Cal's Loss to Florida State Presumably Ends Bears' NCAA Tournament Hopes

Cal’s fading hopes of landing an NCAA tournament berth presumably were extinguished in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, when the Bears lost to Florida State 95-89 in the second round of the ACC tournament.

Cal’s season is probably not over because the Bears will be prime candidates for a berth in the National Invitation Tournament, but a disappointing finish to the season prevented bigger accomplishments.

The Bears will pay attention when the NCAA tournament field is announced on Sunday, but it's unlikely Cal's name will be called.

Cal (21-11, 9-9 ACC) seemed destined for its first NCAA tournament berth in 10 years when it beat SMU 73-69 on February 28 to improve to 20-8 overall and 8-7 in the ACC with a favorable schedule remaining.

But the Bears lost three of their final four games, including Wednesday’s defeat, and all four of those games were against teams that finished in eighth place or lower in the ACC standings.

Ninth-seeded Cal did not look like an NCAA tournament team for most of the game on Wednesday, when eighth-seeded Florida State (18-14, 10-8 ACC) dominated the Bears, who probably needed to win this game to keep realistic NCAA tournament hopes alive.

."I apologized to the team, because when it's all said and done I did not get this done in terms of this game tonight," Cal coach Mark Madsen said. "I feel like our team has done special things this year."

The Seminoles beat Cal by just two points back in January, but Florida State is a much better team now and has won 10 of its last 12 games.

The Seminoles led by 14 points at halftime, extended their lead to 22 points with 12:14 remaining in the second half, still led by 21 points with 4:36 left and cruised to the win despite a late flurry by the Bears.. Cal scored 30 points in the final eight minutes, but there was never a feeling that Cal would win the game.

"Our resume is strong," said Madsen, referring to Cal's four Quad 1 wins, including one Quad 1A victory, "and the will and the fight is all there."

Robert McCray V had 30 points and eight assists for Florida State, which shot 57.4 percent from the floor and went 13-for-28 on three-point shots.

Dai Dai Ames had 27 points for Cal, while Lee Dort scored just seven points but pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds. Chris Bell added 17 points and Justin Pippen had 15 points and six assists.

Cal committed 12 turnovers compared with just six turnovers for Florida State.
Florida State did not commit its first turnover until 14 minutes remained in the game, and by then the Seminoles had built a 21-point advantage.

The Seminoles will play a quarterfinal game on Thursday against top-ranked Duke, which is 29-2 but will be without two injured starters – point guard Caleb Foster and center Pat Ngongba II.

Cal was hoping to get the chance to face Duke, figuring that an upset of the Blue Devils would lift the Bears into the NCAA tournament.

Florida State began the day with a NET ranking of 70, while the Bears were ranked 66th.

CBS Sports’ NCAA tournament projections on Wednesday morning listed Cal as the last team in the 68-team field, giving the Bears a No. 11 seed and matching the Bears against VCU in a preliminary-round game.

Fox Sports’ Wednesday projections placed Cal among the First Four Out, putting the Bears within reach of an at-large berth.

Cal was listed as the last team in the Next Four Out category of Joe Lunardi’s NCAA tournament projections posted Wednesday morning. That means the Bears would have to pass eight teams to be in position for an at-large berth to March Madness.

Joe Lunardi Bracketology Wednesday morning | Joe Lunardi twitter

USA Today’s projections also list Cal among the Next Four Out, putting the Bears behind seven teams for an at-large berth.

Just three the 105 NCAA tournament projection sites monitored by the Bracket Matrix website have Cal in the 68-team field.

All those postseason consideration seemed to vanish in the first half, which was dominated by Florida State.

Florida State did not commit a single turnover in the first half, which ended with the Seminoles holding a 46-32 lead.

Florida State made only one of its first nine shots from the field, helping Cal to leads of 9-2 and 13-7 early in the game.

But the Seminoles then made 10 of their next 11 shots, including 4-for-4 on three-pointer, to power a 25-3 Florida State run that gave the Seminoles a 30-16 lead.

Florida State turned that into a 14-point halftime lead after making 52.9 percent of its first-half shots and hitting 7-of-14 shots from long range.

McCray V led Florida State with 14 first-half points while Kobe Magee was 4-for-5 on three-point shots and had 13 points at halftime.

Ames had 10 in the first half for Cal, which committed eight turnovers before halftime compared to none committed by the Seminoles.