Cal-Washington Basketball Preview: One Team Will Get First Pac-12 Win

CAL (5-7, 0-5 Pac-12) vs. WASHINGTON (1-8, 0-4 Pac-12)

WHERE: Haas Pavilion, Berkeley

WHEN: Saturday, noon

TV/RADIO: Pac-12 Network/810-AM

CAL-WASHINGTON HISTORY: Cal leads the series 86-82, but Washington has won four of the past six meetings. The teams split their two games each of the past two seasons, with each team winning on its homecourt. The Huskies won the most recent meeting 87-52 in Seattle on Feb. 22, 2020.

CAL STORYLINES: Cal is looking for its first conference win, and the home game against the Huskies is the Bears’ best chance this season to pick up a Pac-12 victory . . . The last time the Bears lost their first five conference games was 2018-19, when they lost their first 15 Pac-12 games . . . Matt Bradley, Cal’s top scorer at 17.8 points per game, did not play in Cal’s 71-60 loss to Washington State on Thursday because of an ankle injury, and did not play on Saturday either . . . Cal’s top scorer against the Cougars was Andre Kelly, who had 11 points. Center Lars Thiemann had a career-high 10 points in that game. (Kelly talks about Thiemann's progress in the video above.) . . . Senior forward Grant Anticevich (10.1 points, 5.3 rebounds), who underwent an emergency appendectomy on Dec. 17, played against Washington State after missing the previous four games . . . Coach Mark Fox suggested after Thursday’s loss that without Bradley the Bears may go back to their patient style they used last year. The idea is to limit the number of possessions, keep the score down and rely on their defense . . . Sophomore guard Jarred Hyder got his first start of the season on Thursday and had a team-high four assists . . . Without Bradley, Cal’s top scorers are Ryan Betley (10.1 points) and Anticevich, with Makale Foreman (10.0 points) also averaging in double figures.

WASHINGTON STORYLINES: At 1-8 the Huskies have their worst record after nine games since 1953-54, when Washington began the season 0-9. . . Washington has lost five games in a row, the last three against Pac-12 opponents, and all three of those conference defeats were by a margin of at least 16 points . . . On Thursday, the Huskies lost to Stanford 91-75 in Santa Cruz . . . Guard Marcus Tsohonis had not been getting much playing time before Thursday, when he got his first start of the season and scored a season-high 24 in 33 minutes against the Cardinal . . . Guard Quade Green is the only Washington player averaging in double figures in scoring, averaging 15.4 points per game. He did not start Thursday game against Stanford but played a team-high 36 points and score 15 points. Coach Mike Hopkins did not specify the reason Green did not start . . . Guard Nate Pryor, who had averaged 30.6 minutes over the previous five games and is the team’s second-leading scorer at 8.0 points per game, did not play Thursday because of a coaching decision.

CAL GAME NOTES: Click here

WASHINGTON GAME NOTES: Click here

Cover photo of Quade Green by Joe Nicholson, USA TODAY Sports

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