On Sunday afternoon, Stanford beat up on Cal to split the season series with its Bay Area rival.
With a Pac-12 championship on the line, the Bears put forth arguably one of their least inspiring efforts of the season, losing 75-70 in an unassertive, poor-shooting performance. Cal now enters the Pac-12 tournament — its “new season” according to senior Harper Kamp — reeling from two consecutive losses for the first time this season.
Yet, while the team isn’t looking back, it might have to.
As the No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Bears (23-8, 13-5 in the Pac-12) will face the winner of Wednesday’s 6 p.m. matchup between 10th-seeded Arizona State and, you guessed it, seventh-seeded Stanford.
The Cardinal (20-10, 10-8) are the clear favorite to advance to Thursday’s 6 p.m. quarterfinal tilt to rematch Cal. Besides the fact that Stanford is coming off one of its best games of the season — the squad was 8-for-18 from 3-point range against what is usually an effective Bears defense — the Cardinal have already defeated the Sun Devils once this season. On Feb. 2, the Cardinal blew out ASU by 24 points at Maples Pavilion.
But the Sun Devils (10-20, 6-12) are vastly improved. Trent Lockett, ASU’s best player, was injured and did not play in the teams’ first matchup. The junior swingman is apparently healthy now — he led the way in the Devils’ upset of Arizona on Sunday, collecting seven boards, five assists and four steals to go along with 21 points.
Even though two other ASU players hit 20 on Sunday, the Sun Devils are still not a deep team, and their trademark matchup zone defense might not be enough to neutralize Stanford’s offensive attack.
After Sunday’s game, the Cardinal probably aren’t first on Cal’s list of teams it wants to face in the Pac-12 tournament — even though the Bears defeated Stanford by 10 in their first meeting this season. Cal’s lone matchup with Arizona State was a 21-point beatdown that saw the Devils score just 16 points in the first half.
However, if the Bears had beaten the Cardinal and seized the top seed, they would be playing the winner of Oregon State and Washington State, teams Cal went a cumulative 1-2 against this season.
Record-wise, the later rounds might be easier for the Bears – they went 3-0 against Washington and Oregon, seeded first and third, respectively.
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