On Thursday at 8:00 PM PST on ESPNU, Cal men’s basketball will travel to Palo Alto to take on Stanford. Cal comes into this game at 7-22 overall and 2-15 in the Pac-12 while Stanford comes in at 15-14 overall and 8-9 in the Pac-12. This is the second meeting of the year between the two schools. Stanford defeated Cal 84-81 in Berkeley back on February 3rd.

Last time out: On Saturday, Cal defeated Washington State 76-69. Darius McNeill led the way for Cal with 17 points and 4 rebounds while C.J. Elleby had a jack-of-all-trades performance for Washington State with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists.

RECAP: Cal completes sweep of Washington schools

On Stanford: The Cardinal are led by sophomore small forward KZ Okpala, who is averaging 17.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Okpala is having a breakout season and is positioning himself to be a high-end lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. In their first meeting with Cal, Okpala had a monster game with 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Accompanying Okpala are sophomore point guard Daejon Davis (11.8 points & 4.6 assists), sophomore forward Oscar da Silva (9.7 points & 5.9 rebounds), senior center Josh Sharma (9.9 points & 6.7 rebounds), and freshman shooting guard Cormac Ryan (9.1 points on 33.6% shooting from 3-point range). Together, the four of them form a solid core around Okpala. Davis is their main floor general, da Silva does a little bit of everything, Sharma is a sound presence in the paint, and Ryan provides lethal 3-point shooting.

It should be noted that Davis sat out Sunday’s game against Washington due to a right foot injury that he sustained against Washington State on Friday. Per the Associated Press, Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said a return for Davis against Cal “is a possibility.” Davis is really the only true point guard this Cardinal team has, so his absence would be significant. If he is unable to go, freshman guard Bryce Wills should expect to see more minutes in his place.

It’s been an up and down season for the Cardinal. At times, they’ve looked like an NCAA tournament level team with their dominating wins over UCLA, Arizona State, Oregon State, and Washington State in addition to their heartbreaking overtime loss to Kansas. Other times, they’ve looked vulnerable like their home loss to Utah and their narrow wins against San Jose State and Cal. While Cal is looking to build on momentum from the past two games, the Cardinal too are hoping to use this game as an opportunity to get back on track heading into the Pac-12 tournament.

Keys to the game: If Cal wants to win this game, the first thing they have to do is defend Okpala much better than they did in their first matchup. Okpala will look to have another big outing against Cal and lead his team to victory. If Cal is able to hold him to around his scoring average of 17 points, they’ll put themselves in a position to steal this game. If they instead allow him to go off for 25+ points, I really don’t see how they win.

Secondly, Cal needs to hold their own in the paint. Sharma has had some big games for the Cardinal and nabbed a couple of Pac-12 Player of the Week honors as well. In their 62-61 loss to Washington on Sunday, he finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks, playing like the 4-star recruit Stanford recruited to The Farm. If Cal can keep him at bay and get some quality production from Connor Vanover, who has been performing well in his own right, that would be huge for them.

Lastly, Cal needs to move the ball. If Davis is unable to go for Stanford, Cal will have an opportunity to win the point guard matchup decisively with Paris Austin as the only true floor general in the game. If Austin can finish with 8+ assists and do a good job getting his teammates involved (e.g. Darius McNeill and Justice Sueing), Cal should be able to walk out with a win.

Quotes: On Tuesday, Cal head coach Wyking Jones and Cal freshman Matt Bradley addressed the media. Below are quotes pertaining to the game.

Q: What are your overall thoughts on Stanford, having played them so close here?

WJ: “They’re big, they’re long, they’re versatile. Okpala is really really good. He’s a talented young man. He really hurt us in game one. Had 30 points in game one. Did an unbelievable job getting into the lane and causing problems and finishing. We’re going to have to limit his paint touches. They’re a team that, they don’t rely on the three to win games. It’s not something that they do. Like some of the other teams in the league. What they do like to do is they like to get the ball in the paint whether it’s through post ups, from penetration, they really like to get the ball into the paint and make you pay. We’re going to have to limit their paint touches. Josh Sharma is playing great basketball. He’s playing the type of basketball that I’m sure they expected him to play when they recruited him. I think he’s got like two player of the week honors so far this year and so we’re going to have to limit what he does, and I think it’s going to be a fun game. I think both teams enjoy playing each other. It’s going to be fun.”

Q: Sharma was almost a non-factor when you played him here. What is doing different?

WJ: “He was in foul trouble. He’s a big strong athlete. He’s doing a great job of finishing at the rim. Now he’s kinda got a floater that he does in the middle of the lane that he’s been good at. He’s active. He’s a seven-foot athlete that’s very very active. He’s definitely somebody that you have to concern yourself with.”

Q: Defensively it looks like they change.

WJ: “No, they’ll switch up between 1-3-1 zone to a 2-3 zone. They’ll play some man. So yeah, they try to keep you off balance by switching up their defenses. That’s something I felt like we did a good job in in game one, I feel like in game two we could do a better job. Especially if we go in and we continue to share the ball and continue to move the ball. I think we could do a better job in game two than we did in game one.”

Q: Is it hard to recognize what defense they’re in?

WJ: “No, there’s cues on what defense they’re in. If they’re in a 1-3-1 you see KZ Okpala’s going to be at the top of the key. You’re going to know that they’re in a 1-3-1 when you cross half court. 2-3 zone obviously is a two-guard front, so.”

Q: Any thoughts on Daejon Davis and his matchup with Paris Austin?

WJ: “Daejon’s talented. He’s a big guard. He’s the guy that makes them go. When he plays well they typically play well. He’s just talented. It just seems like he, the times that we’ve played them, when they really need a bucket, it seems like he finds a way to get one whether it’s a three or getting to the rim and finishing. But he’s their primary ball handler. So, when he goes out of the game, I think they take a bit of a dip in their ball-handling and decision-making because he’s the guy that’s primary for them.”

Q: Does it feel different when it’s one game in the week versus two?

WJ: “You have more days to prepare and it’s the second time that we’ve played these guys. So, we already have a feel for what they do and what their strengths and weaknesses are from playing them the first time and then when you get three days prep, then it just gives you more time to slow things down a little bit and just really focus in on ok, let’s work against the 1-3-1, let’s work against the 2-3, let’s do certain things. So, it just gives you more time to prepare yourself.”

Q: Do you guys feel the rivalry? Any extra emphasis from your staff and/or player to get this one considering it’s Stanford?

WJ: “Yeah, it’s a rivalry game. So yeah, I think the players, staff, you feel it from the outside and so them being down the road and us recruiting the same guys sometimes. Yeah, it makes it more fun. So yeah, I guess you could say it gives the game a little bit more pop.”

Q: Everybody healthy?

WJ: “Yeah, everybody’s healthy. Knock on wood. Yeah.”

Q: You can start with your impressions of Stanford, what you learned from playing them the first time.

MB: “When we played them the first time, I felt like, back then we have gotten a lot better, but just during that game it was a real battle, it went down to the wire and they ended up coming up on top. This is the game I’m looking forward to most in this season and I think our team is ready to play again.”

Q: Touching more on Stanford, on KZ Okpala, he’s a projected lottery pick. What makes him difficult to stop?

MB: “I think just, knowing their personnel overall just as well as Kezie, he’s someone that likes to get to the rim at will and then doesn’t want to shoot that deep shot. So maybe if we help off our guys even though they have really good shooters on their team and just kinda build around Kezie, it’s going to take all of us to stop him and just know what he wants to do. We’re watching a lot of film right now and just getting down his tendencies. I think he’s a really good player, so he’s probably going to end up playing a really good game, but if we limit a lot of stuff, especially not the stuff that was happening last time, we’re going to have a good chance to win.”

Q: You mentioned this is a game you’re looking forward to. Do you feel that extra heat of the rivalry going into the game?

MB: “Yeah, definitely. I’m a freshman. I believe last year we got them. They went one and one with them. This year we’re definitely looking to do the same. They got the W the first time, but we gotta get this win.”