Brown-less SMU is Cardinal’s next test

After struggling to beat Wisconsin-Green Bay in overtime and trouncing Charleston Southern, Stanford is still a bit of an unknown quantity. The picture should become clearer in the next few games, starting Thursday night against SMU.

The defending American Athletic Conference champion Mustangs (1-0) come to Maples Pavilion for an 8:30 p.m. tipoff, but head coach Larry Brown won’t be with them.

The 75-year-old Hall of Famer was suspended for the first nine games of the season and SMU was banned from postseason play. The NCAA ruled that a former basketball administrative assistant completed online course work for a student to meet NCAA eligibility.

Associate head coach Tim Jankovich is leading the team. The former Illinois State head coach joined SMU in 2012 as the expected successor for Brown.

The Mustangs finally reached the NCAA Tournament after a 22-year absence last season only to lose 60-59 to UCLA in the second round in a controversial finish. SMU center Yanick Moreira was called for goaltending — a hotly contested call — on a three-point shot by Bryce Alford with 13 seconds left. The shot was off-line, but the call made it the winning basket.

Stanford (2-0) might have a matchup problem with SMU’s 5-foot-9 senior guard, Nic Moore, voted the AAC Player of the Year last season after averaging 14.5 points, 5.1 assists and 2.3 rebounds.

Stanford’s big men will have to contend with 6-9, 245-pound forward Markus Kennedy, who averaged 11.9 points and 6.3 rebounds off the bench last season, when the Mustangs went 27-7.