Stanford and California meet for the first time as Atlantic Coast Conference rivals when each tries to prove its impressive non-league record is no fluke on Saturday afternoon in Berkeley, Calif.
Stanford (7-2) took last year’s season series 2-1, but the clubs were so evenly matched — the Cardinal won 14 games, the Golden Bears 13 — it took overtime at the final Pacific-12 Conference tournament to determine the rivalry winner.
The teams enter their first meeting this season with the same number of losses, but Cal (6-2) has had the edge in strength of schedule. The Golden Bears were invited to play in the SEC/ACC Challenge, in which they squandered a second-half lead en route to a 98-93 loss at Missouri.
Cal’s only other loss also came on the road at a Southeastern Conference site, an 85-69 setback at Vanderbilt on Nov. 13.
Meanwhile, Stanford has played seven of its nine games at home and hasn’t left the state of California. The Cardinal were beaten by Grand Canyon at a neutral site on Nov. 26 before getting shocked at home by Cal Poly last Saturday.
This Saturday’s matchup is the first since Andrej Stojakovic, Stanford’s prize recruit last year, transferred to Cal after just one season. The son of former NBA standout Peja Stojakovic leads the Golden Bears in scoring at 18.8 points per game.
Andrej Stojakovic has averaged 31.9 minutes per game for Cal after getting just 22.3 per game as a freshman at Stanford a season ago. He said anticipating that type of greater opportunity prompted his move across the San Francisco Bay.
“I thought that when I played a large amount of minutes (last season), I performed to what I was expected to do from the staff and the program,” he noted. “But just going into Cal and having a more consistent role and having the confidence instilled from the staff has been huge so far.”
Stanford returned just one of its top seven scorers from last season, but that was center Maxime Raynaud. The preseason All-ACC selection is averaging 22.3 points and 12.2 rebounds per game, with double-doubles in eight of nine outings.
He had two double-doubles and a pair of 20-point games against Cal last season.
Duke transfer Jaylen Blakes offered a unique perspective on his first Stanford-Cal experience.
“Every ACC game is going to be a challenge,” he claimed. “(Cal is) a rivalry game, but we are just trying to get a win.”
–Field Level Media
