Cal needs win over SMU to make late ACC tourney push

Cal will have its top player while SMU probably won't when the Atlantic Coast Conference teams meet in a rematch Wednesday night in Berkeley, Calif.

Boopie Miller had 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals when the Mustangs (20-7, 11-5 ACC) beat the Golden Bears (12-15, 5-11) 76-65 in Dallas last month.

The star point guard bruised his left foot three games later and has sat out SMU's last three contests, including a 79-69 home loss to Clemson last Saturday.

SMU coach Andy Enfield expects to get Miller back at some point, calling the injury a "pain-tolerance thing," but has prepared his team to go without him on a two-game trip that includes a visit to Stanford on Saturday.

"We're hoping for the best," Enfield said. "We miss Boopie.

"The Bay Area is a nice trip. We have a lot to play for here. Not many people thought we could do this."

SMU has gone 6-1 on the road in ACC play. The Mustangs will wrap up the conference regular season at Florida State next Saturday, following a final home game against Syracuse.

While SMU attempts to out-finish Wake Forest and North Carolina for a top-four position in the conference, Cal finds itself dueling teams for the last few spots in the upcoming ACC tournament. The Golden Bears begin the week with one more loss than Florida State, Virginia, Pitt and Notre Dame, the same number as Syracuse, and one fewer than Boston College and North Carolina State.

Cal has lost four in a row despite getting stellar play from freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson, who has averaged 21.5 points during the skid, and sophomore Andrej Stojakovic, who had a double-double in the Golden Bears' 66-61 loss at Stanford last Saturday.

Stojakovic, the team's leading scorer (17.6 ppg), missed the earlier loss at SMU with a hip injury.

With just two home games remaining on the schedule, Cal coach Mark Madsen hopes his fans show their appreciation for the young stars, who he expects will be prime transfer targets in the offseason.

Cal returned none of its top 10 scorers from last season despite five being underclassmen.

"The phrase we'll use is this: Key players are going to be retained. And every effort is going to be made to retain key players," Madsen said. "This is going to be a lot of stakeholders locking arms and doing everything possible to get this done."

--Field Level Media