On Saturday at 2:30 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks, Cal men’s basketball will face Boston College in the Al Attles Classic at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Cal comes into the game at 6-5 overall while Boston College comes in at 7-5.
Last time out: Cal fell to Saint Mary’s 89-77 last Saturday. Cal sophomore Andre Kelly had a career-night with 26 points and 4 rebounds.
RECAP: Cal fails to win against Saint Mary’s
On the Al Attles Classic: The Al Attles Classic is a four-game quadruple header put on by The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to honor 2019 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Al Attles, who played 11 seasons in the NBA, all with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors from 1960-1971. Attles took over as player-coach midway through the 1969-70 season and remained head coach through the 1982-83 season. He is the longest serving head coach in Warriors history. Attles is one of the first African-American head coaches in NBA history and coached the Warriors to an NBA championship in the 1974-75 season.
Other games in the event include Stanford vs. San Diego at Noon, Arizona vs. St. John’s at 7:00 PM PST and St. Mary’s vs. Nevada at 9:30 PM PST.
On Boston College: The Eagles are led by senior guard Derryck Thornton (14.2 points & 3.9 assists), freshman guard Jay Heath (13.0 points & 3.7 rebounds), senior forward Nik Popovic (11.8 points & 5.9 rebounds), and junior forward Steffon Mitchell (7.2 points & 9.2 rebounds). Thornton, Heath, and Popovic are the primary scorers while Mitchell is by far and away the best rebounder on the team.
The Eagles average 67.9 points per game on 41.2% shooting from the field, 32.1% shooting from 3-point range, and 67.5% shooting from the foul line. Their opponents average 65.9 points per game on 40.7% shooting from the field, 32.8% shooting from 3-point range, and 69.9% shooting from the foul line. The Eagles average a -4.1 rebounding differential per game while possessing a meager .94 assist-to-turnover ratio.
The Eagles have had a bit of a streaky season, winning their first three games over Wake Forest, South Florida, and High Point before losing four straight games to DePaul, Saint Louis, Richmond, and Northwestern. Now, the Eagles are back on another winning streak, having won their previous three games against Notre Dame, Albany, and Central Connecticut.
Keys to the game: The first key to the game for Cal is to not allow Boston College, specifically Mitchell, to eat them alive on the offensive glass. Rebounding has been an issue for this Cal team all season and if poor rebounding rears its ugly head in this game, I don’t see them coming out victorious. Andre Kelly and Grant Anticevich are the two bigs who Mark Fox trusts right now, so it’s really on them to do the dirty work inside.
Secondly, Kareem South (11.4 points) needs to play a complete game. I haven’t talked a lot about South this season, but he is one of the more important players on this Cal team. He has the ability to heat up and alongside Matt Bradley (17.4 points) is one of just two Cal players scoring in double figures on average. The issue for South as we saw against Saint Mary’s is that he tends to score his points in bunches. He’ll heat up and make like three or four shots within a 4-6 minute span and then go silent the rest of the night. South needs to make his presence felt throughout the entire game and walk out with 16 or 17 points as opposed to 10 or 11.
Third, Cal needs to contain Jay Heath and Jairus Hamilton. Both guys are shooting north of 40.0% from beyond the arc and will look to get it going against a Cal defense that most recently allowed Saint Mary’s to shoot 10-15 from 3-point range. If Cal can find a way to better close out on shooters and not allow the Eagles to get going from the perimeter, they should put themselves in a position to win.
As sort of a bonus key to the game, Cal needs to take advantage of the fact that they are basically playing at home. San Francisco is just across the Bay from Berkeley, so there should be a good amount of Cal fans in attendance. They’re playing on the home floor of the Golden State Warriors and should be energized by the event as a whole. Cal needs to come out with the appropriate amount of energy and play like a team that is excited to be representing the Bay Area in the Bay Area’s holiday tournament.
