Cal men's basketball to head to SoCal Challenge in San Juan Capistrano this November

Cal will play two of Bradley, UTEP and Tulane in this tournament.

It was a little late in the 2023 cycle for the California Golden Bears to book a marquee men’s basketball out-of-conference tournament for next fall, but the Bears did land a tournament close to home where they will get a chance to test out their new look squad.

Cal will play two of three of Bradley, UTEP and Tulane in the SoCal Challenge in San Juan Capistrano, with games to be played on November 20 and 22 at the Pavilion at JSerra Catholic High School. A third game will be played on-campus in Berkeley against another opponent as prelude to the tournament.

Although none of the names sound spectacular on paper, wins against two of these teams would be incredible progress for the Bears.

• The Bradley Braves finished 25-10 last year, winning the MVC and coming up one win shy of the NCAA Tournament last year.

• The Tulane Green Wave finished 20-11 in 2022-23, finishing 3rd in the American and just missing the Dance by two games.

• The UTEP Miners finished 14-18 last season in Conference USA, finishing 10th of 11 programs. Cal grad transfer Keonte Kennedy spent his early years at UTEP.

Last year’s games were available to stream on FloHoops.com (monthly subscriptions run $20 a month).

If Cal can notch wins against Bradley or Tulane (and preferably both), it’d go a long way to proving Mark Madsen has the Bears ready to compete at a high level once again.