Game 4: Legends Classic Semifinal: Cal Bears (ESPN2, 970AM)

Cal is 349th in points scored and 297th in team assists. If you watched their game against Yale you already understand that we have more talent and should be on our way to the championship. Their best player is 6'0 Junior PG Paris Austin (19/3/4). They are well rested due to their game against Detroit being cancelled bc of the California wildfires.

No reason to not win this game, no reason to leave Brooklyn without a trophy

(Also, psst: this is game 4)

We'll be double digit favs

We'll be top 25 if we win this tournament. I'd like to see us beat Cal by 40 for the record books. When will we ever get the chance to do it against a quality PAC-12 team like that again? Temple scares me.

We'll be top 25 if we win this tournament. I'd like to see us beat Cal by 40 for the record books. When will we ever get the chance to do it against a PAC-12 team like that again? Temple scares me.

FIFY. And Temple is one of those tricky matchups for us I agree.

14.5 point favorites

We'll be top 25 if we win this tournament. I'd like to see us beat Cal by 40 for the record books. When will we ever get the chance to do it against a quality PAC-12 team like that again? Temple scares me.

Quality. Lol

Quality. Lol

What do you take issue with. Please be specific.

What do you take issue with. Please be specific.

I take issue with the fact that you called Cal a quality team. They aren't. Just because a team is in a good conference doesn't mean they are good.

Here are some teams that would be favorites against Cal on a neutral floor. This isn't my opinion either. This is fact:

Lehigh
East Tennessee State
Radford
Hofstra
Pacific
Cal St Fullerton
Liberty
Lipscomb
Eastern Michigan

Just to name a few. If any aspiring NCAA tournament team loses to Cal this year it will go in the "Bad Losses" category of their resume.

I take issue with the fact that you called Cal a quality team. They aren't. Just because a team is in a good conference doesn't mean they are good.

Here are some teams that would be favorites against Cal on a neutral floor. This isn't my opinion either. This is fact:

Lehigh
East Tennessee State
Radford
Hofstra
Pacific
Cal St Fullerton
Liberty
Lipscomb
Eastern Michigan

Just to name a few. If any aspiring NCAA tournament team loses to Cal this year it will go in the "Bad Losses" category of their resume.

And if we scheduled any of these teams, you would be complaining just as much. This schedule conversation is getting tiresome. Talk about basketball. Their point guard seems to be their best player and they blocked 10 shots against Hampton. Have to focus on transition finishes and ball movement. Won't hit 16 threes every night, but no reason we can't knock down 10 or 12 on most nights if we continue to focus on getting to the basket. Looking for Ponds to continue to develop as a distributor. It was fun to watch when he did.

Quality. Lol

I take issue with the fact that you called Cal a quality team. They aren't. Just because a team is in a good conference doesn't mean they are good.

Here are some teams that would be favorites against Cal on a neutral floor. This isn't my opinion either. This is fact:

Lehigh
East Tennessee State
Radford
Hofstra
Pacific
Cal St Fullerton
Liberty
Lipscomb
Eastern Michigan

Just to name a few. If any aspiring NCAA tournament team loses to Cal this year it will go in the "Bad Losses" category of their resume.

You are just looking for ambiguities to troll.

My post clearly referred to looking back on this potential ass whooping on the future. I thought record books would be enough of a context clue.

We get it, you think schedule is weak and you will take every opportunity to be annoying as humanly possible to fight for that stance even though our schedule is currently looking perfect.

Cal is a quality "program." All ambiguities have been closed, troll. How are you liking the #24 RPI and #37 KenPom rankings!

You are just looking for ambiguities to troll.

My post clearly referred to looking back on this potential ass whooping on the future. I thought record books would be enough of a context clue.

We get it, you think schedule is weak and you will take every opportunity to be annoying as humanly possible to fight for that stance even though our schedule is currently looking perfect.

Cal is a quality "program." All ambiguities have been closed, troll. How are you liking the #24 RPI and #37 KenPom rankings!

If you want to beat a team to look back on it 3 years and say "wow", that's weird but you can have it. I highly doubt anybody looks at their wins over us in our down years and says "wow can't believe we beat St. John's by 30 even though their best player was Durand Johnson". But again, whatever floats your boat.

I love the fact that the team is ranked 37 on KenPom. I hope we will continue to rise in those rankings going forward and think we will. I also hate the fact that we currently have the overall 235th ranked strength of schedule in all of college basketball according to the very same KenPom. Weird how you ignore that number.

Last thing I'll say about the schedule because I agree it is becoming tiresome. In past years this schedule wouldn't be a big problem because we haven't had a roster nearly this good and the BE has never been this bad. It's unfortunate that with a team this talented there are so few chances to really move the needle and post top notch wins. Due to the lack of opportunities to pick up big time wins, the margin for error is extremely slim.

No matter what happens, this schedule is going to hurt this team on Selection Sunday. That really bugs me because this is the first year in forever where we really have a chance to do something special and this scheduling mishap was very avoidable.

I hope we bash their progressive heads in!

If the conference is that down we should finish top 2 in the conference and make it to the final weekend in the BE tournament. Sounds like a 4-5 seed, I’ll take it.

It is imperative that we get Bryan and Mikey going if this is indeed a blowout. Our bench production is terribly bad per 30 minutes and we need the two of them to produce and get comfortable offensively in order to ensure our long term success.

If you want to beat a team to look back on it 3 years and say "wow", that's weird but you can have it. I highly doubt anybody looks at their wins over us in our down years and says "wow can't believe we beat St. John's by 30 even though their best player was Durand Johnson". But again, whatever floats your boat.

I love the fact that the team is ranked 37 on KenPom. I hope we will continue to rise in those rankings going forward and think we will. I also hate the fact that we currently have the overall 235th ranked strength of schedule in all of college basketball according to the very same KenPom. Weird how you ignore that number.

Last thing I'll say about the schedule because I agree it is becoming tiresome. In past years this schedule wouldn't be a big problem because we haven't had a roster nearly this good and the BE has never been this bad. It's unfortunate that with a team this talented there are so few chances to really move the needle and post top notch wins. Due to the lack of opportunities to pick up big time wins, the margin for error is extremely slim.

No matter what happens, this schedule is going to hurt this team on Selection Sunday. That really bugs me because this is the first year in forever where we really have a chance to do something special and this scheduling mishap was very avoidable.

Being on neutral court helps the quality of all these games. Also don't dismiss conference affiliation as having no value.

I really think the schedule strength if being severely overblown. Get wins.

Being on neutral court helps the quality of all these games. Also don't dismiss conference affiliation as having no value.

I really think the schedule strength if being severely overblown. Get wins.

I disagree that conference affiliation matters when the team is trash. Beating Rutgers, Cal, G Tech etc. isn't as good as beating better teams from smaller conferences. Beating Pitt last year didn't move the needle for anybody just because they were in the ACC. Same with us in the 15-16 season.

We'll see in March if this schedule burns us. I'm willing to bet it will one way or another. If non-conference scheduling was purely about "getting wins" then big conference teams would play absolutely nobody until conference play started. Instead, teams are shooting for half of their non conference games to be against good teams and are jumping at the chance to play in loaded tournaments like Maui, Atlantis etc.

If you want to beat a team to look back on it 3 years and say "wow", that's weird but you can have it. I highly doubt anybody looks at their wins over us in our down years and says "wow can't believe we beat St. John's by 30 even though their best player was Durand Johnson". But again, whatever floats your boat.

I love the fact that the team is ranked 37 on KenPom. I hope we will continue to rise in those rankings going forward and think we will. I also hate the fact that we currently have the overall 235th ranked strength of schedule in all of college basketball according to the very same KenPom. Weird how you ignore that number.

Last thing I'll say about the schedule because I agree it is becoming tiresome. In past years this schedule wouldn't be a big problem because we haven't had a roster nearly this good and the BE has never been this bad. It's unfortunate that with a team this talented there are so few chances to really move the needle and post top notch wins. Due to the lack of opportunities to pick up big time wins, the margin for error is extremely slim.

No matter what happens, this schedule is going to hurt this team on Selection Sunday. That really bugs me because this is the first year in forever where we really have a chance to do something special and this scheduling mishap was very avoidable.

(1) Who cares what the SOS is if we are universally ranked high?

(2) We play Cal and (hopefully) Temple on a neutral court the next two games so the SOS will skyrocket anyway...especially as BG starts winning like I expect and Rutgers wins the next two.

(3) Beating a PAC-12 team by 30-40 is a feather in the cap and a nice fact to have on your side the next when you marchup with a team again (likely in a preseason tournament or the NCAA tournament). Sports--college sports in particular--are all about comparisons.

Did anyone get tickets for this tournament?

This freakin Duke game on ESPN2 is going to run halfway through the first half of our game and they'll stay with it to the end even if Duke is up 30. So f***ing annoying.