Cal (8-23, 2-16 Pac-12) vs. Stanford (17-14, 11-7 Pac-12)

Wednesday, March 7 | 2:30 PM PT | T-Mobile Arena | Berkeley, Calif.
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California men's basketball is set for a rare matchup with Bay Area rival Stanford at the Pac-12 Tournament when the No. 12 seed Golden Bears meet the No. 5 seed Cardinal in the first round Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. PT. All of this week's action takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., with Wednesday's game airing live on the Pac-12 Networks and KGO 810 AM.

The Bears and Cardinal have met just twice in the conference tournament, splitting those games 1-1. Cal is the series' most recent victor, taking a 77-70 win in 2012. Stanford won the inaugural meeting, 77-61, in 1990.

The Bay Area battle comes after a pair of exciting regular-season games between the two foes in which both games were decided by four points or fewer. Cal took the first victory of the season, 77-74, down at the Farm, but the Cardinal avoided a sweep with a 77-73 win in Berkeley.

Senior Marcus Lee led the Bears in the regular-season series with Stanford, averaging 17.0 points and 8.0 rebounds. Justice Sueing averaged 16.5 points and Don Coleman averaged 16.0. All three finished the regular season averaging double-figure scoring totals alongside Darius McNeill's 11.1 ppg.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION: 
Roxy Bernstein and Don MacLean will have play-by-play and commentary from Wednesday afternoon's game, with Jill Savage on the sideline. The game airs live on Pac-12 Networks and is also available to stream on www.Pac-12.com/live and via the Pac-12 Now App. The California Golden Bears Sports Network will offer play-by-play and analysis, as well as post-game interviews, from Todd McKim and Jay John live on KGO 810 AM. Live stats, full broadcast details and more can be accessed via the Cal men's basketball schedule page on CalBears.com, and fans can follow the Bears on social media via @CalMBball on Twitter and Instagram, and at Facebook.com/CalMBball.
 

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CAL IN THE PAC-12 TOURNAMENT

California owns a 16-20 all-time record in the Pac-12 Tournament, including two trips to the championship game in 2006 and 2010. 

Cal won its opening-round games each of the last three seasons, defeating Washington State, 84-59, in 2015's first round and topping Oregon State, 76-68, in the quarterfinals in 2016. In 2017, Cal opened against Oregon State and pulled past the Beavers, 67-62. The Bears have never failed to reach the tournament quarterfinals, and own a 9-10 record in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals. 

SCOUTING THE CARDINAL

Last Meeting: L, 77-73, in Berkeley on Feb. 18
• Four Golden Bears scored in double figures -- Don Coleman (17 points), Justice Sueing (15), Marcus Lee (15) and Juhwan Harris-Dyson (13)
• Harris-Dyson scored a career-high 13 points, 10 of which came in the first half.
• Cal scored 21 points off 16 Stanford turnovers. The Bears had only 9 turnovers, their lowest since also recording 9 vs. Arizona State on Jan. 20.
• The game featured 12 lead changes and 7 ties
Series Record: X Cal leads, 149-123
Stanford's 2017-18 Record: 17-14, 11-7 Pac-12
Stanford's Last Game: Pulled past Arizona State in the final second, 84-83, in Tempe on March 3
• Reid Travis, who was voted First Team All-Pac-12, led the Cardinal in league play with 18.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
• Dorian Pickens (15.9 ppg) was also named to the All-Pac-12 team with an honorable mention selection, and Daejon Davis, who averaged 11.6 points in Pac-12 action, was named Pac-12 AllFreshman.
• KZ okpala also averaged double figures in conference play with 10.1 points.
• Stanford leads the Pac-12 in total rebounds (1,178), and ranks second for free throw attempts (737) and free throws made (507).
• The Cardinal are 0-4 in neutral-site games this season.

CAL RECORDS AGAINST STANFORD
Points: 41, Ray Murry, March 5, 1977
Rebounds: 22, Ansley Truitt, Feb. 4, 1972
FG: 17, Dick Tamberg, Feb. 26, 1954
3P: 7, Jabari Bird, Feb. 17, 2017
FT: 16, Jackie Ridgle, Jan. 17, 1969

SERIES NOTES
Neutral-Site Record: 15-3
Last 10 meetings: 4-6
Most points, Cal: 101, 1976-77
Most points, Stanford: 101, 1999-00
Largest margin, Cal: 40, 1946-47
Largest margin, Stanford: 51, 1999-00
Longest Cal win streak: 14, 1924-25 to 1929-30
Longest Stanford win streak: 9, 1996-97 to 2000-01
Current Streak: 1, Stanford

LAST TIME OUT

California fought to the finish but fell to No. 19 Arizona, 66-54
• Justice Sueing led the way for the Bears with 17 points, the lone Cal player in double figures.
• Darius McNeill hit two three-pointers to tie Allen Crabbe with a Cal freshman record 62 three-pointers on the season.
• The Bears outshot Arizona 38.9 percent (21-54) to 38.8 percent (19-49). Cal's 19 field goals allowed to the Wildcats were the Bears' fewest allowed this season.
• Tied at 53-53 with 5:49 to play, Arizona used a 13-1 run in the last 5:38 to pull away from the Bears.
• Cal held Arizona's second-leading scorer, Allonzo Trier, to just 2 points. Entering the game, Trier was averaging 18.1 points in league action.

IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS

As a team, Cal ranks in the nation's top 30 for:
• Blocked Shots  per Game -- 30th, 4.8
• Offensive Rebounds per Game -- 13th, 13.16
• Total Blocks -- 27th, 149

Individually, Cal student-athletes rank in the Top 50 for:
• Blocked Shots Per Game -- Kingsley Okoroh (46th, 1.97)
• Free Throw Attempts -- Don Coleman (46th, 195)
• Offensive Rebounds Per Game -- Marcus Lee (42nd, 3.03)
• Total Blocks -- Kingsley Okoroh (42nd, 61) 

KING OF THE BLOCK

With two blocks against Washington, Kingsley Okoroh reached a new career milestone, moving into the top 10 among the Pac-12's career leaders for blocked shots. Okoroh is in sole possession of 9th on the conference's all-time list with 196 career blocks. He also ranks 9th among the NCAA's active career leaders.

The 7-1 Okoroh has tied the Cal single-game record for blocked shots twice this season, recording 7 blocks against UC Riverside and against Portland State. He tied the number set by Michael Stewart (1994-97), which Stewart recorded thrice in his Golden Bear career. Okoroh is currently ranked third among Cal's career leaders. Stewart ranks second with 207 blocks, and David Kravish (2012-15) leads with 226 career blocked shots.

STEAL CITY

With 214  steals this season, California will finish the year with its highest steal total in more than a decade. Cal is 87th in the country in steals per game (6.9) and 96th for total steals. The Bears have 200 takeaways for the first time since the 2002-03 season. Cal last finished a season averaging 6.0 or more steals per game in 2003-04 (6.2), capping off the year with 173 steals. Prior to the 15-season drought, which ended on Mach 1 when Cal logged nine steals against Arizona State to reach 208 total, the Bears had tallied 200 or more steals for 12 consecutive seasons, a span which included three head coaches -- Lou Campanelli, Todd Bozeman and Ben Braun.

ROOKIES IN THE RECORD BOOK

California's rookies are fast approaching some of the program's freshman-record totals. Among them:

THREE-POINT FG MADE
1.     Darius McNeill (2018)    62 
    Allen Crabbe (2011)    62
3.    Ryan Drew (1968)    60
4.     Ryan Anderson (2007)    58
5.     Shantay Legans (2000)    47
6.     Charlie Moore (2017)    45
...
    Justice Sueing    41

POINTS
1.     Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1996)    590
2.     Ryan Anderson (2007)    539
3.    Jaylen Brown (2016)    498
4.    Brian Hendrick (1990)    478
5.    Justice Sueing (2018)    434
6.    Ivan Rabb (2016)    426

FIELD GOALS MADE
1.     Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1996)    206
2.    Ryan Anderson (2007)    189
3.    Brian Hendrick (1990)    175
4.    Jaylen Brown (2016)    163
5.    Ivan Rabb (2016)    161
6.    Justice Sueing (2018)    154
7.    Lamond Murray (1992)    152

STEALS
1.     Jason Kidd (1993)    110
2.     Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1996)    52
3.     Shantay Legans (2000)    51
4.    Justice Sueing (2018)    47
5.    Butch Hays (1981)    42
    Michael Chavez (1980)    42
...
    Darius McNeill    36
    Juhwan Harris-Dyson    34

FREE THROWS MADE
1.     Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1996)    170
2.    Jaylen Brown (2016)    142
3.    Brian Hendrick (1990)    128
...
9.    Tremaine Fowlkes (1995)    94
10.    Jason Kidd (1993)    88
..
    Justice Sueing (2018)    85

SNEAKING UP THE SEASON RECORDS

Along with setting freshman records, the Cal squad is also making its way up several categories in the single-season records:

THREE-POINT FG MADE
1.     Jerome Randle (2010)    92
2.    Jordan Mathews (2016)    89
3.    Allen Crabbe (2012)    83
...
8.    Jabari Bird (2017)    65
T9.    Allen Crabbe (2013)    64
    Ryan Anderson (2008)    64
    Bill Elleby (1992)    64
...
    Darius McNeill (2018)    62

STEALS
1.     Jason Kidd (1993)    110
2.     Jason Kidd (1994)    94
3.    Gene Ransom (1978)    63
...
8.    Jorge Gutierrez (2011)    54
T9.    Anwar McQueen (1997)    52
    Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1996)    52
...
    Justice Sueing (2018)    47
    Don Coleman (2018)    42

BLOCKED SHOTS
1.     Kingsley Okoroh (2017)    74
2.    David Kravish (2014)    73
3.    David Kravish (2013)    63
4.    Kingsley Okoroh    61
    Michael Stewart (1994)    59
6.    Michael Stewart (1997)    56
7.    Jamal Sampson (2002)    54
8.    Marcus Lee    52
T9.    David Kravish (2015)    49
    Michael Stewart (1995)    49

NEXT UP

With a win over Stanford, California would advance to play No. 4 seed UCLA on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. PT