The ACC announced the conference home/away matchups for the upcoming men's basketball season this afternoon giving some insight into what the schedule is going to look like for Cal as it heads into Year 2 in its new league. The Bears will have some marquee contests at Haas Pavilion in an impressive home slate for Mark Madsen as he heads into his third season as head coach in Berkeley.
That is highlighted by home contests against Duke and North Carolina. In all, the ACC had four teams earn bids to the NCAA Tournament last season and all four will be making their way to Cal for games next season with Louisville and Clemson rounding out the group. Additional home games for the Bears include contests against Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and SMU.
The ACC recently announced that it would be moving to an 18-game conference schedule in the upcoming season leaving just two other home games for the Bears. Those will be the two home-and-home matchups with Stanford and Georgia Tech. Cal will play those teams twice during conference play.
The road slate for Madsen's group will feature the teams that Cal hosted in its first go around in the ACC. Boston College, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest make up that group.
As of now the full conference schedule will not be released until September when the Bears will learn what days and times they will be playing their conference opponents.
Cal finished the second season under Madsen at 14-19 as injuries impacted the Bears, who again had to reshuffle the roster last year. It will be a new-look group again this year following several departures including leading scorers Andrej Stojakovic and Jeremiah Wilkinson moving on to other programs after just one season with the Bears.
The college basketball season is set to begin Nov. 4. The ACC Tournament is scheduled to begin March 10.
