Montana State University
California
Bobcat Men Head West To Face Cal on Thursday Night in Berkeley
11/15/2023 4:18:00 PM | Men's Basketball
MSU men's basketball takes aim at first win over Power Five opponent since 2018
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- The Montana State men's basketball team will have the opportunity to score a signature non-conference win on Thursday as they travel to Berkeley, California, to face off against the California Golden Bears at Haas Pavilion.
Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. PT/9 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network. The live radio play-by-play of Keaton Gillogly will be carried on the Bobcat Sports Radio Network.
Montana State (1-1) is coming off their first loss of the season, a nail-biting 71-68 finish at Seattle U that came down to the final possession.
Cal (2-1) defeated Cal State Bakersfield, 83-63, on Tuesday night in Berkeley. The Golden Bears narrowly defeated St. Thomas in the opener, 71-66, before falling to Pacific last Friday, 87-79.
OFFENSIVE EFFICIENCY
Montana State is shooting 40% from three through the first two games (24-of-60) and averaging 85.5 points per contest. The Bobcats have relied on their depth through the first week of the season, with eight different players averaging at least eight points per game. Following an 18-point performance against Seattle U on Saturday, Point Loma transfer Brian Goracke leads the team in scoring average (15.0)
BOBCAT AND BEAR TIES
Cal assistant coach Ken Moses spent two seasons on staff at Montana State (2020-22) and helped the Bobcats to two of their most successful seasons this century before joining current Cal head Mark Madsen at Utah Valley in 2022-2023. Blaire Braxton, Cal's Director of Men's Basketball Business Operations, is one of the most recognizable faces in Montana State women's basketball, having played in a program-record 125 games from 2016-20. She spent one season on staff following graduation.
SHOT-MAKERS
Juniors Patrick McMahon and Brian Goracke have gotten off to uber-efficient offensive starts to the season. McMahon scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the season opener against Northwest Indian College, then followed that up by going 5-of-8 from the field and scoring 15 points on Saturday against Seattle U. Goracke scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting in the season opener and tallied a game-high 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting on Saturday, including going 4-for-10 from three. Perhaps most impressively, both players have come off the bench in each of the first two games this season.
AGAINST THE PAC
Montana State last took down a Pac-12 opponent on December 9, 2018, defeating Washington State, 95-90, in a neutral site game in Kennewick, Wash. That victory also marks Montana State's last win against a Power Five foe. In that game, Harald Frey scored 31 points and Tyler Hall broke the Montana State scoring record and the Big Sky career three-pointers record. Montana State is 53-101 against schools currently making up the Pac-12 (including Colorado, Utah, etc.). Montana State will travel to Seattle to face the University of Washington on December 5.
GOLDEN AGE OF BOBCAT BASKETBALL
The Bobcats are coming off of their two best seasons in the modern era. In 2021-22, Montana State went 27-8, which included an undefeated stretch in January, a 13-1 record at home and a program-record 16 wins in conference play. In 2022-2023, Montana State went 25-10, collected a 12-1 record at Worthington Arena, and went 15-3 in conference action. The Bobcats are the Big Sky's first repeat champion since Montana went back-to-back from 2017-19. Montana State has played in three straight Big Sky Tournament championship games, gone 37-7 against Big Sky opponents over the last two seasons, won at least 25 games in two straight seasons for the first time since 1927-1929, and are coming off consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history.
NEW-LOOK CATS
Montana State brought back six letter-winners from last year's squad, and welcomes ten newcomers in 2023-2024, including seven transfers and three freshmen. The Bobcats replace four starters from last season: First Team All-Big Sky forward RaeQuan Battle (West Virginia), four-time All-Big Sky big man Jubrile Belo (graduated), Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year Darius Brown II (Utah State), and Big Sky Reserve of the Year Great Osobor (Utah State)
WELCOME TO THE LOGIE ERA
First-year head coach Matt Logie comes to Montana State after four seasons at Point Loma in California, where his teams rolled up an 82-23 record with three conference championships. His 12 seasons as a head basketball coach includes eight at Whitworth University in Spokane (2011-19), where his Pirates compiled a 194-35 record. Logie's 276-58 career mark in 12 seasons is good for an .826 winning percentage, the third-highest winning percentage in the history of all NCAA men's college basketball coaches.
ABOUT CAL
After going 3-29 last season, Cal made a coaching change, hiring Mark Madsen, who was 70-51 overall and 39-25 in WAC play across four seasons at Utah Valley. Following an 11-win season in his first year in 2019-20, Madsen led the Wolverines to a share of the WAC regular-season title in 2020-21 and back-to-back 20-win seasons in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Madsen's 2022-23 squad won a program record 28 games and was an impressive 15-3 in WAC play. Cal returned seven letter-winners from last year's team that went 3-29, and welcomed eight newcomers this off-season, including Jalen Cone, who spent two seasons at Northern Arizona, earning All-Big Sky Third Team honors in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Cone scored a game-high 23 points and hit seven triples in Cal's win over Cal State Bakersfield at home on Tuesday.
SERIES HISTORY
Cal leads the all-time series with Montana State, 2-0. The Bobcats and Golden Bears had a home-and-home series in 1984 and 1985, with Cal winning both matchups.
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