California Golden Bears vs. San Diego St. Aztecs Pick & Prediction DECEMBER 21st 2024
Preview and Prediction
The San Diego State Aztecs, ranked No. 23, and the Cal Golden Bears will both be seeking a boost in momentum as they wrap up their non-conference schedules on Saturday night in the final game of the San Jose Tip-Off tournament in California.
The first matchup of the tournament will feature Stanford taking on No. 10 Oregon.
San Diego State (7-2) will be looking to defeat Cal (7-4) for the second time in just over a year, after securing a 76-67 victory at a neutral site in San Juan Capistrano, California last November.
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The Aztecs' top five scorers from that game will not be playing in this rematch. Four have since left the team, and Reese Waters, who led the team with 24 points in the win, has been sidelined this season due to a stress fracture in his right foot.
This makes sophomore Miles Byrd, who scored four points against Cal last season, the leading returning scorer for the Aztecs. Byrd currently leads the team with an average of 13.1 points per game.
Cal no longer has any of the 10 players who played against San Diego State last year, as the Golden Bears have a roster made up entirely of transfers and freshmen this season.
As expected with such a high turnover of players, both teams have struggled with consistency this season.
Despite earning a national ranking after defeating then-No. 21 Creighton and then-No. 6 Houston at the end of November, the Aztecs have only managed to beat Fresno State, UC San Diego, and most recently, Cal Baptist with a score of 81-75 on December 11th.
With a tough matchup against Utah State coming up in their Mountain West Conference opener on December 28th, San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher is hoping to see improvement from his team after their game against Cal Baptist.
"I'm just trying to develop this young team," he said. "I have to coach them without damaging their confidence, but also being realistic with them.
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"I really like this team, but we have a tough stretch coming up with games against Cal, Utah State at home, and then Boise State on the road. We always improve as the season progresses, and that's something I really appreciate about our program."
The Aztecs were hoping to have Waters back for their conference opener, but recent reports suggest that his recovery has been slow and there is no guarantee he will play at all this season.
Cal's new players are still trying to make a name for themselves, as evidenced by their most recent game, an 84-66 win at home against Northwestern State last Saturday.
Star player Andrej Stojakovic wore a jersey with his name misspelled as "Stojajovic" in that game, but still managed to score 31 points.
When given the option to change to a jersey without his name on the back, Stojakovic chose to stick with the misspelled one. But only for one night.
"I want to fix it," he said when asked if he would continue wearing the same jersey for superstition's sake. "It's my name."
The son of former NBA player Peja Stojakovic has actually faced off against San Diego State before. As a freshman, he started and scored six points on 2-of-9 shooting when his previous school, Stanford, lost 74-60 in San Diego last year.
Stojakovic is currently on a hot streak, having scored 20 or more points in six of his last eight games.