nation. Pugh was in ESPN’s Top 100 for 2017 before reclassifying.

Below is Pugh’s most recent highlight video. He does a lot of things well, and has the look of a player the Cardinal may be able to count on to contribute immediately.

Trevor Stanback

Stanback, a four star center and the other member of Stanford’s class of 2016, helps in an area where any college basketball team in the nation could use help at any given time: size.

The Cardinal were the third-tallest team in the Pac-12 last season with an average height of 78.3 inches. 6’9” Rosco Allen graduated, but having the 6’10” Stanback coming in will keep Stanford as one of the conference’s tallest teams.

Will Stanback be able to score 15.6 points per game for the Cardinal? Probably not. But having talented bigs like Stanback and Josh Sharma and Reid Travis certainly makes Stanford that much more difficult to stop.

Below is Stanback’s most recent highlight reel.