While Cal and Illinois-Chicago were unsuccessful in their bids to squeak into the NCAA Tournament, postseason action will be welcomed by two programs that seldom play at this time of year.
The No. 2-seeded Bears (21-11) will host the Flames (19-15) as part of the Albuquerque Region in the NIT on Wednesday night in Berkeley, Calif.
Cal finished in the middle of the pack in an Atlantic Coast Conference that sent eight teams to the NCAA Tournament. This will be the Bears’ first postseason action since they took part in the NIT in 2017.
The Bears won five of seven games toward the end of the season before losing three of their last four games, including a 95-89 setback to Florida State in the ACC tournament.
“We came up short. So there’s a natural human nature letdown for a moment,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said Monday. “All that being said, we have extremely lofty goals for this program. This is not the end. It’s going to take work. … But a lot of great things ahead for Cal.”
Madsen helped lead the program to a 20-win season and a .500 record in conference play (9-9), two things that Cal hadn’t done since the 2016-17 season.
The Bears are led by two dominant guards: Dai Dai Ames and Justin Pippen. Ames leads the team with an average of 17.2 points per game while shooting 46.6% from the field and 38.1% from 3-point range. Pippen tops Cal with 4.5 assists per game and is second in scoring at 14.3 ppg.
UIC will take part in postseason play for the first time in 22 years after winning 14 of 19 games to close the season. It’s been 23 years since the Flames made their lone NIT appearance.
UIC most recently fell 84-69 in the Missouri Valley Conference final to Northern Iowa on March 8. Leading scorers Elijah Crawford (14.1 ppg) and Ahmad Henderson II (12.1) pushed the effort for UIC in that game, finishing with 28 and 13 points, respectively.
“(The NIT berth) is a testament to all the hard work our guys put in this season, and it’s a chance to take the next step in our journey growing and building our program,” UIC coach Rob Ehsan said. “We’re looking forward to the opportunity to compete and represent UIC on the national stage.”
The winner of the UIC-Cal game will face Wednesday’s winner of Saint Joseph’s and No. 3 seed Colorado State’s in the next round.
