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Cal Finalizes 2024-25 Men's Basketball Nonconference Schedule

September 9, 2024
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BERKELEY – Seven home games at Haas Pavilion and marquee road/neutral matchups against Vanderbilt, USC, Missouri and San Diego State highlight the California men’s basketball program’s 2024-25 nonconference schedule.

Cal will tip off year two of the Mark Madsen era Nov. 4 against CSU Bakersfield, the first of two consecutive home games to open the season. The Golden Bears will host Cal Poly later that same week on Nov. 7. Both contests will be parts of doubleheaders in Haas Pavilion; the Cal women’s basketball team will also host Saint Mary’s and Idaho State on the same dates. Cal defeated CSU Bakersfield 83-63 in Berkeley last November and has not faced Cal Poly since a 67-66 victory in December 2018.

Back-to-back road trips will pit the Bears against two power-conference opponents – one new, one familiar – in Vanderbilt (Nov. 13) and USC (Nov. 17). Cal has never faced Vanderbilt on the hardwood, while the Bears and Trojans, former Pac-12 Conference foes with more than 250 games played against one another, will go head-to-head as nonconference opponents for the first time since 1921. Both matchups are the front ends of home-and-home series, with Vanderbilt and USC playing return games in Berkeley at later dates to be determined.

Cal will host Air Force (Nov. 21), Sacramento State (Nov. 24) and Mercyhurst (Nov. 27) in the Cal Classic, a three-game round-robin tournament played over a 10-day span that includes Thanksgiving week. The Bears last faced Air Force in 2003 and Sacramento State in 1992 while Mercyhurst is one of three nonconference opponents that Cal has not played prior to the upcoming season.

Cal’s final nonconference road contest is the previously-announced SEC/ACC Challenge matchup at Missouri on Dec. 3.

The non-conference home slate concludes against Cornell (Dec. 10) and Northwestern State (Dec. 14), the latter being another first-time opponent.

Cal finishes nonconference play against San Diego State on Dec. 21 in the San Jose Tip-Off, a neutral-site doubleheader event hosted at SAP Center. It's the second consecutive season that the Golden Bears and Aztecs will meet on the hardwood, as Cal lost a 76-67 overtime contest to San Diego State at the SoCal Showcase in San Juan Capistrano last November.

Game times and television/streaming designations for Cal’s 2024-25 nonconference slate will be announced at later dates.

Season tickets for the 2024-25 campaign can be purchased by visiting CalBears.com/Tickets, calling 800-GO-BEARS (462-3277) or emailing goldstandard@berkeley.edu. Fans can support the Bears through the Cal Men's Basketball Excellence Initiative or the California Legends Collective.

2024-25 Cal Men’s Basketball Nonconference Schedule

Home games at Haas Pavilion are listed in bold

^ Cal Classic

$ SEC/ACC Challenge

+ San Jose Tip-Off (SAP Center, San Jose, Calif.)

Discussion from...

Cal Finalizes 2024-25 Men's Basketball Nonconference Schedule

2,642 Views | 16 Replies | Last: 5 days ago by AunBear89
oskidunker
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7:01p, 9/9/24
Lets go 11-0
Go Bears!
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HoopDreams
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8:36p, 9/9/24
Looks like a tough non-conference schedule with lots of good teams on the road
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oskidunker
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In reply to HoopDreams • 6:49a, 9/10/24
HoopDreams said:
Looks like a tough non-conference schedule with lots of good teams on the road
?
Go Bears!
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oski003
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6:58a, 9/10/24
The 3 tough games are USC, Missouri, and SDSU.
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RedlessWardrobe
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7:44a, 9/10/24
Quick question for anyone. I think (not sure) that we play 18ACC conference games. Aren't we allowed to play 30 total games excluding conference tournaments? That would leave us with one more to schedule if so. Can one of you friendly Bear fans clarify for me?
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brevity
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In reply to RedlessWardrobe • 9:46a, 9/10/24
RedlessWardrobe said:
Quick question for anyone. I think (not sure) that we play 18ACC conference games. Aren't we allowed to play 30 total games excluding conference tournaments? That would leave us with one more to schedule if so. Can one of you friendly Bear fans clarify for me?


https://theacc.com/news/2024/2/29/acc-announces-conference-matchups-for-2024-25-mens-basketball-season.aspx

Each ACC team plays 20 conference games: home/away against 3 assigned partners, and a total of 7 home games and 7 away games against the other 14.

CAL

Home/Away: SMU, Stanford, NC State

Home: Boston College, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

Away: Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pitt
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BTownsend
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3:09p, 9/10/24
So that gives us 31 games, same as last season.
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oskidunker
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5:40p, 9/10/24
Fight the imposter, Bring Back Coke to Haas Pavillion!
Go Bears!
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glutton
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9:04p, 9/10/24
For the conference games, do any of you know if the ACC has a pattern of which days of the week they schedule games, like how the Pac-12 games were usually pairs of games either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday?
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calumnus
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In reply to oski003 • 4:43a, 9/11/24
oski003 said:
The 3 tough games are USC, Missouri, and SDSU.


#22, #85 and #145 last year according to Ken Pomeroy.

It is not a very tough OOC schedule but ACC with extensive East Coast travel is going to be a challenge.
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calumnus
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In reply to glutton • 4:48a, 9/11/24
glutton said:
For the conference games, do any of you know if the ACC has a pattern of which days of the week they schedule games, like how the Pac-12 games were usually pairs of games either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday?


They have played games all through the week, but many of their schools are close. I expect they are trying to come up with a solution for Cal, Stanford and SMU traveling to the East Coast.
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RedlessWardrobe
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In reply to brevity • 6:42a, 9/11/24
brevity said:
RedlessWardrobe said:
Quick question for anyone. I think (not sure) that we play 18ACC conference games. Aren't we allowed to play 30 total games excluding conference tournaments? That would leave us with one more to schedule if so. Can one of you friendly Bear fans clarify for me?


https://theacc.com/news/2024/2/29/acc-announces-conference-matchups-for-2024-25-mens-basketball-season.aspx

Each ACC team plays 20 conference games: home/away against 3 assigned partners, and a total of 7 home games and 7 away games against the other 14.

CAL

Home/Away: SMU, Stanford, NC State

Home: Boston College, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

Away: Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pitt
Brevity, as usual you come through, thanks. I regard you as the director of the Cal Sports Encyclopedia.
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BearSD
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In reply to calumnus • 1:20p, 9/11/24
calumnus said:
glutton said:
For the conference games, do any of you know if the ACC has a pattern of which days of the week they schedule games, like how the Pac-12 games were usually pairs of games either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday?

They have played games all through the week, but many of their schools are close. I expect they are trying to come up with a solution for Cal, Stanford and SMU traveling to the East Coast.
Last year, ACC conference games in January and February were primarily played on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. They had ESPN time slots on all of those days and usually also a CW doubleheader on Saturday.

If they stick with those game days, a possible solution for games in the Bay Area is two teams traveling west to play on Saturday and Monday.

Maybe at least some of the road trips east will have three games on one trip, to minimize the number of trips?
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oskidunker
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In reply to BearSD • 2:35p, 9/11/24
BearSD said:
calumnus said:
glutton said:
For the conference games, do any of you know if the ACC has a pattern of which days of the week they schedule games, like how the Pac-12 games were usually pairs of games either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday?

They have played games all through the week, but many of their schools are close. I expect they are trying to come up with a solution for Cal, Stanford and SMU traveling to the East Coast.
Last year, ACC conference games in January and February were primarily played on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. They had ESPN time slots on all of those days and usually also a CW doubleheader on Saturday.

If they stick with those game days, a possible solution for games in the Bay Area is two teams traveling west to play on Saturday and Monday.

Maybe at least some of the road trips east will have three games on one trip, to minimize the number of trips?


The loss of the Thursday night game. Monday is probably morevtraffic going to Haas as everyone goes to the office on Monday
Go Bears!
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calumnus
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In reply to BearSD • 2:47p, 9/11/24
BearSD said:
calumnus said:
glutton said:
For the conference games, do any of you know if the ACC has a pattern of which days of the week they schedule games, like how the Pac-12 games were usually pairs of games either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday?

They have played games all through the week, but many of their schools are close. I expect they are trying to come up with a solution for Cal, Stanford and SMU traveling to the East Coast.
Last year, ACC conference games in January and February were primarily played on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. They had ESPN time slots on all of those days and usually also a CW doubleheader on Saturday.

If they stick with those game days, a possible solution for games in the Bay Area is two teams traveling west to play on Saturday and Monday.

Maybe at least some of the road trips east will have three games on one trip, to minimize the number of trips?


Yeah, I was thinking 3 or 4 games for Cal and Stanford traveling east. Maybe Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday? However, I think they will change the days for Cal and Stanford games if they need to in order to make it work.

20 conference games, 10 road games 2 of which are in Palo Alto and Dallas would leave 8 games to be played on the East Coast. That could be three trips with 3 games each trip on two of them. Or two trips with 4 games. Or 4 trips with two games each.

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AunBear89
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6:34p, 9/11/24
Disappointed that there is no neutral site exempt MTE (multiple team event). I wonder if the Cal Classic will become an annual thing, or if it was just created for this season.

The roadies to Vandy and Mizzu should tell us a lot about this team.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -- (maybe) Benjamin Disraeli, popularized by Mark Twain
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