Cal Hopes to Rebound vs. Notre Dame After First ACC Defeat

The Cal men’s basketball team has improved in so many ways this season, but one area of concern was exposed in the Bears’ 90-70 loss to No. 16 Louisville in their ACC opener on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals outrebounded Cal 50-31 and secured 15 offensive rebounds they turned into 14 points.

The Bears (12-2, 0-1 ACC) return to action Friday against Notre Dame (10-4, 1-0) at Haas Pavilion. Tipoff is 8 p.m.

Coach Mark Madsen, referencing an early 10-0 deficit against Louisville, said the Bears have to start faster, defend the 3-point line better and rebound better.

“The Notre Dame game is a huge game for us,” Madsen said. “That’s an excellent basketball team. Notre Dame has shooting, they have a lot of physicality up front, they have size at key positions. We have to be ready for them.”

The Irish are without star guard Markus Burton, who averages 18.5 points and scored 43 last year in Notre Dame’s 112-110 four-overtime victory against the Bears. Burton suffered a left foot or ankle injury on Dec. 5 that required surgery and is sidelined indefinitely.

But the visitors from South Bend, Ind., are a solid defensive squad, as evidenced by their 47-40 win at Stanford on Tuesday. And they can rebound.

”That was the defensive effort that we’ve put in since we’ve gotten back from Christmas,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “That’s how we need to play. If we guard that way we’ve got a chance to win every night. We are a full team defense.”

The Irish, who beat Stanford 48-36 on the boards, are sixth in the ACC with a plus-7.6 rebounding margin. Cal is 15th at plus-0.5.

Notre Dame graduate transfer Carson Towt, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward, is third in the conference at 10.1 rebounds per game and compiled more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds during four seasons at Northern Arizona.

NOTES: Notre Dame has a 2-1 series edge against Cal and is making its first trip to Berkeley . . . Cal is 9-1 at home this season while Notre Dame is 2-1 in road games . . . In the wake of Burton’s injury, Mark Zackery IV, a freshman defensive back on the Irish football team, has joined the basketball squad. Zackery, who played on a state championship high school team in Indiana, has appeared in just one game and played five scoreless minutes.

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