Growing up, watching the Merrimack College men on Hammel Court, Aidan Cammann wondered if he might someday battle with the Warriors.
He had no idea he’d need to cross three time zones to do it.
Tuesday night in California, Andover’s Cammann and the Stanford Cardinal hosted Merrimack, and the Warriors gave them all they could handle.
Cammann started and played 14 minutes in Stanford’s 74-68 win.
“It’s definitely funny that we had them on the schedule,” said Cammann, who red-shirted last year as a freshman. “My mom (Erin) is the swim coach at Merrimack, so she really had fun with it. It was really fun to play against them.”
Cammann’s parents came out for the game and Saturday’s upcoming showdown with No. 10 Oregon. Afterward, they will all head down the coast to Culver City (outside of Los Angeles), where Erin’s family is from.
Aidan gets a three-day holiday break before he returns to campus and the hoop grind.
Through the first semester of action, Cammann has played in all 11 games for the 9-2 Cardinal, starting seven. He is averaging three points and three rebounds a game in 20 minutes a night.
“Our team, with a new coaching staff and a bunch of new players, we’ve got into a pretty good groove,” said Cammann. “People know what their roles are. Mine is to be solid offensively and defensively and be a good piece our team can count on.
“Chishom (Okpara) and I are the two guys playing the four, depending on the game, one of us is starting and the other comes off the bench, depending on the opponent and the matchup. We complement each other pretty well.”
To date, Stanford has played just one game in its new league, the Atlantic Coast Conference, but Cammann is about to immerse himself in one of most fable conferences in NCAA history. The Cardinal make a January trip to the University of North Carolina and a February trip to Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“It’s definitely weird now to think I’ll be playing in the ACC,” said Cammann. “I’ve always thought that I could play up to the level of my competition. Playing at UNC and at Duke, that will be a fun time.”