CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cal is getting plenty of action late in its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Now the Bears go into the second round of the ACC tournament, and there’s something familiar waiting – the Stanford Cardinal.
Cal (14-18), the No. 15 seed, will meet seventh-seeded Stanford (19-12) on Wednesday night.
The Bears needed two overtimes to overcome No. 10 seed Virginia Tech 82-73 in Tuesday’s first round.
Combined with Saturday’s four-overtime loss at Notre Dame in the regular-season finale, that’s a lot of basketball in a short period of time.
“That’s six overtimes in the last two games, and our guys, they just never stopped fighting,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said.
There could be a benefit for the Bears — at least that’s the way Madsen is framing it.
“Our guys are in rhythm. They might be a little tired, but our guys are in basketball rhythm,” he said. “So we’re in a great place to continue to make every effort to have great momentum going forward.”
The Bears have a challenge in front of them. Stanford swept Cal in two games during the regular season, by scores of 89-81 in December and 66-61 in February.
Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud is an All-ACC first-team selection with averages of 20.1 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. His 23 double-doubles lead the country.
So this is another chance for Raynaud to showcase his talents and for the Cardinal to demonstrate why they were underappreciated entering the season. They were dubbed 17th of 18 teams in the ACC preseason poll.
“We just talked about the process and just (doing) your best every day,” coach Kyle Smith told The Stanford Daily. “They did a really good job of staying present and trying to improve.”
Stanford’s Jaylen Blakes has been in the ACC tournament in the past as a Duke player.
Cal players said they feel battle-tested after the recent stretch. Andrej Stojakovic scored 29 points in the Virginia Tech game, marking his third-highest scoring total of the season.
“We’ve been on the road for 10 days, and I wouldn’t change it for anything else,” Stojakovic said. “We get to play basketball. It’s a win-or-go-home scenario. Just got to be out there and stay aggressive and have fun with the guys.”
Stojakovic made three 3-point shots against the Hokies, marking just the second time he has reached that number in a game since mid-December.
–Bob Sutton, Field Level Media
