Stanford's Maxime Raynaud Lands on Two More Award Watchlists

All season long, Stanford star Maxime Raynaud has been among the best players in college basketball, proving his worth in every way while leading the Cardinal to their best season in years.

Already earning a ton of recognition, Raynaud recently was added to two more watchlists, earning a spot on both the Lute Olson Award watchlist and the Nolan Richardson Award watchlist.

The awards, which are both among the most prestigious in college basketball, would say a lot about Raynaud if he were to win, with the Lute Olson Award being awarded to the top player in Division I basketball while the Richardson award is awarded to the Division I player who 'is the heart and soul of the team.'

Last season, the Olson award was won by Purdue star, Zach Edey, who was arguably one of the best players in all of college basketball last season. As for the Richardson award, Houston's Jamal Shead won it, helping the Cougars make it all the way to the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen.

The only player to be averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds this season, Raynaud has competed with Duke's Cooper Flagg all season long to be the top player in the ACC, and while Flagg ultimately took the ACC Player of the Year honors, Raynaud was not far behind him.

Overall for the season, Raynaud was second in the conference in scoring (trailing only Notre Dame's Markus Burton) and was first in rebounding. Raynaud was 14th in the nation in scoring while being fifth in the nation in rebounding.

Originally expected to be a rebuilding year for the Cardinal, who were projected to finish in the bottom half of the conference standings and also entered this season with a new head coach, the Cardinal defied expectations and put together their first 20-win season since 2019-20 with Raynaud being at the center of the success.

Raising his NBA draft stock considerably all throughout the campaign, Raynaud is now most likely expected to be a highly touted prospect in this year's NBA draft.

Stanford and Raynaud are now in the midst of an ACC tournament run, looking to take home a win in order to automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament. Beating No. 15 seeded Cal 78-73 in the second round after a bye in the first, the No. 7 seed Cardinal will now take on No. 2 Louisville in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

The winner will face either No. 6 SMU or No. 3 Clemson for a spot in the semifinals on Friday. Tip off for the Louisville game is slated for 4:00 p.m. (PT) and will air on ESPN2.