Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Cal Golden Bears College Basketball prediction, preview
The way the ACC works now, generally Cal and Stanford are home at the same time so that a couple of teams from out east can come play a two-game road trip on the west coast. Yes, west coast road trips, exactly what we all think of when we envision ACC hoops.
Anyway, Louisville and Notre Dame are the schools currently on those trips, and the way the first games played out, I think we have a strong spot setting up on Friday night in Berkley. Cal hosted the Cardinals earlier in the week, and Louisville blew the Bears out in a 20-point victory. Meanwhile, Notre Dame collected a win in the first game of its trip as well. But the Irish needed just 47 points to defeat Stanford in an absolute rock fight.
I expect things to be much tougher on the Irish in the second game of the trip against a much more capable offense. Cal was off to an 11-0 start at home prior to the loss to Louisville, setting up a night bounce-back spot against a team coming off a big win and has been on a long trip. Other than the Bears’ last game, they’ve been playing well against solid competition — covering both games as an underdog at Kansas State and versus UCLA, including an outright win over the Bruins.
Prior to the Louisville game, Cal had beaten every opponent at home by at least six points, and by an average of more than 18 points per game. Notre Dame will continue to try and muck the game up here, but the Bears are going to provide much more of an offensive spark than Stanford did. Give me Cal to bounce back at home following the loss.
