Pac-12 Tournament Preview: Cal Faces Washington State in Opener Wednesday

Bears lost to Cougars twice in the regular season and must win four games in four days to get an NCAA tournament berth

Cal needs to win four games in four days to get it first NCAA tournament berth since 2016.

If the Bears beat Washington State in the first round Wednesday night, they would face 13th-ranked and second-seeded UCLA in the quarterfinals Thursday. If Cal should beat the Bruins, it would probably face 21st-ranked and third-seeded USC in the semifinals Friday. And if the Bears win that game, they most likely would face No. 2-ranked and top-seeded Arizona in the title game Saturday.

Cal went 0-8 against those four potential opponents in the regular season.

Here’s the breakdown of the Bears’ first-round game against Washington State

NO. 10 SEED CAL (12-19, 5-15) vs. NO. 7 SEED WASHINGTON STATE (18-13, 11-9)

WHERE: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

WHEN: Wednesday, 6 p.m.

TV: Pac-12 Network – Ted Robinson (play-by-play), Bill Walton (analyst)

RADIO: 810-AM

ODDS TO WIN PAC-12 TOURNAMENT: Cal 500-to-1; Washington State 30-to-1 (Odds vary depending betting site)

BETTING LINE FOR THE GAME: Washington State is favored by 8 points.

THIS SEASON’S CAL-WASHINGTON STATE MATCHUPS: Washington State has beaten Cal four times in a ow, and won both games against the Bears this season. On January 15, WSU beat Cal 65-57 in Pullman, Wash. Cal led that game by two points at halftime, but Andrej Jakimovski hit three of his four three-point shots in the second half to give the Cougars the win. Andre Kelly had 12 points and 14 rebounds in that game for Cal, but he did not play in the second game against the Cougars, a 68-64 Washington State victory in Berkeley on February 5. Cal rallied from a 12-point deficit with seven minutes left to get within two, but could get no closer. Jalen Celestine had a career-high 20 points for Cal and Michael Flowers had 21 points for WSU.

CAL STORYLINES: Cal has won a first-round game in the conference tournament in each of Mark Fox’s first two seasons at Cal. Both wins were against Stanford. Cal lost to Colorado in the second round last year and the Pac-12 tournament was canceled after the Bears’ opening-round victory in 2020 . . . Cal is coming off an 89-61 loss to No. 2 Arizona on Saturday in Tucson. That came after a 71-44 loss to Arizona State two days earlier. A week earlier Cal had played its best game of the season in a 53-39 victory over Stanford . . . . Starting point guard Joel Brown missed Saturday’s game with a knee injury, and it is uncertain whether he will be able to play against Washington State. . . . Cal lost 14 of its final 17 games . . . The Bears are still without Andre Kelly, who missed the final 10 games with an ankle injury and still has not announced whether he will return for the 2022-23 season . . . Cal ranks first in the Pac-12 in three-point field goal defense, allowing opponents to shoot only 31.0% from long range. That should help against the Cougars, who lead the Pac-12 in three-pointers attempted and made. . . Cal ranks last in the Pac-12 in scoring, averaging 63.19 points per game, and the Bears averaged just 54.0 points over their final four games. . . . Jordan Shepherd leads the Bears in scoring, at 14.5 a game, but his shooting percentage for the season slipped to 39.9% after he went 9-for-27 in the final two games.

WASHINGTON STATE STORYLINES: The Cougars won their final three games to finish with a winning conference record (11-9) for the first time since 2007-08. . . . Washington State lives and dies by the three-point shot. The Cougars have attempted 830 three-point shots, which is 137 more than any other team in the Pac-12, and they have made 285 of them, which also ranks first in the conference. . . . In the 94-74 rout of Oregon in their final regular-season game on Saturday, the Cougars made 16 shots from beyond the three-point arc in 34 attempts. More than half their shot attempts in that game were from beyond the three-point line and half their made field goals were three-pointers . . . WSU’s reliance on the three-point shot may be why it ranks last in the Pac-12 in overall field-goal percentage at 41.1 percent . . . Michael Flowers has attempted 229 three-point shots, the most in the conference, and he has made 89 of them, which is also the most in the conference. He is the team’s top scorer at 14.23 points per game . . . Tyrell Roberts is second on the team in scoring at 10.8 points per game and he is third in the Pac-12 in three-pointers attempted at 192. . . . Washington State’s 6-foot-10 Efe Abogidi averages 1.71 blocks per game, which ranks second in the conference. He had two blocks in each of the two regular-season games against Cal . . . WSU freshman Mouhamed Gueye has been coming on strong recently and was named Pac-12 freshman of the week in each of the final two weeks. He’ averaged 11.2 points over the final five games. . . . Washington State lost to Arizona State in the first round of last year’s Pac-12 tournament, but beat Colorado in the opening round in 2020.

CAL GAME NOTES: Click here

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Cover photo by James Snook, USA TODAY Sports

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