On Wednesday at 4:00 PM PT on ESPN2, Stanford men’s basketball will take on Cal in the second round of the ACC tournament, which is being played at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Stanford comes in as the No. 7 seed in the ACC tournament with a 19-12 overall record and an 11-9 ACC record while Cal comes in as the No. 15 seed with a 14-18 overall record and a 6-14 ACC record. This is the third time the two teams will have met this season. Stanford won the regular season head-to-head 2-0. The winner will face the No. 2 seed Louisville in the quarterfinals.
Last time out: Stanford is coming off a disappointing loss to Louisville on Saturday on the road, which was by a final score of 68-48. Louisville is now the No. 13 team in the nation and as mentioned above is the No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament.
RECAP: Stanford MBB falls to No. 14 Louisville
On Cal: The Golden Bears recently have lived on the edge with back-to-back overtime games. They lost a 4OT heartbreaker at Notre Dame on Saturday then defeated Virginia Tech in 2OT 82-73 yesterday to advance to the second round of the ACC tournament. So, they’ve played a lot of basketball lately and likely are at least a little fatigued.
Sophomore wing Andrej Stojakovic continues to lead the Bears with his 17.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game on 41.7% shooting from the field, 30.3% shooting from 3-point range, and 81.5% shooting from the foul line while freshman guard Jeremiah Wilkinson averages 15.1 points per game on 39.9% shooting from the field, 32.1% shooting from 3-point range, and 78.6% shooting from the foul line. The two of them have formed a terrific duo for the Bears all season long and will be looking to guide their team to a win over their arch rival.
As a team, the Bears average 75.7 points per game on 41.6% shooting from the field, 31.6% shooting from 3-point range, and 74.4% shooting from the foul line. They average 37.6 rebounds, 10.5 assists, 6.3 steals, 3.8 blocks, and 11.5 turnovers per game. They also average a +2.2 rebound margin and a +/- 0.0 turnover margin. Their opponents average 76.8 points per game on 46.7% shooting from the field, 37.1% shooting from 3-point range, and 73.9% shooting from the foul line.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is contain Andrej Stojakovic. In their 66-61 win over Stanford in their last meeting, they were able to hold Stojakovic to 16 points on 4-11 shooting from the field and 7-9 shooting from the foul line. Obviously, they need to do a better job of keeping Stojakovic away from the charity stripe, but if they can hold him under his scoring average, that would be huge as they look to get this win.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is stay out of foul trouble. Against Cal last time, Jaylen Blakes fouled out while Oziyah Sellers had four fouls. In total, Stanford had 25 fouls to Cal’s 21 fouls. If Stanford can do a better job staying out of foul trouble, they should be fine.
Lastly, Stanford needs to win the rebound battle. Cal out-rebounded them 42-35 last time. Stanford has to make sure that doesn’t happen in this game. If Stanford holds their own inside and wins the rebound battle, they should be in a good position to win this game.
Prediction: It’s very hard to beat a team three times, which gives Cal a certain edge in this game. Cal will be extremely motivated to not get swept and they played Stanford tough in their previous meeting. There’s a very live possibility Cal wins this game. Having said that, I still gotta roll with Stanford to advance. They’re the better team on paper and Cal should also be fatigued from their last two overtime games. Stanford 70 Cal 64 is how I see this one playing out.
Connect with CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Blue Sky: @StanfordRivals
Connect with Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Blue Sky: @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
