Cal Will Play Four Teams Ranked in AP Preseason Basketball Poll

Cal this season will play four teams ranked in the AP preseason top-25 basketball poll, which was released Monday.

All four of those ranked teams -- UCLA, Louisville, Duke and North Carolina -- will play Cal in the Bay Area. Three of those teams are ranked among the top 12.

Cal’s first top-25 opponent will be UCLA. The Bruins are ranked No. 12 in the preseason poll, and the Bears will face UCLA on Tuesday, November 25, in a nonconference game to be played at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

The starting lineup for the Bruins, as projected by ESPN’s Jeff Borzello a week ago, includes two transfers – Donovan Dent, who averaged 20.4 points at New Mexico last season, and Steve Jamerson, who averaged 10.0 points at San Diego. The other three projected starters are Skyy Clark (8.5 points per game), Eric Dailey (11.4) and Tyler Bilodeau (13.5).

None of those five projected starters began his college career at UCLA.

Cal plays its ACC opener at home on Tuesday, December 30, against Louisville, which is ranked 11th in the preseason poll. The Cardinals were the surprise team of the ACC last season when they finished second to Duke and handed the Blue Devils their only conference loss.

But they will have a much different look this season.

Prized freshman Mikel Brown Jr. is the presumed star for Louisville this season, but transfers Isaac McNeeley (Virginia), Ryan Conwell (Xavier) and Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State) provide additional talent.

Cal plays back-to-back games against preseason top-25 teams when Duke and North Carolina come to Berkeley in mid-January.

Duke is ranked No. 6 in the preseason AP poll, and the Blue Devils visit Cal on Wednesday, January 14. Duke won the ACC title last season when it advanced to the NCAA Final Four and finished with a 35-4 record.

Cooper Flagg, the national player of the year last season, is no longer on the Duke roster. In fact none of the players who started for Duke in the national semifinals last season are on the Blue Devils roster this season.

The Blue Devils will again rely on elite freshmen from the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class. The big name is freshman Cameron Boozer, with freshman Nikolas Khamenia also expected to be a starter. Cameron’s brother, freshman Cayden Boozer, will also play a lot and could be a starter.

Three days later North Carolina comes to Berkeley on Saturday afternoon, January 17. The Tar Heels are ranked No. 25 in the preseason poll after barely making the NCAA tournament last season, when they finished with a 23-14 record, including 13-7 in the ACC.

The Tar Heels could have four newcomers in their starting lineup led by highly touted freshman Caleb Wilson. Kyan Evans, a transfer from Colorado State; Henri Veesaar, a transfer from Arizona; and Luka Bogavac, who played the past two season for Montenegro in the Adriatic League, also figure as prominent players.

Cal went 14-19, including 6-14 in ACC play, last season, and the Bears open this season with a home game against Cal State-Bakersfield on Tuesday, November 3.

The Bears’ lineup will consist primarily of transfers with just three players with starting experience returning from last season’s roster – DJ Campbell, Rytis Petraitis and Lee Dort. Virginia transfer Dai Dai Ames and Syracuse transfer Chris Bell are likely to be starters on a team that has nine transfers on its roster.

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