Non conference schedule was announced Aug 9 last year. Maybe we will hear something soon.

SDSU on 12/21 in San Jose

BTownsend said:

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SDSU on 12/21 in San Jose

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interesting that Oregon plays Stanford

HoopDreams said:

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BTownsend said:

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SDSU on 12/21 in San Jose

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interesting that Oregon plays Stanford

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There has been a lot of talk about travel in football for the 6 former pac-12 teams in the B1G and ACC, but basketball is going to be the real challenge. I think it we are all going to have to focus on West Coast teams for the OOC schedule and that will probably include the six playing each other often.

This is an interesting topic and raises some questions about what you want your team to be.

Yes, the ACC is a tough basketball conference. But it's not the toughest. If we expect to be a tourney team (and geeze, a second weekend team!), we are going to have to win a lot of games in conference.

So what do cupcakes do for us? They inflate our win total yes. But that's about it. Ok, they can give a team confidence which is very important.

On the other hand, they hurt us a lot. They hurt our SOS which hurts our RPI which hurts our chances of making the tourney if we are a bubble team. They also hurt our actual play - they can cause teams to develop bad habits. To be OVERconfident. To not know how to win against good teams. To not know how to close out close games.

There was a team a few years ago, I think coached by Mike Davis, who many years ago took Indiana on a Final Four run. I recall reading about his OOC philosophy - he wanted hard games against elite programs and every single one of them on the road. He didn't care if they lost every game. Because he wanted to prepare his team for what mattered - the conference season. His goal was to make the tourney and to do that he had to win the conference. So that's what he prepared his team for. As I recall, it worked pretty well.

Edit: It was when he was at Texas Southern. You can see how his bad to mediocre OOC records were followed by very good conference seasons:



Now, we are not in that situation. We don't NEED to win the ACC tourney to get in. We can get in by being a good team in a good conference. But the lessons from Mike Davis can still be helpful. OOC cupcakes serve a purpose. But so do tough games in tough environments. They get your team ready for the road ahead. Cupcakes don't do that.

GMP said:

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This is an interesting topic and raises some questions about what you want your team to be.

Yes, the ACC is a tough basketball conference. But it's not the toughest. If we expect to be a tourney team (and geeze, a second weekend team!), we are going to have to win a lot of games in conference.

So what do cupcakes do for us? They inflate our win total yes. But that's about it. Ok, they can give a team confidence which is very important.

On the other hand, they hurt us a lot. They hurt our SOS which hurts our RPI which hurts our chances of making the tourney if we are a bubble team. They also hurt our actual play - they can cause teams to develop bad habits. To be OVERconfident. To not know how to win against good teams. To not know how to close out close games.

There was a team a few years ago, I think coached by Mike Davis, who many years ago took Indiana on a Final Four run. I recall reading about his OOC philosophy - he wanted hard games against elite programs and every single one of them on the road. He didn't care if they lost every game. Because he wanted to prepare his team for what mattered - the conference season. His goal was to make the tourney and to do that he had to win the conference. So that's what he prepared his team for. As I recall, it worked pretty well.

Edit: It was when he was at Texas Southern. You can see how his bad to mediocre OOC records were followed by very good conference seasons:



Now, we are not in that situation. We don't NEED to win the ACC tourney to get in. We can get in by being a good team in a good conference. But the lessons from Mike Davis can still be helpful. OOC cupcakes serve a purpose. But so do tough games in tough environments. They get your team ready for the road ahead. Cupcakes don't do that.

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Exactly right. Beating a cupcake can be worse than losing to a top team. Since we will play so many conference games on the East Coast, I do think we should focus our OOC schedule on West Coast teams, but we need to play quality teams (and teams that can draw fans to Haas). Thankfully there are plenty.

I was sort of tongue in cheek asking for a lot of cupcakes on the schedule. Well, I sure got them with 8 out of the 10 having losing records and three or four having Massey ratings over 300. Should expect at least 10 wins going into ACC conference play even though I don't know who the final two or three o o c games are.

HearstMining said:

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Yup - playing Mercyhurst (sounds like the name of a preschool) won't exactly be a defining moment for Cal basketball.

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Unless we lose.

parentswerebears said:

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HearstMining said:

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Yup - playing Mercyhurst (sounds like the name of a preschool) won't exactly be a defining moment for Cal basketball.

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Unless we lose.

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Well, there is that. But even if it happens, I'm confident Madsen will handle it:

• when talking to the press, don't dump on the players (unlike you-know-who)
• learn from the loss
• keep the team's mental approach consistent
• focus on the next game

According to Jon Rothstein, Cal plays at Vandy on November 13.

NEWS: Vanderbilt and Cal will begin a home-and-home series on November 13th in Nashville, according to a source.

Return game in Berkeley in 2025-26.https://t.co/L0EwaQsjcP

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) August 21, 2024

The Commodores fired Jerry Stackhouse and hired Mark Byington, who took James Madison to a 32-4 record last season, including a first round upset of Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament.

This will be a return to Nashville for Cal player Lee Dort, who transferred from Vanderbilt. Speaking of transfers, Coach Byington brought in 10 of them, and most played for power conference teams:

Jaylen Carey (from James Madison)
MJ Collins (from Virginia Tech)
Jason Edwards (from North Texas)
Alex Hemenway (from Clemson)
AJ Hoggard (from Michigan State)
Grant Huffman (from Davidson)
Chris Manon (from Cornell)
Devin McGlockton (from Boston College)
Tyler Nickel (from Virginia Tech)
Kijani Wright (from USC)

Ccajon2 said:

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I was sort of tongue in cheek asking for a lot of cupcakes on the schedule. Well, I sure got them with 8 out of the 10 having losing records and three or four having Massey ratings over 300. Should expect at least 10 wins going into ACC conference play even though I don't know who the final two or three o o c games are.

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OK what am I missing here? 5 games listed on the Web site schedule so far, where are the 8 cupcakes? If we have 10 wins going into the ACC I'll eat my Cal hat. If there's one thing we learned last year, it's that a band of kids who have never played together until they show up to campus are very likely to underperform for 2-3 months. I'm keeping expectations somewhere between last year's record and .500.
Can't wait to meet (and boo) Luke the Laker.
https://www.mercyhurst.edu/about/meet-mascot

AunBear89 said:

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Ridiculous. Schedule should be out.

This is what I've come up with so far from reading this thread and checking other teams' schedules:

CS Bakersfield
Cal Poly SLO
Air Force
Sacramento St
Mercyhurst
Cornell
Northwestern St
San Diego St in San Jose
@Missouri
@Vanderbilt

Possible: USC (saw this on X as being @SC on 11/4, but looks like Chattanooga is @SC that day)

I thin k just announced:

Cal at USC on November 17, 2024
At Cal sometime in 2025.

OFFICIAL: Kicking off a home-and-home series with Cal at Galen Center this November 📅 pic.twitter.com/volzNhMhd0

— USC Men's Basketball (@USC_Hoops) September 9, 2024

Of course we have to go there first and once again bow down to them. Screw it. Rather not play them

oskidunker said:

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Of course we have to go there first and once again bow down to them. Screw it. Rather not play them

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Counterpoint: Everyone says you have to have a presence in SoCal for recruiting, and this will be the only game the Bears play in SoCal in 2024-25.

BearSD said:

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oskidunker said:

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Of course we have to go there first and once again bow down to them. Screw it. Rather not play them

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Counterpoint: Everyone says you have to have a presence in SoCal for recruiting, and this will be the only game the Bears play in SoCal in 2024-25.

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No one goes to their games.

oskidunker said:

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BearSD said:

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oskidunker said:

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Of course we have to go there first and once again bow down to them. Screw it. Rather not play them

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Counterpoint: Everyone says you have to have a presence in SoCal for recruiting, and this will be the only game the Bears play in SoCal in 2024-25.

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No one goes to their games.

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Opportunity for SoCal Cal fans to show up and take over the place.

oskidunker said:

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BearSD said:

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oskidunker said:

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Of course we have to go there first and once again bow down to them. Screw it. Rather not play them

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Counterpoint: Everyone says you have to have a presence in SoCal for recruiting, and this will be the only game the Bears play in SoCal in 2024-25.

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No one goes to their games.

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Recruits might