Cal Basketball to Face Vanderbilt This Season and Next Season
![Mark Madsen Mark Madsen](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_8001,h_4500,x_0,y_224/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/cal_sports_report/01j5v37314dvjnre473w.jpg)
Cal has scheduled a home-and-home men's basketball series against Vanderbilt that will begin this season, according to CBS Sports college basketball reporter Jon Rothstein.
The Golden Bears will face Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, on November 13 this coming season, then will host the Commodores in 2025-26 on a date yet to be determined. It's unclear whether this season's game against Vanderbilt will be Cal's season opener, but it probably will at least be among the Bears' first three games.
It might be the first game for new Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington.
NEWS: Vanderbilt and Cal will begin a home-and-home series on November 13th in Nashville, according to a source.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) August 21, 2024
Return game in Berkeley in 2025-26.https://t.co/L0EwaQsjcP
Facing Vanderbilt will be an interesting matchup for Cal forward/center Lee Dort, who transferred from Vanderbilt to Cal this past offseason. He played 17 games for the Commodores in 2022-23, averaging 1.7 points. But he played in just one last season, when he was suspended from the team after he was hit with legal charges that were eventually dropped.
Vanderbilt went 9-23 overall and 4-14 in the Southeastern Conference in 2023-24, and head coach Jerry Stackhouse was fired after the season. He was replaced by Byington, who was the head coach at James Madison last season when the Dukes went 32-4 and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Cal will have virtually a brand-new team after going 13-19 overall and 9-11 in Pac-12 play last season in Mark Madsen's first year as Cal's head coach. The top eight scorers from that team are not on the Golden Bears roster this season, and 2024 All-Pac-12 selection Jaylon Tyson was a first-round pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2024 NBA draft.
Among the transfers coming to Cal this season are Andrej Stojakovic, BJ Omot, Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Rytis Petraitis. Petraitis will also be playing against his former team when Cal hosts Air Force on November 21. Petraitis led Air Force in scoring last season at 15.3 points per game.
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