Following a week off due to Christmas, Cal men’s basketball returns to Haas Pavilion to face the Seattle Redhawks on Saturday at 5:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks. Last season, Cal defeated the Redhawks 81-59 in Seattle behind Darius McNeill’s 20 points on 9-16 shooting from the field. Cal comes into this game with a 5-6 overall record while Seattle comes in at 11-3.
Last time out: Cal defeated San José State on Friday, December 21st by a final score of 88-80. Darius McNeill was the top scorer for Cal with 22 points while Andre Kelly finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
RECAP: Cal takes care of business against San José State
On Seattle: The Redhawks are led by junior guard Morgan Means (16.4 points & 4.8 rebounds), redshirt junior guard Matej Kavas (14.9 points & 6.6 rebounds), and redshirt junior forward Myles Carter (14.4 points & 8.2 rebounds). Means and Kavas are shooting north of 43.0% from 3-point range on more than 11 combined attempts per game while Carter is doing his damage in the paint, shooting 60.4% from the field. Together, they form a very effective scoring attack.
Delante Jones (11.7 points) and Terrell Brown (10.9 points) provide an extra scoring punch for the Redhawks. Jones dropped 26 points on Omaha while Brown dropped 17 points on Portland to go along with 11 rebounds. While usually playing more of a secondary role, both guys have proven themselves capable of stepping up when called upon.
As a team, the Redhawks average 82.1 points per game while giving up 68.4. They’re shooting 48.0% from the field, 39.9% from 3-point range, and 68.5% from the foul line while averaging a +5.3 rebounding differential per game. Their opponents in contrast are shooting 38.6% from the field and 32.8% from 3-point range.
Keys to the game: When looking at this Seattle team, one of the things that stands out is their solid 3-point shooting numbers. Both Means and Kavas will look to get going from beyond the arc and take advantage of Cal’s spotty perimeter defense, which is allowing opponents to shoot 39.5% from 3-point range. Cal cannot expect to win this game if they’re allowing Seattle to shoot at a similar clip. They need to hold them to at least 35.0% shooting from 3-point range in order to feel like they’ve defended the perimeter well. If they do that, they’ll put themselves in a good position to win this game.
Ball movement always seems to be a key to the game for Cal, but to be more specific, it’s really Paris Austin’s assist numbers. While it will be tough for him to hit this mark every game, Austin should be targeting 10 assists per game. Against San José State he hit this target with 11 assists to go along with 0 turnovers. If Austin plays like this going forward, Cal won’t only beat teams like Seattle, they’ll be able to win a good chunk of games in the Pac-12.
One of the byproducts of Austin moving the ball is an increase in 3-pointers made. Against San José State, Cal made 12 threes and got into a nice flow from the perimeter. If Cal is able to make at least 10 threes against Seattle to go along with high assist numbers from Paris Austin, they’ll win this game. The three guys who really benefit from Austin’s distributing in this regard are Justice Sueing, Matt Bradley, and Darius McNeill. When Austin is penetrating and finding them open on the perimeter, that’s when Cal’s offense really starts to click.
