Cal Basketball Keeps Rolling with Solid Win Over the Utah Utes

The Golden Bears climb to 6-0 at Haas this season

Image courtesy of @CalMBBall

Things are looking bright for the Cal Men’s Basketball squad, as they get off to a 6-0 lead at home, matching the number of conference wins they had on the season in 2024, with a 7-1 record on the season, beating the Utah Utes 79-72. The Pac 12 reunion started the way it would end, with Dai Dai Ames drawing a foul and shooting free throws.

Both teams were coming off statement wins, Cal beating a ranked UCLA, and the Utes taking down an Ole Miss team that came into the season highly touted. The Utes proved to be a tough opponent who jumped out to an early lead, leading by as much as eight points and maintaining the momentum for most of the first half. Coach Mark Madsen stated in the press conference “They came out with all the energy, they came out with all the hustle, they were making plays, running their sets with tremendous speed.”

Madsen continued to praise the Utes, “We knew this was going to be a dog fight and it was, the score was probably closer than it looks from the box score. It was still a one-two possession game…That team is going to beat a lot of people.”

Cal settled into their rhythm before the end of the first half, and went into halftime with a small lead. After the game, Madsen was asked if there was a little rust to knock off, with the gap in the schedule leading into tonight, “At times we didn’t move with the pop and the pace that we need to move with, but once we found our flow, I thought our guys did a lot better.” With regards to the team’s approach to preparation in these situations, Madsen said that they kept things simple and consistent. “We debated it, it’s hard to have that many days of prep because then you start over thinking the game plan and start going down rabbit holes.”

Dai Dai Ames and Justin Pippen both showed out offensively, with Ames going 9-14 with 25 points, going 7-7 from the line, and Pippen showing up with 23 points, going 8-15 from the field, and 4-4 from the line. With such a balanced stat sheet from both teams, being bullet proof from the free throw line and strong behind the arc were the key to tonight’s success. Later in the press conference, Madsen spoke on the team’s pursuit of Ames in the transfer portal, “We targeted him immediately when he went into the portal, because we knew him from the ACC…late in the season, he came on, and nobody really had an answer for Dai Dai Ames in the ACC last year.”

Lee Dort’s court vision continues to be a valuable asset, he led the Bears with 11 rebounds and led the team in plus minus, Chris Bell, who has been another additive transfer had a relatively quiet night on the stat sheet, but in person his court vision, passing ability and off ball intelligence is palpable. Coach Madsen also sung the praises of DJ Campbell, who had several key stops.

With regards to Pippen’s strides this season, Madsen was effusive; “Justin Pippen is coming into his own. His game is unfolding naturally…as a point guard he has a tremendous feel for when to attack, and when to back the ball out.” While tonight was an offensive show out for Pippen, he leads the team in blocked shots and deflections, and had a key block that helped close out tonight’s game in the closing minute.

Looking forward, Cal is looking at an eight game homestand that kicks off this coming Saturday against Pacific University, and the team is not going to let up. “We’ve got a lot of tough teams still on our schedule here,” said Madsen, “I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we have a lot of tough, scrappy teams (coming up), and they all do something different.”