Depleted Cal falls late to Stanford

Down multiple starters, the Bears nearly pull an improbable upset but lose 78-73

photo via @calmbball twitter

If you invest your time to closely follow the 30-odd games a team plays in a college basketball season, there is no guarantee that your investment will be repaid. But in my experience, even in the darkest days of Cal basketball, you will get some kind of reward back from the experience.

This year provided a few rewards. An early season win at USC. The intriguing scoring potential of Andrej Stojakovic and Jeremiah Wilkinson. But the season was a tough one.

Over the last week, we got to watch something unique.

No, I’m not referring specifically to the fact that Mady Sissoko fought through fasting to average 13 points and 12 rebounds per game in the five games that have occurred since Ramadan began. But it’s an apropos representation of what Cal basketball showed us over this final week of basketball in the 2024-25 season.

Every single factor in tonight’s game was wildly stacked against Cal in their 2nd round ACC tournament game. Cal played a 60 minute game on Saturday, stayed in the east, played a 45 minute game on Tuesday, lost starters Jeremiah Wilkinson and Jovan Blacksher due to injury late in that game, then had to play against a rested Stanford team one day later with basically seven healthy rotation players, one of whom had barely played all season long.

And somehow the game was tied, 68-68, inside two minutes to play.

Just four days ago, I wrote the following:

I watched this Cal team throw everything they had into a game that really didn’t matter much, and I saw them not get rewarded with a win. Because effort isn’t enough by itself at this level.

If effort alone decided this game, Cal would have beaten Stanford by a score of 100 to 30. The announcers were all but openly rooting for our Bears. The guts that the Bears poured into this game led the largely neutral crowd at the game to root for Cal and boo a late (correct) illegal screen call that ended any chance of a Cal win.

If this had been a game against any other random ACC team, maybe I wouldn’t think that much about it, win or lose. But it’s Stanford, and so I cared, and so I wanted this team to get the win their effort deserved so, so badly. And yet I’m leaving this game prouder of this team than I could have expected, because they took on their circumstances with guts and came inches away from pulling off the improbable.

Does any of this matter? Even if Cal had won, they almost certainly would have been beaten by a very rested and very good Louisville team tomorrow. Does one game in an otherwise forgettable season matter, even if it happens to be the last, even if it happens to be against your rival? Probably not. But I admire a group that brings in a never-say-die attitude, particularly when it doesn’t really matter, when the only reason to put forward that kind of effort is because it’s what you expect of yourself.

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Cal was in this game because Andrej Stojakovic had the best game of his career. I say that not because he scored a career high, but because he scored a career high while taking on a gigantic offensive burden against a credible opponent that knew he was option 1, option 2, and option 3 on every possession. And despite that, he scored efficiently at every level. A lot of his offense was just straight up isolations from the wing, taking tough step backs and fadeaways and hitting them anyway, to go along with his usual mix of drives and threes.

It’s easy to forget that Andrej had a series of dominating performances to start ACC play, including dropping 30 on a top 25 Clemson defense, before getting hurt and missing four games. He’s been up and down since returning, but looked brilliant in the ACC tournament. He’s the rare player good enough that, on the right night, he can will you to victory (or close to it) by himself.

He was the best player on the court, and that’s really saying something when the other team has Maxime Reynaud, who did what he’s done all season long - score from inside and outside while offering rebounding and rim protection. I’m annoyed that he elected to remain at Stanford, but happy that he’s boosted his NBA draft prospect - go get paid young man!

The other thing that kept Cal in the game was also the thing that lost them the game: offensive rebounding. It’s been Cal’s offensive life blood all season, and the Bears rebounded an insane 48% of their own missed shots. But there is a cost. By crashing the glass, you’re risking fast break opportunities because you’re not back on defense. Cal allowed two crucial scores late in the game for that exact reason.

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The long off-season is here, though portal news will start dominating discussion for the next couple months. There will be plenty of time to reflect on the season and breaking down roster management entering next year.

But here is the question I will be pondering: Was this year a success? Or, at least, a step in the right direction?

On one hand, Cal failed to go .500 for the 8th straight season. A 15th place finish in the ACC is not generally the hallmark for success.

On the other hand, Cal appears to have two players that almost every program would be thrilled to build around, and the possibility of exciting roster continuity for the first time in recent memory.

Maybe that question can’t be answered until we have a sense of what next year’s roster looks like. But at least for now, Cal has Andrej Stojakovic and Jeremiah Wilkinson, and they represent the most talented Cal MBB duo since Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown were in town. Hope is nothing to sneeze at.