The University of California Berkeley was established in 1868 as the state's first land-grant university and is the founding campus of the UC system. Cal has an endowment of $6.9 Billion and enrolls 45,307 students (32,479 undergrads). Their nickname is Golden Bears and their mascot is Oski the Bear. The WSJ ranks Cal 8th Best College, US News & World Report ranked Cal top public school (17th overall)
Famous Alumni include 36 Nobel Prize winners, Academy Award winning actor Gregory Peck, Actors Chris Pine, Stacy Keach, Jerry Mathers (Beaver Cleaver), Ashley Judd, John Cho; Will Vinton pioneer of ‘Claymation’, Doug Englebart inventor of computer mouse, Jay Miner father of Amiga computer, Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi, Dilbert creator Scott Adams, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Tom Anderson co-founder of MySpace, Crown Prince of Norway Haakon Magnus, Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Counting Crows Adam Duritz, Bangles Susanna Hoffs, Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins, Leroy Choi 1st Asian-American to perform spacewalk, Counter-culturalist Timothy Leary, Barry Kerzin personal physician to the Dalai Lama, Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan, Rube Goldberg, TV producer Quinn Martin, American Idol contestant William Hung, etc.
Cal Athletics: 115 NCAA team titles & 290 individual titles, Olympic medals: 121 gold, 56 silver, 46 bronze. Medalists include Matt Biondi, Natalie Coughlin, Mary T Meagher, Missy Franklin, Anthony Irvin
Cal basketball began in 1907 (1676-1295, .564), 1959 NCAA Champions, 1960 Runners-up, 3 Final Fours, 19 NCAA Tournaments (last 2016), 15 regular season conference titles (last 2010), 2 AP 1st Team AA’s (Darrall Imhoff, Jason Kidd), 11 NBA 1st rd draft picks, 7 Pac-12 POY, 1 Pac-12 Defensive POY, 6 Pac-12 FOY. Retired Jerseys: No. 4 Alfred Grigsby (1991-97), No. 5 Jason Kidd (1992-94), No. 11 Kevin Johnson (1983-87), No. 40 Darrall Imhoff (1957-60)
Winningest Coaches: Nibs Price 1924-54 (449-294), Ben Braun 1996-2008 (219-154), Mike Montgomery 2008-14 (130-73), Lou Campanelli 1985-93 (123-108), Pete Newell 1954-60 (119-44, NCAA title)
Mark ‘Mad Dog’ Madsen (2nd season) is Cal’s 19th coach, and starred at rival Stanford, played for the Lakers and T-Wolves. Previous head coaching experience: Los Angeles D-Fenders (2013), Lakers asst (2013-19), Utah Valley (2019-23)
Cal had been a bottom feeder in the Pac-12 for 6 yrs but finished tied for 6th last season (13-19, 9-11) ahead of 9th place SC (15-18, 8-12). This 10-win improvement reinvigorated the fanbase and Madsen’s contract was extended through 2030. Cal’s first sellout crowd since 2017 witnessed Cal defeat SC in OT 83-77
Cal is currently a member of the 18-team Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) along with rival Stanford and Andy Enfield (SMU) – it’s just so weird! Cal is picked 16th, ahead of only Stanford and BC. Preseason predictions: Duke, UNC, WF, Clemson, UVA, Miami, Pitt, NC St, Louisville, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Ga Tech, SMU, VA Tech, FSU, Cal, Stanford, BC
All-time: 272nd mtg of SC vs Cal, Cal leads 138-134. SC is favored by 9.5 pts tonight
Cal is 2-1 (W: CSUB, Cal Poly; L: Vanderbilt), NET n/a, KenPom No.115
SC: 3-0 (W: UT Chattanooga, Idaho St, UTA) NET n/a, KenPom No. 77
Cal scores 79.3 ppg (+5.0), 45.3% FG, 35.7% 3FG, 7.5 3’s/g, 75.5% FT and averages 37.9 rebs (+4.1), 21.0 assists, 5.8 steals, 13.5 TOs (-0.3), 3.8 blks
SC scores 83.3 ppg (+11.7), 49.7% FG, 30.3% 3FG, 6.3 3’s/g. 72.1% FT and 28.0 rebs (-5.7), 14.8 assists, 7.0 steals, 8.3 TOs +8.0), 3.0 blks
Fun facts: Andrej Stojakovic is son of 13-yr NBA player/FIBA HOF member Peja. Mady Sissoko is brother of former WOT player Kadi Sissoko. Hugh Vandeweghe is nephew of 14-yr NBA player Kiki. Stephon Marbury II’s 2-time All-NBA father played 13 yrs, then 8 yrs in Chinese Basketball Association, where he is currently coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters
Cal has 3 double figure scorers: Stojakovic 17.0 ppg, 40.8% FG, 25% 3FG, 92% FT, Jovan Blacksher 16.3 ppg, 50% FG, 52.2% 3FG, 77.8% FT, BJ Omot 10.8 ppg, 44.4% FG, 35.3% 3FG, 62.5% FT
Dort Lee leads Cal w/ 8.5 rebs pg, Sissoko & Stojakovic 5.8; Blacksher 3.0 assts pg, DJ Campbell 1.3 stls pg, Sissoko 1.5 blks
Terrance Williams leads SC scoring at 18.0 ppg (70% FG, 50% 3FG, 100% FT), Claude 14.0 ppg (56% FG, 0-3 3FG, 82.4% FT), Cohen 14.0 ppg (66.7% FG, 0-2 3FG, 75% FT), Yates 12 ppg (53.8% FG, 23.1% 3FG, 100% FT, Agbo & Thomas 9.0 ppg, Knowling 8.0 ppg
Thomas leads SC with 6.3 reb/g and w/ 6.7 assists, Yates leads w/ 2.0 steals, Thomas 1.7, Cohen & Patton lead w/ 1.00 blks
Pregame
Nice size crowd in Founder’s for the return of Young Muss as guest speaker. He was very brief. Cal has 2 scorers with pro potential Stojakovic and Blackshear - we want to key on them. They also have 2 large bodied bigs. In practice they worked on boxing out and rebounding better. Asked how we will better defend 3s he said they worked on touching on the closeouts, keeping a hand in the eyeballs, “tagging” - closing out and then backing off to cut off drives.
For the first time this season, all players are available. Thomas is supposed to wear the mask for his broken nose but has been practicing w/o it.
The arena has an almost respectable crowd of 5466 fans. Surveying the house I spot Jacque Hill, pro tennis player Sloane Stephens (won 2017 US Open, No. 79 in world rankings, but reached No. 3 ranking in 2018) and members of the women’s volleyball team, fresh off their upset of No. 11 Oregon. I recognized Ally Batenhorst, Adonia Faumuina, Mia Tuaniga. I love beating the Phil Knights in any sport!
The Game
I don’t think I have ever seen this, both teams’ starters are comprised of transfers! SC sends out
Saint, T-Will, Cohen, Claude and Abgo. SC has lost the jump ball in all our games. Cohen has no hops, 6-ft-6 Claude will jump instead - we’re now 0-4 for jump balls.
This game was close from start to finish. There were 13 lead changes and 9 ties. SC’s biggest lead was 5 at 7:22 in the 1st half, and Cal’s was 6 pts at 15:18 after a 7 pt run. Saint never donned the mask in this one.
SC’s inability to guard small, fast PGs continued as Blackshear put up 18 pts in the first half and for the first time in his career Muss ran a zone defense on a few occasions to shore up the middle and put a Band-Aid on their lack of rim protection. They were much better in the 2nd half as Blacksheer would only get one additional pt, finishing with 19, second to leading scorer Stojakovic.
SC had 3 players score in double digits led by Claude with a 20 pts on 7-14 FG, 3-6 3FG (his first made threes of the season) and a costly 3-6 from the FT line as a pair of the misses came with 2:15 left in the game and SC down 66-64. Saint had 15 pts on 7-17 FG and 1-2 FTs but continues to be poor from long range going 0-4 on 3FG, a couple of which could be seen as poor choices for the game circumstances. Yates scored 10 pts on 4-10 FG, 0-2 3FG, 2-2 FT. I felt he should be on the floor more than the 16:23 Muss played him. He is one of our true shot creators.
SC still could have and should have won this game but after Saint scored two baskets while backing his opponent down to give SC the 64-63 lead at 6:30, SC made only 1 basket the rest of the game. They threw up misses on almost a dozen shot attempts and had those two critical missed FTs by Claude. They wasted their best defense of the game down the stretch.
SC shot 43.9% FG (25-57), 28.6% 3FG (6-21), 71.4% FT (10-14).
Cal shot 49.1% FG (27-55), 33.3% 3FG (7-21) and 76.9% FT (10-13).
Most of the other stats were fairly equal, but poor 3-pt shooting has been an issue. They expected more out of Agbo and Slajchert, whose poor defense kept him on the bench, so he could not replicate his 42% 3FG shooting from last season). This was a tough loss for Muss and SC. Their first game against Power 5 competition ended in a 71-66 loss.
SC and Cal are both 3-1 after this game.
Up Next: San Jose St, Wednesday 11/20 at 7 pm at Galen Center
Fight on! Beat the Spartans!
