NCAA Tournament March Madness

#73 California

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Projected seed: 10 (last four in)

California's resume is built around a signature neutral win over UCLA and a competitive road test at Kansas State that, despite ending in a loss, showed the team can hang in hostile environments; those high points are offset by a nonconference slate loaded with easy wins over teams such as CS Fullerton, CS Bakersfield and Morgan St that do little to elevate the resume. The absence of resume-making road victories leaves the profile vulnerable until conference play produces results, so upcoming home dates against Louisville and Notre Dame and marquee matchups with Duke and North Carolina represent chances to add resume-changing victories while true road opportunities at Virginia, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami and Syracuse are the kinds of wins that would shift perception. Put together, the mix of a single quality neutral triumph, a close high-end road outing, a parade of low-major victories and several looming opportunities against recognized opponents explains the committee-minded placement.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3CS Bakersfield308W87-60
11/6Wright St140W77-67
11/10CS Fullerton232W93-65
11/13@Kansas St74L99-96
11/18Presbyterian291W67-57
11/21CS Sacramento276W91-67
11/25(N)UCLA33W80-72
12/2Utah124W79-72
12/6Pacific142W67-61
12/13Northwestern LA304W79-70
12/19Morgan St361W97-50
12/21Columbia136W74-56
12/30Louisville1124%
1/2Notre Dame5857%
1/7@Virginia2417%
1/10@Virginia Tech6838%
1/14Duke617%
1/17North Carolina2335%
1/24@Stanford9245%
1/28@Florida St10953%
1/31@Miami FL3723%
2/4Georgia Tech13480%
2/7Clemson3543%
2/11@Syracuse7641%
2/14@Boston College15666%
2/21Stanford9267%
2/25SMU4045%
2/28Pittsburgh9066%
3/4@Georgia Tech13461%
3/7@Wake Forest5936%