Cal Basketball: Can the Bears Beat Stanford? The NET Computer Suggests Otherwise – Sports Illustrated
Can the Cal basketball team make it two in a row for the first time this season on Friday evening?
Can the Golden Bears (2-13, 1-3 Pac-12) beat rival Stanford (5-9, 0-4) for the second year in a row at Haas Pavilion and the third time in four seasons in Berkeley?
Cal beat Colorado 80-76 on Saturday, two days Stanford lost 73-70 to the Buffaloes.
The Bears have won two of their past three, while the Cardinal has lost three of its past four.
But the NCAA’s NET computer rankings suggest a mismatch. Stanford is rated No. 113, compared to Cal at No. 292. And the Bears were well up into the 300s after starting the season 0-12.
But while Cal has lost to opponents across the NET spectrum — with eight defeats to Top-100 teams but also five setbacks to teams ranked 150th or higher — Stanford’s season has followed a clear pattern.
The Cardinal is 5-0 against teams ranked 233rd or worse: Pacific (233), Florida State (243), Cal Poly (244), Loyola Chicago (264) and Green Bay (356).
On the flip side, Stanford’s nine defeats have come at the hands of accomplished teams: UCLA (6), Texas (13), San Diego State (22), Utah (31), Wisconsin (54), Arizona State (55), Memphis (62), Colorado (74) and Ole Miss (93).
As you can see, there is very little happy medium on Stanford’s schedule. Not a single team ranked between No. 94 and No. 232.
Where do the Bears fit into that equation? Well, their NET ranking isn’t encouraging, but will they be better going forward than they have been at their worst so far?
Against Colorado, the Bears led by 18 points with barely 2 minutes left before crumbling against the Buffaloes’ frantic, full-court pressure. But they held on to win in spite of it all.
Freshman forward Grant Newell, coming off a 13-point, 12-rebound performance against Colorado, talks about Stanford in the video at the top of this story.
“Every team in the Pac is a good team,” he stresses. “There’s definitely no way to think anything less of any team. I know they’re a really well-coached team, really structured team, they shoot the ball well.”
Senior forward Spencer Jones (12.3 points per game) is the Cardinal’s only double-figure scorer, graduate transfer guard Michael Jones (9.8) and sophomore forward Harrison Ingram (9.1) close behind.
“They’re a talented team,” Cal coach Mark Fox said in the video below, while also noting the Bears have a lot of catching up to do in terms of getting players up to speed.
DeJuan Clayton has played in just two games coming off a nagging hamstring injury, and fellow transfer guard Devin Askew’s status is uncertain after he missed the CU game with another undisclosed injury.
Cover photo of Cal coach Mark Fox encouraging his team by D. Ross Cameron, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
Jeff Faraudo was a sports writer for Bay Area daily newspapers since he was 17 years old, and was the Oakland Tribune’s Cal beat writer for 24 years. He covered eight Final Fours, four NBA Finals and four Summer Olympics.