The California Golden Bears take on the Stanford Cardinal. Check out our college basketball odds series for our California Stanford prediction and pick. Find how to watch California Stanford.

The story of Cal and Stanford men's basketball in 2024 is a painful one for Stanford. The Cardinal, one year ago, could have chosen to fire their entirely unsuccessful head coach Jerod Haase. He had been with the Stanford program for several seasons and had not made a single NCAA Tournament appearance in more than half a decade on the job. It seemed like an obvious time to fire Haase and start fresh. One of the coaches who was available on the open market was Mark Madsen, a Stanford alumnus who also happened to be a member of the Cardinal's last Final Four team in 1998. Madsen, a former NBA player who had become a quality head coach at Utah Valley, was a successful alumnus and a rising star in the profession. He was right there on a silver platter for Stanford and its athletic director, Bernard Muir, but Muir kept Haase on the job one more season for reasons which are hard to explain or understand.

Cal, which had fired Mark Fox, was looking for a new head coach. When Stanford said no thanks, the Golden Bears gleefully scooped up the former Stanford player with a good coaching track record at Utah Valley. What we have seen this past season is a very simple story. Cal has significantly improved from being an embarrassing, flatlining, rock-bottom program the season before. The Golden Bears are on a clear upward trajectory and have improved markedly from the Mark Fox days. Stanford has remained stuck, underachieving and once again missing the NCAA Tournament. Stanford has just one NCAA Tournament appearance in the past 15 seasons and has not been to the NCAAs since 2014. One would think Jerod Haase will finally be fired, but it's too late for Stanford to bring Mark Madsen home to Palo Alto. He is in the Bay Area but on the other side of the Cal-Stanford rivalry now. This game will remind Stanford fans what might have been had Bernard Muir acted responsibly and quickly one year ago. He didn't. Cal is poised to reap the benefits in the years to come.

Here are the California-Stanford College Basketball odds, courtesy of FanDuel.

College Basketball Odds: California-Stanford Odds

California Golden Bears: +3.5 (-102)

Stanford Cardinal: -3.5 (-120)

Over: 155.5 (-110)

Under: 155.5 (-110)

How To Watch California vs Stanford

Time: 11:00 pm ET / 8:00 pm PT

TV: ESPN2

Stream: fuboTV (click for a free trial)*

Why California Could Cover the Spread

The better coach in this game works for Cal, not Stanford. Mark Madsen has developed this Cal team into a group which is not a pushover. Cal won on the road at UCLA and nearly swept the Bruins this season. Cal beat a Washington State team which is heading to the NCAA Tournament. Cal isn't a great team by any means, but this group competes well and is clearly eager to play for Mark Madsen. The Golden Bears are hungry, learning, and growing, and that's what you want to see as a bettor late in the season: motivation and urgency from a team which knows it won't make the NCAA Tournament but still enjoys the process of playing basketball and trying to be better at it.

Stanford, on the other hand, looks like a team which has quit on Jerod Haase. The Cardinal recently got swept at home by the Oregon schools. Then Stanford got hammered on its Mountain road trip to Utah and Colorado. Stanford seems to act like a team which just wants this miserable season to end. Stanford is not a team to be trusted in this situation, especially as a favorite.

Why Stanford Could Cover the Spread

The Cardinal are not a good team, but just when you think they are going to fade away, they play a good game. They're inconsistent, but part of the inconsistency means that when they play several bad games in a row — as they recently have — they eventually regroup and play a few good games. This is Senior Night for the Cardinal, playing at home against their bitter Bay Area rival from Berkeley. There are lots of times when Stanford men's basketball mails it in, but this will not be one of those times.

Final California-Stanford Prediction & Pick

Neither team is reliable, so avoid this game altogether.

Final California-Stanford Prediction & Pick: California +3.5