It’s not easy to determine which came first this season for Josh Sharma: his passion for the game or a storm of dunks. In any case, he unleashed both.

Stanford’s 7-foot senior center might be the most improved player in the Pac-12. After he averaged 3.5 points and 2.3 rebounds last season, those numbers have ballooned to 9.9 and 6.7 this season.

His shooting percentage has improved from 56.5 to 69.8, which — if he maintains that pace — would be the best conference mark in 22 years. In conference games, he’s shooting 75.5 percent. That leads the Pac-12; Washington’s Noah Dickerson is second at 62.6.

It certainly helps his accuracy that 54 of his 120 field goals have been dunks. Seven of them came in a 104-80 rout of UCLA, Stanford’s biggest win over the Bruins in 22 years.

“He’s always been a very skilled player, a long player, and defensively could do some nice things,” head coach Jerod Haase said. “But the passion for the game and a flair for life this year has enabled all those things to shine through.”

Sharma agrees that all those dunks have bolstered his shooting percentage, “but I think a lot of it is my teammates getting me the ball in opportunities where I can score.”

Thursday’s game Who: Cal (7-22, 2-15 Pac-12) at Stanford (15-14, 8-9) Where: Maples Pavilion When: 8 p.m. TV/Radio: ESPNU/810 Top shooters Stanford’s Josh Sharma is putting together one of the most accurate shooting seasons in conference history: Rk Player, team Year FG Att. Pct. 1. Jelani McCoy, UCLA 1996-97 152 201 75.6 2. Steve Johnson, OSU 1980-81 235 315 74.6 3. Steve Johnson, OSU 1979-80 211 297 71.0 4. Mark McNamara, Cal 1981-82 231 329 70.2 5. Josh Sharma, Stanford 2018-19 120 172 69.8

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He’ll play his final game at Maples Pavilion against Cal on Thursday night. His parents, Jayant Sharma and Henrietta Cooper, will be on hand. They flew out from their home in Lexington, Mass., last week to see his final three home games.

His father, a native of India, is an aerospace engineer for a research lab connected with MIT. His mother, a native of England, was a child psychiatrist, although she spends most of her time restoring an 1824 farmhouse in Massachusetts.

Josh has 26-year-old twin brothers. One works for a startup in San Francisco doing biomedical research; the other works in finance for MIT.

By the way, Josh’s height surprised everybody in the family. His father is 6-4, his mother 5-11 and his brothers 6-6.

“On the growth charts, he was on the same track as his brothers,” his mother said. “When his final growth spurt came, it was a complete surprise. He was 6-6 as a freshman in high school, but by his junior year, he had grown to 7 feet.”

He spent two years at Lexington High School before switching to a prep school at the other end of the state, Northfield Mt. Hermon. During his prep-school years, his father’s job took his parents to Hawaii.

“We are not athletic people,” Cooper said. “We were expecting all our children to take a more academic track. When he got accepted at Stanford, it was a dream come true.”

When they visited the Farm, Josh was so sold on Stanford that he had a picture taken of his parents in Cardinal T-shirts so he could put it on Twitter if he was offered a scholarship. And so it happened. They’ve gotten to see three or four games a season in person.

For the past three seasons, Josh played behind Reid Travis and Michael Humphrey. Sharma’s minutes were further diminished by a habit of getting into foul trouble.

“Mike and Reid were obviously great players,” he said. “I always thought my time would come eventually.”

According to Haase, Sharma has had “a huge impact on the program and me personally, to be honest. What he’s done on the court this year, in particular, has been nothing short of spectacular. He’s really blossomed in his senior year.”

A win over the Bears “definitely would be a fun way to end my regular season,” Sharma said.

How emotional will it be for him? “I did shed a few tears after the Washington game. I’m not sure. I might be able to hold it in.”

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald