Cal Basketball: Stanford Game Preview

Bears will try to for the first time this season outside their home arena

CAL (6-7) vs. STANFORD (11-2)

WHERE: Maples Pavilion, Stanford

WHEN: Thursday, 8 p.m.

TV/RADIO: ESPN2/810-AM

CAL-STANFORD HISTORY: Cal leads 150-125, including a 64-59 victory at Maples Pavilion in the teams’ most recent meeting last season. Stanford owns a 6-4 edge over the past 10 games.

CAL STORYLINES: The Bears open Pac-12 play against their Bay Area rival away from home, where they have yet to win in five tries this season. Cal has won its past two games at Stanford and will try to make it three in a row for the first time since the 1984 through ’86 seasons. . . . Cal started its first season under coach Mark Fox with four victories, but is 2-7 in its past nine games. . . . Cal is No. 185 in the NCAA’s NET computer rankings, last among Pac-12 schools. . . . Leading scorer Matt Bradley averaged 18.3 points on 52-percent field-goal accuracy and 50-percent (16-for-32) from the 3-point arc over the season’s first seven games. In the past six games, he is scoring 16.5 points per game and converting just 39 percent from the field and under 23 percent (7-for-31) on threes. . . . Cal is averaging 73.8 points in its wins, just 59.0 in its defeats. . . . The Bears’ offensive issues can be linked to their assists-per-game average of 9.5, which ranks 341st nationally out of 350 teams.

STANFORD STORYLINES: Picked 10th in the preseason Pac-12 media poll, the Cardinal has exceeded those expectations. Stanford has matched its best start since the 2011-12 season. Its only losses were by one point to now-11th-ranked Butler in a neutral-site game and to now third-ranked Kansas last Sunday at Maples. KU was the only one of Stanford’s opponents to score as many as 70 points. . . . The Cardinal is ranked No. 21 by the NCAA’s NET computer, third-highest among Pac-12 schools, after Oregon and Arizona. . . . Stanford is led by junior forward Oscar da Silva, who is seventh in the conference with a 17.7 scoring average and is shooting nearly 62 percent from the field. . . . Freshman guard Tyrell Terry is averaging 15.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists. Terry, who attended the same high school in Minneapolis as former Cardinal star Reid Travis, has five games of at least 20 points and two double-doubles. . . .

CAL GAME NOTES: Click here

STANFORD GAME NOTES: Click here