Cal Women Begin Their Basketball Season in Paris? Oui

It’s not often that a visit to the Louvre Museum and a boat ride down the Seine serve as preparation for a basketball team’s season opener, but that’s how the season is starting for Cal’s women’s basketball team.

Cal, which is coming of its first NCAA tournament berth in six years, will open its 2025-26 season on Monday at the prestigious Oui-Play Paris 2025 event to be played at the Adidas Arena in Paris, France. That’s a mere 5,600 miles and a long flight from Berkeley.

It also means an eight-hour difference from West Coast time, so Cal’s game against 19th-ranked Vanderbilt will start at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time on Monday on ESPNU even though it is the second game of a nighttime women’s doubleheader that features No. 7 Duke against 16th-ranked Baylor in the opener.

“It’s really an honor,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said of playing in this event. “It speaks to the growth of our program and where we’re going.”

South Carolina and Notre Dame played each other in the first Oui-Paris two years ago, and UCLA, Louisville, USC and Mississippi were involved last season, making it a big-time event.

Smith was approached about participating in Oui-Paris at last spring’s Final Four. She quickly contacted Cal administrators to see if could be approved, and, voila, Cal finds itself in Paris in November.

Besides the team’s visit to Paris’ prestigious art museum and the touristy trip down one of the world’s most famous rivers, Cal’s team faces a formidable challenge on the court. Vanderbilt is not only ranked in the preseason poll, but it features one of the best players in the country in sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes, who averaged 23.3 points last season as a freshman.

The Athletic put her on its preseason first-team All-America squad, and ESPN ranked her as the ninth-best player in the country coming into the 2025-26 season. Blakes scored more than 50 points twice last season, and she warmed up for this season by scoring 40 points in the Commodores’ recent exhibition win over Memphis.

Because Cal has some injury issues, Smith is not sure what her starting five will be for Monday’s game, but it will include freshman Puff Morris, a high school McDonald’s All-American last year, and Lulu Twidale, the only returning starter from last season’s team that went 25-9 last season, including 12-6 in the ACC.

Cal has almost an entirely new roster with a number of transfers, and it was picked to finish 12th in the ACC in the preseason poll. But last year, the Bears were pegged for 14th place in the preseason conference poll and the Bears wound up seventh, just one game out of fourth.

The Bears return home to play their next five games at Haas Pavilion.