San Francisco Bay Area native Mark Madsen gets an opportunity to spark up a local rivalry when the coach takes his Cal team up against Santa Clara on Saturday afternoon in Berkeley, Calif.
Despite being just 47 miles apart on the east and south sides of the San Francisco Bay, respectively, the Golden Bears (2-5) and Broncos (7-1) have met just six times since 2001, with four coming in the past five years.
It’s Cal’s turn to host, which recent history indicates is a good thing for the Golden Bears. The home team is undefeated in the past six meetings, with the Broncos taking a 71-62 victory at home last December.
Cal leads the all-time series 46-30.
Madsen, who played his college ball at nearby Stanford, saw his new team go 2-2 in a season-opening run of home games before losing three straight to UTEP, Tulane and San Diego State in a series of neutral-site contests in Southern California last week.
Madsen was particularly proud of his team’s effort in a 76-67 overtime loss to San Diego State last Saturday.
“We cut down the turnovers. We guarded them. We had a chance to win,” Madsen said. “We had an open shot to win it (in regulation) and it didn’t go in. But we’ll take that shot all day, every day. We got better as we rebuild this program.”
Cal big man Fardaws Aimaq was selected Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week for his consistency in the three losses. He put up 18 points and 11 rebounds against UTEP, 23 points and 14 rebounds against Tulane and 14 points and 18 rebounds against San Diego State.
Santa Clara already is 2-0 against the Pac-12 this season, having won 89-77 at Stanford and 88-82 over Oregon last week in Florida. The Broncos suffered their first loss of the season in Florida, beaten 86-56 by Ohio State, before bouncing back Wednesday with a 106-69 shellacking of Division II Menlo College.
The Broncos also will face Washington State as part of a December schedule coach Herb Sendek labels “incredibly challenging.”
“All seven teams, starting with Cal, are Top 100 teams,” Sendek said of the upcoming slate that closes out nonconference play. “Cal is an incredibly talented team that is playing its best basketball right now. They have big-time talent.”
Three players are scoring in double figures for Santa Clara through eight games: Carlos Marshall Jr. (15.6 ppg), Adama Bal (13.9) and Christoph Tilly (10.1).
–Field Level Media