The California Golden Bears and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits face off on Friday as they open their 2016-2017 college basketball seasons.
The California Golden bears are coming off of a disappointing season where high hopes were crushed by a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament. Cal still has a solid core of talent and despite players leaving for the NBA and transferring out Cuonzo Martin has what he feels to be a great team. Cal forward Ivan Rabb gave up a chance to be a lottery pick in last year’s draft to return and he had 12 double-doubles last year. Jabari Bird is also back for the bears and he missed last year’s NCAA Tourney loss but he was red hot late in the year with 4 20-point games in his last 10 games and he shot almost 41 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. Cal has plenty of size up front with Kameron Rooks and Kingsley Okoroh.Cal has loads of other talent including former Georgetown recruit Stephen Domingo. Look for Cal to have the talent to hang with anyone.
The South Dakota State Jackrabbits won the Summit League last season and they made it to the NCAA Tournament where they lost a competitive game to Maryland. Last year’s success for SDSU meant the departure of coach Scott Nagy who took the Wright State job so T.J. Otzelberger, a former Iowa State assistant, takes over. With the South Dakota State backcourt depleted Michael Orris transfers in from Northern Illinois and Cole Gentry transfers in from Junior College as does Andre Wallace. Mike Daum is the top returning starter after averaging 15.2 points per game as a freshman and Redd Tillingham averaged 8.5 points per game. South Dakota State doesn’t appear to have the same team they had last year but they still should be pretty good.
Cal is 6-1-1 against the spread in their last 8 home games and 3-7 against the spread in their last 10 non-conference games. South Dakota State is 11-5 against the spread in their last 16 non-conference games and 1-5 against the spread in their last 6 Friday games.
Cal is a big favorite here and while I see South Dakota State as a quality team, this looks like a bad spot for them.