Cal Looks to Turn the Tables on Stanford in Pac-12 Tournament

Cal’s prospects of winning its first-round game of the Pac-12 tournament Wednesday night come down to this:

If Stanford’s Oscar da Silva plays against Cal, the Golden Bears are big underdogs.

If da Silva does not play, the game is a tossup.

Yes, one player can make that much difference in Wednesday’s 7 p.m. Cal-Stanford game on Pac-12 Networks.

Sixth-seeded Stanford (14-12, 10-10 Pac-12) beat Cal (8-19, 3-17 Pac-12) twice during the regular season, 70-55 and 76-70, and da Silva scored 24 and 23 points in those two games.

But da Silva, who is averaging 18.8 points, missed the final three games of the regular season with a leg injury, and the Cardinal lost all three, including an embarrassing 79-42 loss to USC in its final regular-season game last Wednesday.

Da Silva was listed as day-to-day as of Tuesday, so call it a 50-50 chance that he will play against Cal.

“We’ll prepare like he’s going to play,” Cal coach Mark Fox said Tuesday in the video above. “And he’s a player we’ve had a very hard time matching up against this year. We tried several things against him in the first couple games, none that were successful.”

The availability of Stanford guards Daejon Davis and Bryce Wills, who missed the regular-season finale with injuries but are expected to play Wednesday, will be important, but not as important as da Silva, through whom Stanford runs its offense.

The winner of Wednesday’s Cal-Stanford game will face No. 3 seed Colorado at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, but the Bears cannot afford to look ahead.

Cal lost its final four games of the regular season and 11 of its last 12. And it will be 11 days between the Bears’ final regular-season game and their game against Stanford. Whether that means the Bears will be rusty or rested remains to be seen. What is clear is that Cal will have to win four games in four days against opponents that will be favored to earn an NCAA tournament berth.

However, Cal upset Stanford 63-51 in the first round of last year’s Pac-12 tournament before the tournament was halted because of COVID-19. Da Silva had just four points in that game, although he was not the central figure in the offense at the time.

“The memories are vivid,” said Fox in the video below regarding the odd circumstances of that game and situation that followed.

Cal ruined Stanford’s NCAA tournament hopes last year (although the NCAA tournament was ultimately canceled), and would like to do so again this year.

Stanford probably has to with the Pac-12 tournament to get an NCAA Tournament berth. But the Cardinal has four Quandrant 1 wins, tied with USC for the most among Pac-12 teams. Stanford also has the best Pac-12 win of the season, an 82-64 victory over eventual Southeastern Conference champion Alabama back on Nov. 30 in Asheville, N.C.

That's unlikely to be enough, though, and Cal can end any Stanford hopes with an upset on Wednesday.

Cal will need a big game from Matt Bradley, a second-team all-conference pick who is third in the Pac-12 in scoring at 18.4 points per game.

The Bears will also need inside production from Andre Kelly, who averaged 13.0 points and 7.7 rebounds over the final three games.

Cover photo of Stanford's Oscar da Silva shooting over Cal's Andre Kelly is by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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