There are some games where records just don’t matter. Tournament seeding, March Madness implications, momentum swings—you name it, but none of it matters. These are rivalry games, and when the Stanford Cardinal rolls into Berkeley to take on the California Golden Bears, all bets are off.
Reeling from a 1-3 start to conference play, Stanford men’s basketball enters Saturday’s rivalry game against California trying to remain relevant in the Pac-12.
Chasson Randle may be just a freshman, but he in no way seemed intimidated by his first trip to the big stage of the Pac-12 tournament. The guard was impossible to stop on Wednesday night, scoring a career-high 30 points, as Stanford cruised by Arizona State 85-65 in the opening round.
In Stanford’s biggest game of the season, the Cardinal was able to beat rival Cal and deny the Golden Bears a share of the Pac-12 regular season title. The victory secured Stanford’s first 20-win season since 2007-08 and gave the squad plenty of momentum going into the season-ending conference tournament.
Following a devastating road trip through Washington, the Stanford men’s basketball team hopes to right the ship Sunday when it travels across the Bay to take on rival California.