Cal Women Slight Favorites in Opening NCAA Tournament Game

First-round foe Mississippi State has had three common opponents with Cal this season

Mississippi State guard Jerkaila Jordan / MCKENZIE LANGE/ Staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

Cal  is a slight betting favorite in its first-round women’s NCAA Tournament game against Mississippi State one day after being a slight underdog.

On Monday morning Cal was listed as a 1.5-point underdog against the Bulldogs for their game in Los Angeles on Saturday, but by Monday afternoon most betting sites had agreed that the Golden Bears should be favored.

FanDuel, DraftKings and ESPN Bet all post Cal as a 1.5-point favorite for Saturday’s game as of midafternoon Monday.  FanDuel puts the over/under at 144.5 points while Draft Kings and ESPN Bet have it a point more at 145.5 points.

In any case, the game is virtually a tossup. If Cal wins Saturday, its second-round opponent next Monday almost certainly will be top-seeded USC, which is a 30.5-point favorite against UNC-Greensboro in its opening game on Saturday.

A Cal-USC game on Monday at the Galen Center in Los Angeles would pit Cal against former Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb, now the head coach at USC.

But first the Bears would have to get past Mississippi State, which is 21-11 overall and finished 7-9 in the Southeastern Conference standings.

Cal (25-8, 12-6 ACC) and Mississippi State had three common opponents this season – Auburn, Alabama and Georgia Tech.  Cal went 3-0 against those three opponents, and the Bulldogs were 2-2, having faced Auburn twice.

All three of Cal’s games against those teams were in Berkeley where Cal went 16-1 this season.  The Bears beat Auburn 63-59 on November 22, topped Alabama 69-65 on December 5, and defeated Georgia Tech 79-65 on February 27.

Mississippi State lost to Georgia Tech 75-73 on the road on December 4, and lost to Alabama 80-60 at home on February 9. The Bulldogs beat Auburn twice, clobbering the Tigers 96-56 at home on January 23 and getting past Auburn again  73-66 on the road on March 2.

Mississippi State’s best win was an 81-77 victory at home against Oklahoma, which was ranked No. 10 at the time and is 11th this week. The Bulldogs almost upset Texas when the Longhorns were No. 1, losing 68-64 on February 27 in Starkville, Mississippi.

Cal’s best win was a 78-71 victory over North Carolina State, which is ranked No. 9 at the moment.

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