MALIBU, Calif. – California returns to non-conference play on Wednesday at 6 p.m. (PT) when it clashes with Pepperdine at the Firestone Fieldhouse. The contest will be nationally televised on the CBS Sports Network with commentary provided by John Sadak and Pete Gillen.
 
Cal (2-3) is coming off of a three-game week that included a win over Nicholls State in its home opener, followed by a pair of Pac-12 losses to then-No. 25 Arizona State and UCLA. Wednesday's game is the first of three straight non-conference games Cal will play before returning to the bulk of its Pac-12 slate at the end of December.
 
The Bears have defeated Pepperdine (2-2) in each of the programs' three prior meetings, including the 2019-20 season opener when Cal kickstarted the Mark Fox era with an 87-71 victory. Wednesday is the first time the two teams have faced one another outside of Berkeley.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW

• Matchup: Cal (2-3) at Pepperdine (2-2)
• Date/Time: Wednesday, December 9 | 6 p.m. PT
• Watch: CBS Sports Network
• TV Commentary: John Sadak & Pete Gillen
• Listen: KGO 810 AM | TuneIn
• Radio Commentary: Rich Cellini & Todd McKim
• Live Stats: StatBroadcast

 
QUICK HITS

• Mark Fox will coach his 500th career game on Wednesday. Fox (302-197) is currently in his 16th season as a head coach.
• While Wednesday marks the fourth all-time meeting between Cal and Pepperdine, it will be the first time that the two programs have faced one another in Malibu. All three previous games were played in Berkeley.
• Three Bears are moving closer to reaching 1,000 career points. Ryan Betley (995), Makale Foreman (987) and Matt Bradley (983) are all within 17 points of the milestone.
• Andre Kelly leads all Bears with 6.0 rebounds per game. He's one of four Bears averaging five or more.
• Bradley (18.0 PPG) has scored 20-plus in three of five games this season. He scored 25 against Pepperdine last season.
• Grant Anticevich (299) and Bradley (298) need one and two rebounds, respectively, to reach 300 for their careers.
• Cal third-year assistant coach Marty Wilson spent 21 total seasons at Pepperdine, compiling an impressive record that started with his time as a standout student-athlete and ended with a seven-year span at the helm of his alma mater.

 
BEHIND THE ARC
Cal leads all Pac-12 schools with 38 made 3-pointers heading into Wednesday's game. The outside shooting has been led by graduate transfers Makale Foreman (13) and Ryan Betley (12), who rank first and second among conference players in 3-pointers made. Both also rank inside the top-40 nationally.
 
SHARING THE ROCK
In addition to leading Cal in 3-pointers made, Foreman has dished out a team-best 18 assists (3.6 APG) while splitting point guard duties with Joel Brown, who has tallied 17 assists himself. The pair ranks second and third, respectively, among Pac-12 players in the category.
 
BRADLEY PRIMED FOR JUNIOR YEAR
After a standout sophomore year in 2019-20, Matt Bradley picked up where he left off with a hot start this season. The lefty ranks fourth among Pac-12 players with 18.0 points per game. Bradley has crashed the boards well, ranking second on the team with 5.6 rebounds per game (2.2 offensive) and is also getting to the free throw line consistently; he's 18th nationally with 24 free throws made.
 
The San Bernardino, Calif., native collected a pair of 2020-21 preseason accolades over the past month with nods to the Pac-12 Preseason Media All-Conference First Team and the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award watch list. Under Mark Fox's guidance during the 2019-20 season, Bradley increased his points per game by 7.7 points, up from 10.8 in 2018-19 to 17.5 in 2019-20.
 
ON THE ROAD
The Bears will play their fourth of 14 games away from home this season on Wednesday when they face Pepperdine. The 14 games away from home are tied for the most among Pac-12 teams, and Cal is currently working to secure one more non-conference contest that would be played on the road. Cal is currently 1-2 away from Haas Pavilion this year.
 
AROUND THE GLOBE
More than one-third of Cal's roster (six of 15 players) are originally from outside of the United States, giving the Bears an international identity. Grant Anticevich (Sydney) and Kuany Kuany (Melbourne; originally South Sudan) hail from Australia. Joel Brown (Brampton, Ontario) and Jalen Celestine (Ajax, Ontario) are from Canada. Dimitrios Klonaras is a native of Thessaloniki, Greece, while Lars Thiemann hails from Krefeld, Germany.
 
IMPROVEMENT UNDER FOX
In Mark Fox's first season at the helm in Berkeley, Cal showed signs of improvement across the board and was tied for third among major conference teams with a plus-six-win differential from 2018-19 to 2019-20. The Bears more than doubled their conference win total as well, going from 3-15 to 7-11. It was the largest margin of improvement by any Pac-12 team from '18-'19 to '19-'20.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE WAVES
Cal opened the Mark Fox era with an 87-71 victory over Pepperdine on Nov. 5, 2019 at Haas Pavilion.  After trailing 37-35 at halftime, Cal blitzed the Waves after the intermission by outscoring them 52-34 and making 71 percent of its field goals. Bradley scored 18 of his then-career-high 25 points in the second half after getting into early foul trouble, and the Bears used a 13-0 second-half run to pull away. Kelly came off the bench and had his second career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds while Anticevich grabbed 10 rebounds.
 
NEXT UP
Cal returns home to Berkeley, where it will host San Francisco at noon on Sunday, Dec. 13 in the front leg of a basketball doubleheader at Haas Pavilion (Cal women host Stanford at 7 p.m. on Sunday). The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
 
STAY POSTED
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