California men’s basketball gets back on the road for another exhibition tune-up Saturday night, visiting Oregon State for a 7 p.m. tip in Corvallis.
The matchup adds another chapter to a long-running series between former conference rivals. Cal and Oregon State have been meeting since the 1915-16 season, and the Bears own a 92-68 edge all-time after beating the Beavers 81-73 in their last Pac-12 meeting during the 2023-24 season.
Cal is coming off a tight exhibition win at Loyola Marymount, where Nojus Indrusaitis drilled the game-winning 3-pointer with six seconds left. The Bears had trailed by 10 in the second half before rallying in Westchester.
That game was hardly pretty from the floor, with Cal shooting 32.2 percent overall, but the Bears made up ground at the line by going 20-of-23. LMU shot 44.7 percent, got to the stripe 23 times and made 13, and both teams hit just two 3-pointers. Cal was outrebounded 34-29, though Michael Cooper led the way with 12 points, while Jake Wilkins and Lee Dort added 11 apiece.
The finish was frantic. Cal cut a 10-point second-half deficit with a 10-2 run to pull within 51-49 at 3:54.
A basket and free throw on an alley-oop by Wilkins gave the Bears their first lead since late in the first half, 53-52 with 3:11 remaining. LMU answered with three straight trips to the free-throw line and moved back ahead 56-53 with 1:57 to play.
Mantas Kocanas then scored his first basket of the game inside to trim the margin to one, and Cooper drove for a 57-56 Cal lead with 57 seconds left. The Lions responded again, tying the game on a free throw and then scoring in the paint to go up 59-57 with 15 seconds remaining. That set up Indrusaitis, whose final shot won it before LMU’s last attempt missed at the buzzer.
Saturday’s game is Cal’s second exhibition of the year, and the Bears are nearing the official start of the season. They open on Nov. 2 at Haas Pavilion against Adams State in a 5 p.m. home opener that will be followed by the Cal women’s home opener, giving fans a doubleheader of hoops.
The first 3,000 fans at that home opener will receive a Rally Towel.
This is Mark Madsen’s fourth season leading the program, and Cal enters its third season in the ACC. The roster looks heavily rebuilt, with nine newcomers - five transfers and four true freshmen - alongside nine returning players and eight departures or graduations. The team also has eight players with international ties, including three Lithuanians.
Among the returners, Lee Dort competed for Haiti at the FIBA Americup Caribbean Pre-Qualifiers and finished as the event’s top rebounder while averaging a double-double.
The staff has also changed shape. Deputy General Manager Richard Midgley was hired in May 2026.
Midgley played at Cal from 2002-06, scored 1,000 points as a Bear and later served as a scout for the Brooklyn Nets under GM and Cal alum Sean Marks. Former New Orleans Pelicans assistant Casey Hill joined the coaching staff in August 2026 after winning the 2015 D-League Championship as head coach of the Santa Cruz Warriors.
Cal’s 2026-27 season will be seen plenty, too. The Bears have 22 televised games during their third year in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
All 18 ACC regular-season games will be on TV, along with four nonconference matchups. Cal is set to appear on ACC Network, ESPN2, ESPNU and The CW, while 10 nonconference games will stream on ACCNX and the trip to Utah will stream on Peacock.
Last season gave the program some real momentum. Cal won 22 games, its most since 2016, and picked up its first postseason victory since 2014.
The Bears had eight games with at least 90 points, placed five players in the top 100 of national statistical categories, finished among 10 ACC teams with at least 20 wins, took ninth in the league and reached the second round of the NIT. They also knocked off two AP-ranked teams, UCLA and UNC, for the first time in the same season since 2016.
The program’s larger résumé still includes 1,677 wins, one NCAA title in 1959, three Final Four appearances, 19 NCAA Tournament berths and a 1999 NIT championship. Cal also lists 15 conference regular-season titles, most recently in 2010.
There’s plenty of corporate news around the program as well. Dialpad has been named the inaugural jersey patch sponsor across all 30 Golden Bears sports programs, making it the largest corporate partnership in Cal athletics history.
The school says it is the first athletic department in the ACC to announce a jersey patch sponsor for any sport. The multi-year deal, arranged through Learfield’s Cal Bears Sports Properties, also carries a personal connection: Dialpad co-founder and CEO Craig Walker got his start in Berkeley.
Cal also points to Mark Madsen’s unique playing resume. He is one of only two current Division I head coaches who won an NBA title as a player, and the only one of that pair with two rings, both with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001 and 2002. Speedy Claxton of Hofstra is the other.
The program’s slogan this season is “California Through and Through,” described by the school as more than a tagline and instead a reflection of identity, pride and direction.
Tickets for 2026-27 are available at CalBears.com/Tickets, with questions directed to goldstandard@berkeley.edu. Fans can also support the program through the Cal Men's Basketball Excellence Initiative.
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Cal Heads To SMU With One Frustrating Question Still Unanswered
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Lupoi did not offer a clear explanation for why Jackson Brousseau got the start over Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, and the choice only looked more curious once the game played out. Sagapolutele entered late and gave Cal a better spark, while Lupoi said the decision for SMU will come down to whoever he believes can give the Bears the best chance to win, leaving one of the biggest questions around the offense still hanging as the trip approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Needs This Offensive Reset To Look Real At SMU
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The timing makes it a meaningful test. SMU brings a strong defense, Cals rushing attack has not offered much help, and Sagapolutele enters the game with an added layer of scrutiny after being replaced as the starter last week. If this reset is going to give the Bears something real to build on, it has to work under normal game conditions. [Read more 🡒]
Cals ACC Path Just Got More Complicated This Weekend
Miami needed overtime to escape Florida State, and that kind of result only added to the turbulence around the ACC race after a weekend that also saw several highly ranked teams go down. For Cal, the larger picture matters as much as any one score, because the Bears are trying to navigate a conference stretch where the results around them keep shifting and the path to contention never seems to stay still for long.
The upcoming slate brings its own complications, with injury situations, records and betting lines all feeding into how the league table could look by next week. Pittsburgh, in particular, has already had to adjust around Mason Heintschels season-ending ACL injury, while SMUs ground game has been getting a boost from Kendrick Raphael, whose production has been a steady factor as Cal watches the rest of the ACC try to sort itself out. [Read more 🡒]