Cal Men's Hoops: Non-conference schedule's best games are on the road

July 9, 9:54 PMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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The Bears hope to bring their 'A' game on the
road in '09-'10.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

The Cal Bears men's hoops team released their schedule a couple of days ago along with their 'Select-A-Seat' ticket promotion.  You can click the link for the promotion, but don't expect to see any top non-conference competition at Haas Pavilion this year -- unless you count Murray State at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic on Nov. 9 or UC Santa Barbara at the Golden Bear Classic Dec. 28 - 29.

Cal's home non-conference schedule includes games against Chico State, Detroit, Jacksonville, Princeton, and Iowa State.

Their Pac-10 schedule begins at home against Stanford, USC, and UCLA.  It finishes up, appropriately, with Stanford at Maples Pavilion.

The marquee game of the year for Bear Backers will be played nearly 2,000 miles away from Haas Pavilion -- in Lawrence, Kansas.  The Bears will travel to play the Kansas Jayhawks on Dec. 22, and they'll need some of their 2008-09 magic to pull off the upset.  The Jayhawks are 38-1 at home the last two seasons, after going 18-1 last year and 20-0 the year before.

Two other road contests could turn out to have March Madness consequences.

Cal will travel to Stockton to take on the Pacific Tigers at Stockton Arena on Dec. 9.  Don't laugh yet.  While the Tigers shouldn't be any match for Cal, they are well coached and very tough to beat at home.  Over the last two seasons, the Tigers have a 23-7 record at home, (12-4 in '08-'09 and 11-3 in '07-'08).  It also wasn't too long ago that the Tigers were considered by many, to be the best basketball team in the state of California, pro or college.

The other road contest would also be less worrisome if the Bears were playing the game at home.  On Dec. 2, the Bears will travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take on the New Mexico Lobos.  Since Steve Alford has taken over as the coach of the Lobos two years ago, he's had the best winning percentage for New Mexico coaches since Dave Bliss left in 1999.  At home, over the last two seasons, the Lobos are a remarkable 32-4, (16-2 in both '07-'08 and '08-'09).

The rest of their schedule, the Pac-10 portion, is all pretty much par for the course.  Trips to Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and L.A. to play the teams who call those areas home, and the pairs coming into Berkeley together, when they make the trip to the Bay Area.

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