Cal Men's Basketball Preview: Can the Bears complete season sweep of ASU?

ASU has had a slight surge of late

Rob Hwang

Mar 3

Cal Basketball @CalMBBall

What a night! Thank you Cal family for showing out 🤩 #GoBears

Date: Thursday March 3rd, 2022 (5PM Pac-12 Networks)

Opponent: Arizona State Sun Devils

Record: 12-16 (Conference: 8-10)

Standings: 9th in Pac-12

KenPom Ranking: #104

Opponent Team Stats: 65.0PPG/35.8RPG/13.1APG/6.6SPG/12.1TPG

Key Players:

DJ Horne
- Guard (6-foot-1/175lbs)
- Sophomore
- 12.2PPG/2.9RPG/1.9APG/1.7TPG
- 38.7%-FG/36.6%-3PT/93.5%-FT
Jay Heath
- Guard (6-foot-3/195lbs)
- Sophomore
- 10.6PPG/3.4RPG/1.6APG/1.5TPG
- 41.4%-FG/41.5%-3PT/75.0%-FT
Kimani Lawrence
- Forward (6-foot-6/205lbs)
- Senior
- 10.3PPG/6.5RPG/1.4APG/1.8TPG
- 53.1%-FG/54.3%-FT
Marreon Jackson
- Guard (6-foot-1/190lbs)
- Senior
- 10.0PPG/3.9RPG/4.0APG/2.3TPG/1.5SPG
- 33.8%-FG/27.7%-3PT/83.1%-FT

Expected Starting 5

Guard Marreon Jackson
Guard Jay Heath
Forward Jamiya Neal
Forward Kimani Lawrence
Forward Jalen Graham

The Bears will look to complete the season sweep against ASU. Last time out the Bears crushed Bobby Hurley’s squad 74-50 in Berkeley. The Sun Devils have picked it up over the last few weeks winning 5 of their last 6. The defense has an efficiency rating that ranks in the top 35 despite 16 losses on the year. They’ve lost a handful of games by 5 points or less. ASU has struggled to score points all year and is still feeling the effects of the early season loss of Marcus Bagley. DJ Horne picked up the mantle of the Sun Devils’ leading scorer with 12 a night. Horne was unavailable in their most recent game against Utah with a non-covid related illness but should be back for the game against Cal on Thursday. It’s always a tough outing in Tempe, but the Bears should be riding high after the spectacular win on Senior Night.

And if you missed there Bears’ last game against Stanford make sure to check out the recap.