BearTalk

Cal will face Georgia on Monday, Nov. 21 in the semifinals of the CBE Classic at the  Sprint Center in Kansas City.

The other semifinal pits Notre Dame vs. Missouri at 4:30 p.m. (PST). Cal plays in the second game.

The championship game, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, will be aired on ESPN2 and tips off following the consolation final at 4:45 p.m. (PST), which will be shown on ESPNU.

Georgia, led by former Nevada coach Mark Fox, is coming off a 21-12 season, its first 20-victory campaign since 1997-98.

Cal’s complete schedule still has not been announced.

Hi all. Back from a vacation that was at once refreshing and exhausting. You know, the kind of vacation where you need another one afterward.

Anyway, checked first thing on the status of Cal’s 2011-12 schedule and . . . nothing yet. Apparently a few contracts to get signed along with first- and second-round home-court opponents for the CBE Classic. Those first two regional-round games will be played Nov. 13-17. The Bears join Notre Dame, Missouri and Georgia at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., for the semifinals and finals, Nov. 21-22.

A few other notes:

– Crabbe/Solomon: Obviously, neither Allen Crabbe nor Richard Solomon made the cut for the U19 national team, which begins play today in the FIBA U19 World Championships in Lithuania. In Crabbe’s case, word is he was competing very well and had a shot at the roster, then took an elbow from a teammate that gave him a broken nose and minor concussion. So they couldn’t keep him. Cal says he will be fine and the mishap won’t affect his availability for the late-summer Euro tour.

– Carter exits: Walk-on senior-to-be Nigel Carter has left the program, apparently on good terms. The 6-foot-4 guard, who played just 34 minutes over Cal’s final 16 games last season, simply wanted the chance to play more before his college days are over. That wasn’t going to happen with Cal, which is deep in the backcourt. No word on where he’s headed, but he wants to play D-I somewhere, meaning he will have to sit out this season first. 

– Anteater alert: Although we don’t have Cal’s schedule, I can tell you the Bears have a non-conference home game vs. UC Irvine on Friday, Dec. 11. Pretty exciting news, huh? The Anteaters might have been an upper-division Big West team, but their top player, senior forward Eric Wise, announced a few weeks ago he has transferred to USC. So you’ll have to wait a year to see him.

When Utah and Colorado join the new Pac-12 next season, the conference basketball schedule will continue to involve 18 games, as it has since the Pac-8 expanded to the Pac-10 in 1978-79. Now it means each school in the league will miss one road trip and one homestand each year.

Cal will skip the trip to Arizona next season and won’t welcome the Washington schools at Haas Pavilion. Considering the Wildcats and Huskies figure to be two of the Pac-12′s better teams, perhaps not a bad tradeoff for the Bears. 

Here’s the Pac-10 portion of Cal’s 2011-12 schedule:

Thursday, Dec. 29: UCLA at Cal
Saturday, Dec. 31: USC at Cal
Thursday, Jan. 5: Cal at Oregon State
Saturday, Jan. 7: Cal at Oregon
Thursday, Jan. 12: Colorado at Cal
Saturday, Jan. 14: Utah at Cal
Thursday, Jan. 19: Cal at Washington
Saturday, Jan. 21: Cal at Washington State
Saturday, Jan. 28: Stanford at Cal
Thursday, Feb. 2: Arizona at Cal
Saturday, Feb. 4: Arizona State at Cal
Thursday, Feb. 9: Cal at USC
Saturday, Feb. 11: Cal at UCLA
Thursday, Feb. 16: Oregon at Cal
Saturday, Feb. 18: Oregon State at Cal
Thursday, Feb. 23: Cal at Utah
Saturday, Feb. 25: Cal at Colorado
Saturday, March 3: Cal at Stanford

Click here to check out the full Pac-12 schedule for men and women in 2011-12.

The Bears’ quarterfinal round NIT game, if they get there, apparently will be played Tuesday at Berkeley. Cal tells me they haven’t gotten definitive word from NIT officials, but that Colorado was told it would play Tuesday.

The NIT official bracket is not updated with schedule information on the quarterfinals, except that there are two slots for games on Tuesday, and one of them is slotted for a 9 p.m. EDT tipoff on ESPN. That’s 6 p.m. here, and that’s the one I think you can count on for the Bears.

That is, if . . .

Tickets for the 2011 CBE Classic at Kansas City Mo., featuring Cal, Missouri, Notre Dame and Georgia, will go on sale Wednesday at 8 a.m. PST.

The event will be played Nov. 21 and 22 at the Sprint Center.

Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster at  800-745-3000 or at www.ticketmaster.com.

Pairings for the CBE Clasasic have not been announced.

Cal will participate in the CBE Classic in Kansas City, Mo., next Nov. 21-22 as part of a three-day celebration honoring eight inductees into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Missouri, Georgia and Notre Dame also are scheduled to play at the Sprint Center. Matchups haven’t been announced.

The Hall of Fame ceremonies, involving Chris Mullin, Bob Knight, Ralph Sampson and James Worthy, among others, will be held on Nov. 20.

Cal’s regular-season home finale against Stanford on March 5 will tip off at 4 p.m. and be carried on CSNCA.

The game will be the Bears’ last before the Pac-10 Tournament at the Staples Center, beginning on March 9, and will serve as Senior Day, with center Markhuri Sanders-Frison being honored in a pre-game ceremony.

With Jonathan taking some well-deserved vacation, here’s some news you will want:

Cal will play a non-conference football game Sept. 17 at AT&T Park against Presbyterian College, an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision team from Clinton, S.C.

The Golden Bears have not announced the game yet, but Presbyterian posted it on its website.

The Blue Hose were 2-9 last season, including 1-5 in the Big South Conference. They played two games against Football Bowl Championship teams last season, losing 53-13 at Wake Forest and 58-21 at Clemson.

“Cal will be a great trip for us. Coach (Jeff) Tedford is doing great things out there and it’ll be a fun game and a great experience for our guys,” Presbyterian coach Harold Nichols said on gobluehose.com.

Cal, which will play its home games in San Francisco next season while Memorial Stadium undergoes renovation, still has a Sept. 10 opening on its non-conference schedule.

The Pac-10 Conference has announced the schedule model for basketball beginning next season when the league expands to the Pac-12.

The regular-season conference schedule will continue to be 18 games, with teams guaranteed home-and-home games each season against their natural rival. Teams will play home-and-home against six other teams each season and single games against the other four. That portion of the schedule will rotate every two years.

California’s single-play opponents for 2011-12 and 2012-13 will be Washington, Washington State, Arizona and Arizona State. Next season, the
Golden Bears will play Washington and Washington State on the road, with Arizona and Arizona State visiting Haas Pavilion. The year, the sites of those matchups will flip-flop.

Cal and Stanford will continue to be travel partners.

Here’s the link to the Pac-10 website with next season’s schedule and the 10-year rotation model at the bottom.

Cal announced its basketball schedule, complete with starting times and TV info. You can find it here. About time, right?. Don’t blame Cal. TV sets most of the times, and is rarely in a rush to do so.

Also, a reminder that the Bears will stage a free open practice Wednesday at Haas Pavilion from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Yes, that coincides roughly with the first three innings of Game 1 in the World Series . . . what are you going to do?

Seriously, what are you going to do? Get your first in-person glimpse of the young Bears or watch the Giants begin their quest for their first World Championship since arriving in S.F. in 1958? Share your thoughts.