Cal Hoops Announces Non-Conference Schedule

Cal’s men’s hoops team won’t travel far from Berkeley before the conference season. Besides a trip to New York City in November, the Bears will play at Haas Pavilion or somewhere else in the Bay Area during their 13-game non-conference schedule, which was announced by the athletics department Thursday..

The Bears open the official season on November 5 against Pepperdine and have four straight home games before traveling to New York City to play in the Empire Classic on November 21 and 22. The matchups have yet to be announced, but Duke, Texas, and Georgetown are the other teams in the early-season tournament. 

Cal returns to the Haas for a matchup with UC-Davis before taking their first “road” trip to play San Francisco on December 4th and Santa Clara on December 7th. The Bears’ remaining games are all at Haas Pavilion sans a showdown with Boston College at the new Chase Center in San Francisco.

“I’m pleased we can announce early enough for our fans to plan and we’re looking forward to debuting a squad full of young talent to a supportive and reenergized fanbase,” Bears head coach Mark Fox said in a release from the school. “The goal of a non-conference schedule is to prepare you for Pac-12 play, and this schedule does that. We have lots of work to do to get ready for the season.”

The schedule sets up nicely for a young team with many new players and a new coach. They’ll have plenty of games in their own gym with a few low-key road games and one big marquee weekend with other power conference foes in New York City. The rest of the 2019-2020 schedule will be announced in September.