Cal Paying a Steep Price for Rebounding Issues in ACC Games

Cal enters Saturday afternoon’s ACC matchup against 14th-ranked North Carolina with one overriding concern: Rebounding.

The Bears (13-5, 1-4 ACC) and Tar Heels (14-3, 2-2) will square off at Haas Pavilion, tipping off at 1 p.m. Cal is 12-2 at home but coming off a 71-56 loss No. 6 Duke. Carolina is 1-2 on the road after its 95-90 loss at Stanford.

The Heels provide all sorts of challenges to Cal, none more than what appears to be a significant rebounding advantage.

It won’t help that scrappy senior Rytis Petraitis, a 6-foot-7 forward, has undergone season-ending surgery, Cal announced Friday, after missing the past 12 games due to injury. Petraitis averaged 5.7 rebounds a year ago.

UNC, led by 6-10 freshman and projected high NBA lottery pick Caleb Wilson and sophomore Henri Veesaar, owns a plus-8.2 rebounding margin. The Tar Heels average 11.9 offensive rebounds per game.

Cal, by comparison, ranks second-to-last in the ACC and tied for 286th nationally in rebounding margin at minus-1.8. The discrepancy is far more severe in five ACC games, where the Bears are on the short end of a 12.2 rebounding margin.

They have lost the battle on the boards in four of five conference games, including by a 38-22 margin against Duke. The Blue Devils turned 11 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points and scored 42 points in the paint.

Center Lee Dort grabbed nine rebounds for the Bears vs. Duke but no one else had more than three. Dort averages a team-leading 7.6 rebounds.

Matching up against 6-foot-10 Wilson and 7-footer Veesaar will be a challenge for the Bears. Graduate transfer Milos Ilic, a 6-10 reserve center, played 18 minutes against Duke but managed just two rebounds. Seldom-used 6-11 sophomore Mantas Kocanas of Lithuania was on the floor for 6 minutes, grabbing one rebound.

Coach Mark Madsen paired two big men on the floor at the same time during stretches on Wednesday and the Bears will need to rebound by committee to neutralize UNC’s strength on the boards.

Petraitis won’t be part of the equation. He played in Cal’s first seven games and contributed 12 points and seven rebounds to the Bears’ 80-72 victory over UCLA on Nov. 25.

"Rytis brings an unmatched level of energy and effort to every game he plays," Madsen said. "He is an invaluable teammate on and off the court. He has an incredible work ethic, so we know he will recover and be back even better than before.”

A year ago, after transferring from Air Force, Petraitis averaged 8.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and had 44 steals while starting 29 of 33 games.

Petraitis, in a statement released by the athletic department, thanked Cal’s fans, his teammates and coaches for their support.

"This team is so special and I'm so happy to be a part of it," Petraitis said. "Unfortunately due to an injury, I intend to medically redshirt this season. It hurts me to not be out there fighting alongside my teammates, but the goal hasn't changed. I will be working unbelievably hard to come back better than ever."

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