Cal Paying A Steep Price For Rebounding Issues In Acc Games

Cal enters Saturday afternoon’s ACC matchup against 14th-ranked North Carolina pinch 1 overriding concern: Rebounding.

The Bears (13-5, 1-4 ACC) and Tar Heels (14-3, 2-2) will quadrate disconnected astatine Haas Pavilion, tipping disconnected astatine 1 p.m. Cal is 12-2 astatine location but coming disconnected a 71-56 nonaccomplishment No. 6 Duke. Carolina is 1-2 connected nan roadworthy aft its 95-90 nonaccomplishment astatine Stanford.

The Heels supply each sorts of challenges to Cal, nary much than what appears to beryllium a important rebounding advantage.

It won’t thief that scrappy elder Rytis Petraitis, a 6-foot-7 forward, has undergone season-ending surgery, Cal announced Friday, aft missing nan past 12 games owed to injury. Petraitis averaged 5.7 rebounds a twelvemonth ago.

UNC, led by 6-10 freshman and projected precocious NBA lottery prime Caleb Wilson and sophomore Henri Veesaar, owns a plus-8.2 rebounding margin. The Tar Heels mean 11.9 violative rebounds per game.

Cal, by comparison, ranks second-to-last successful nan ACC and tied for 286th nationally successful rebounding separator astatine minus-1.8. The discrepancy is acold much terrible successful 5 ACC games, wherever nan Bears are connected nan short extremity of a 12.2 rebounding margin.

They person mislaid nan conflict connected nan boards successful 4 of 5 convention games, including by a 38-22 separator against Duke. The Blue Devils turned 11 violative rebounds into 17 second-chance points and scored 42 points successful nan paint.

Center Lee Dort grabbed 9 rebounds for nan Bears vs. Duke but nary 1 other had much than three. Dort averages a team-leading 7.6 rebounds.

Matching up against 6-foot-10 Wilson and 7-footer Veesaar will beryllium a situation for nan Bears. Graduate transportation Milos Ilic, a 6-10 reserve center, played 18 minutes against Duke but managed conscionable 2 rebounds. Seldom-used 6-11 sophomore Mantas Kocanas of Lithuania was connected nan level for 6 minutes, grabbing 1 rebound.

Coach Mark Madsen paired 2 large men connected nan level astatine nan aforesaid clip during stretches connected Wednesday and nan Bears will request to rebound by committee to neutralize UNC’s spot connected nan boards.

Petraitis won’t beryllium portion of nan equation. He played successful Cal’s first 7 games and contributed 12 points and 7 rebounds to nan Bears’ 80-72 triumph complete UCLA connected Nov. 25.

"Rytis brings an unmatched level of power and effort to each crippled he plays," Madsen said. "He is an invaluable teammate connected and disconnected nan court. He has an unthinkable activity ethic, truthful we cognize he will retrieve and beryllium backmost moreover amended than before.”

A twelvemonth ago, aft transferring from Air Force, Petraitis averaged 8.2 points,  5.7 rebounds and had 44 steals while starting 29 of 33 games. 

Petraitis, successful a connection released by nan diversion department, thanked Cal’s fans, his teammates and coaches for their support.

"This squad is truthful typical and I'm truthful happy to beryllium a portion of it," Petraitis said. "Unfortunately owed to an injury, I intend to medically redshirt this season. It hurts maine to not beryllium retired location fighting alongside my teammates, but nan extremity hasn't changed. I will beryllium moving unbelievably difficult to travel backmost amended than ever."

Follow Jeff Faraudo connected Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

Recent articles:

Cal lands a punter from Tulsa pinch roots successful Australia

Ex-Cal backmost Devin Brown finds a caller school

A number of adjunct coaches are retained connected Tosh Lupoi's Cal coaching staff

Georgia transportation DB commits to Cal

A triple-overtime heartbreaker for nan Cal women

Cal men autumn to No. 6 Duke astatine soldout Haas Pavilion

We update nan Cal shot comings and going successful our transportation tracker

Cal gets committedness from violative lineman transportation from Kent State

Cal adds Oregon WR transportation Cooper Perry

Cal adds Minnesota transportation violative lineman Kahlee Tafai