Cal’s Saturday slate is intact after the nationwide flight stoppage was lifted at about 5:30 p.m., clearing the way for both basketball teams and the football team to play as scheduled.
That includes Cal football, which is already in Charlottesville, Virginia, and set for a 12:30 p.m. PT kickoff Saturday against Virginia. With the stoppage over, any worry about the team getting back home after the game has been taken off the board.
At Haas Pavilion, Cal’s men will host Utah Tech at 2 p.m. Saturday as planned.
Utah Tech was caught in the air when the stoppage hit, but the team’s plane was able to land at Oakland Airport at about 4 p.m. Pacific time on Friday.
Cal enters at 2-2 and is expected to be a heavy favorite against the Trailblazers, who were picked seventh in the Big Sky Conference preseason poll and are 1-2. Their only victory came against Grace University.
The women’s team had to adjust in a big way for its first true road game of the season against UC-Santa Barbara, scheduled for noon Saturday. The Bears were supposed to fly to Santa Barbara Friday afternoon, but with Bay Area flights grounded and no clear end time for the stoppage, players and coaches chose to take a bus instead. Even after the stoppage was lifted, Cal stuck with that travel plan.
That game remains on for noon, and it shapes up as a strong early test. UCSB is 3-0 and was picked to finish third in the 12-team Big West Conference preseason poll.
In Other News...
Unbeaten Cal Women Passed A Real Road Test With One Lingering Flaw
Cals women got their first true road test of the season and handled it with plenty of room to spare, rolling past UC-Santa Barbara in a game that never really threatened to turn into a problem. The Bears shot 48.2 percent from the field, knocked down 11 of 27 from beyond the arc and built a cushion that let them settle in early, even as UCSB struggled to find any rhythm offensively.
The part that will stick with the staff is the turnover count, because Cal gave the ball away 21 times and still controlled the game from start to finish. The defense held UCSB to 24.2 percent shooting and only two made threes, which helped cover for the sloppier stretches, but the Bears will know tougher road environments are coming and the margin for error will shrink quickly if the giveaways keep piling up. [Read more 🡒]