Stanford's Okpala earns first Pac-12 Men's Basketball weekly honor of 2018-19

Pac-12 Men's Basketball Player of the Week (11/12/18) - KZ Okpala, So., F, STANFORD

SAN FRANCISCO - STANFORD sophomore KZ Okpala collects the first Pac-12 Player of the Week award of his career in the debut weekly honor of the 2018-19 season.

• Okpala averaged 26.0 points on 58 percent shooting (15-26), 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 2.0 blocks in leading Stanford to a pair of convincing wins. He also went 20-of-24 from the line for the week.

• The forward scored a career-high 29 points and collected 10 rebounds for his second career double-double, adding five assists and three blocks in the season-opening 96-74 victory over Seattle.

• He added 23 points in a 72-59 win at UNC Wilmington and collected three steals as Stanford matched its best steals total in a game in the last 22 years with 15 swipes against the Seahawks.

• It marks the first time a Cardinal player earned the debut honor of a Conference season since Chris Hernandez on Dec. 1, 2003. It also marks Stanford's third weekly award in the past nine weeks of play dating back to the 2017-18 season. The Cardinal had gone 52 weeks - since back-to-back awards by Anthony Brown (Dec. 29) and Chasson Randle (Jan. 5) during the 2014-15 season - without a recipient prior Daejon Davis' win last Jan. 15.

• Stanford will put its 2-0 mark on the line Monday night at No. 7 North Carolina (4 p.m. PT, ESPN2) in the second of its four true road games during non-conference play. The Cardinal's four true road games in non-league play are the most for any major conference program, while the Pac-12's total of 27 is the most of any major conference.

ALSO NOMINATED: Brandon Randolph, ARIZONA; Luguentz Dort, ARIZONA STATE; Bol Bol, OREGON; Tres Tinkle, OREGON STATE; Moses Brown, UCLA; Nick Rakocevic, USC; Sedrick Barefield, UTAH; Robert Franks, WASHINGTON STATE.

2018-19 PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK