Cal Announces 2013-14 Men's Basketball Schedule
BERKELEY (CBS Sports) - The Cal men's basketball program has announced its tentative 2013-14 schedule, which includes 18 home games at Haas Pavilion. The Golden Bears' challenging slate features eight NCAA Tournament teams from last season, highlighted by a November appearance in the prestigious Maui Invitational.
The Bears will debut their new squad along with their new uniform and court design on Thursday, Oct. 31 in an exhibition contest against Humboldt State.
The regular-season opener is slated for Friday, Nov. 8 against Coppin State of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The season-opening homestand continues with Denver (Nov. 12), Oakland (Nov. 15) and Southern Utah (Nov. 18).
Cal will play its first games outside of Berkeley when the Bears travel to Hawai'i during the Thanksgiving week for one of the nation's top tournaments. Cal joins fellow 2013 NCAA Tournament teams Syracuse, Gonzaga and Minnesota, along with Baylor, Arkansas, Dayton and Chaminade Nov. 25-27 at the Lahaina Civic Center. The Bears faced eventual Final Four participant Syracuse in a tightly-contest battle in the third round of the NCAA Tournament this past March before the Orange escaped with the 66-60 victory.
Cal will play four of its six games in the month of December at Haas Pavilion, beginning with UC Irvine on Dec. 2. The Bears will travel south to face UC Santa Barbara (Dec. 6), before returning home for a pair of home games against Nevada and Fresno State. A road trip to Omaha, Neb. and a Dec. 22 tilt with 2013 NCAA participant Creighton offers a rematch of last season's battle in Berkeley between the Bears and the Blue Jays. Cal closes the calendar year against Furman on Saturday, Dec. 28 at Haas Pavilion.
The tentative Pac-12 season slate matches Cal against Stanford on the road in its conference opener on Jan. 4. The Bears continue their conference-opening road swing against 2013 NCAA Sweet 16 participant Oregon (Jan. 9) and Oregon State (Jan. 11).
Cal welcomes Washington (Jan. 16) and Washington State (Jan. 18) in its first home Pac-12 contests of the year, before heading to Los Angeles to face USC (Jan. 23) and 2013 NCAA participant UCLA (Jan. 25).
The Bears close the month of January and usher in February with a three-game homestand against Arizona State (Jan. 30), 2013 NCAA Sweet 16 participant Arizona (Feb. 1) and Stanford (Feb. 8).
Cal travels to the state of Washington for the first time in two seasons, heading to Pullman, Wash. to face Washington State (Feb. 13) and Seattle for a matchup with Washington (Feb. 15).
Home games with UCLA (Feb. 20) and USC (Feb. 22) are followed with a trip to the state of Arizona to face Arizona (Feb. 27) in Tucson and Arizona State (March 1) in Tempe.
The final two games of the regular season will be played at Haas Pavilion as 2013 NCAA participant Colorado (March 6) and Utah (March 8) come to Berkeley.
The Pac-12 Tournament returns to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, March 12-15.
The Golden Bears return four starters, five of their top seven scorers, and their top-two rebounders from a 21-win campaign last season, while also welcoming in a top-20 recruiting class this fall. Cal capped its winningest five-year stretch in more than 50 years with an appearance in the third round of the NCAA Tournament in 2012-13. Head coach Mike Montgomery, the NCAA's ninth-winningest active Division I men's basketball coach with 656 victories, enters his sixth season in Berkeley as the fourth-winningest coach (272 career league wins) in Pac-12 history.
(Copyright 2013 CBS San Francisco & CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.)
