Photo by Ron Chenoy, USA Today
Cal Basketball: Bears Begin Final Homestand of Season vs. Colorado
CAL (11-16, 5-9) vs. No. 21 COLORADO (21-7, 10-5)
WHAT: Pete Newell Classic game, honoring Shareef Abdur-Rahim, recipient of the Pete Newell Lifetime Achievement Award.
WHERE: Haas Pavilion, Berkeley
WHEN: Thursday, 6 p.m.
TV/RADIO: Pac-12 Networks/810-AM
CAL-COLORADO HISTORY: Colorado leads 18-15 and has won the past five meetings, although all five were by single-digit margins. CU beat Cal 71-65 when the teams met Feb. 5 in Boulder. Matt Bradley scored 17 points for the Bears while Tyler Bey led the Buffaloes with 21. The Bears’ most recent win in the series was on Feb. 5, 2017 when they built a 23-point lead in the first half on the way to a 77-66 victory at Berkeley.
CAL STORYLINES: The Bears are coming off an 87-52 shellacking at Washington, which followed their first road victory of the season, 66-57 at Washington State. . . . Cal tries to get back on the winning track at home after starting the season 10-3 at Haas before losing twice to the Arizona schools two weeks ago. . . . While the Bears struggled on offense at UW, they had a productive weekend at the free-throw line, converting 49 of 60 for 81.7 percent in the two games on the road trip. . . . Matt Bradley (17.4 points per game) has scored in double digits in all but one game this season. . . . Senior point guard Paris Austin had averaged 12.5 points in eight previous games before shooting 2-for-8 and posting just 4 points in the loss at Washington. . . .
COLORADO STORYLINES: The Buffaloes, striving for their first NCAA tournament bid since 2016, have split their first three Pac-12 road trips. They have wins over Arizona State, USC and Oregon State, and losses at Arizona, UCLA and Oregon. . . . CU is led by the 1-2 punch of point guard McKinley Wright IV (13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists) forward Tyler Bey (13.5 points, 7.2 rebounds). Wright, who has scored 1,298 points in three seasons, is just 12 assists shy of 500 for his career. Bey ranks second in the Pac-12 with 11 double-doubles. . . . The Buffaloes shot 5-for-19 from the 3-point arc in their loss to UCLA last Saturday and are converting just 32 percent from beyond the arc in their five conference defeats.
CAL GAME NOTES: Click here
COLORADO GAME NOTES: Click here
