There is a level of mystery surrounding the California men’s basketball team this season. The top-ranked offense in the Pac-10 conference is totaling 77.8 points per game, behind the hot-shooting hand of forward Ryan Anderson, who leads the league with 21.8 points per game this season. However, Anderson and the Golden Bears are seventh in the Pac-10 standings and need to win their remaining four conference games to stand a chance on Selection Sunday. The WSU men’s basketball team knows all too well what the Anderson-led Golden Bears can achieve on the court in upset fashion. Cal upended then-No. 9 WSU on Jan. 31 at Friel Court, where Anderson thrashed the Cougars’ defense with 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Forwards Jamal Boykin and Patrick Christopher also combined for 28 points against the league’s top-ranked defense. “Cal is so dangerous, because they’re such great scorers,” WSU head coach Tony Bennett. “We’re going to have to have a complete game, nothing but a complete game will get it done on the road this weekend against Cal and Stanford.”

Anderson hit five 3-pointers against the Cougars and helped lead Cal to a 69-64 victory in Pullman. The loss was the first of three straight for the Cougars during a four-game homestand. A rematch between Cal and WSU is set for 8 p.m. Thursday at Memorial Court in Berkeley. WSU (21-6, 9-6 Pac-10 Conference) is playing its final road trip of the regular season while the Golden Bears host their last homestand. If the previous meeting in Pullman is any indication of how this conference game will shape out, Thursday’s matchup may come down to the final shot. Any last-second theatrics will likely include Anderson. “Anybody who is averaging a double-double in the Pac-10 is a great player and is very lethal," WSU guard Taylor Rochestie said. "It’s going to be up to us to figure out his tendencies and what he likes to do and try to bother him early and often, and get the ball out of his hands.”

The Golden Bears (15-10, 6-8) are vying for a spot in the NCAA or NIT tournaments, but will have to claim their remaining four league games or capture the conference title at the Pac-10 tournament in Los Angeles to do so. Cal’s final four games will be grueling, including road games at USC and UCLA in the final weekend of the season.

For now, the Golden Bears will have to focus on the Cougars, who haven’t forgotten about the blundering five-point loss last month. The defense can’t take its eyes off Anderson, or the all-around marquee player for Cal could hit another flurry of outside shots to sink the Cougars and take the season series.

“We’ve just got to be more alert,” WSU guard Derrick Low said. “When they’re coming off ball screens, and he screens and pops to the three, we’ve got to be able to get there fast.”

One positive for the Cougars this weekend involves traveling. WSU is playing substantially better while distant from the boisterous crowd filling Beasley Coliseum. The Cougars are 9-2 in road games this season and 13-2 in match-ups outside of Pullman, which is tied for the second-most away-from-home wins in the country. The Cougars approach road games as the underdog, whether it’s UCLA or Oregon State. The Pac-10 has provided the country with one of its deepest batches of competitive schools in recent history, and any road game for WSU carries itself the motivation to silence the cynics. If there is any game in the final stretch of the regular season where WSU can truly declare itself the underdog, it’s Saturday on the road against No. 8 Stanford.

Stanford (22-4, 11-3) hosts the Cougars at 1 p.m. at Maples Pavilion in a battle between the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the Pac-10 standings. The Cardinal are the only team outside of UCLA that can still stake a claim the conference regular-season title, and have won 14 of 15 games at home this season. The Cougars fell to Stanford earlier this month at Friel Court in their only overtime game of the season. Stanford left town winners over WSU to take over second place in the Pac-10. The Lopez twins, Brook and Robin, combined for 27 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks in the 67-65 triumph. Stanford has won nine of its past 10 games and will provide the Cougars with one of their toughest road tasks of the season.

“When we’re on the road, I think people count us out and count out the road teams,” Rochestie said. “We get that underdog mentality back that’s big in Washington State basketball, that’s the way we need to play in all of our games, but especially on the road when we haven’t had success at Stanford or Cal.

“When we’re on the road, it’s an ‘us versus the world’ mentality and it brings the team closer together.”

Notes:

Additional tickets are available to students for the last home game against Washington on March 8. Students may buy tickets at the ticket office beginning Monday, March 3. Game time has been set for 4:30 p.m.

In hopes that students will come out for their final chance to see Low, Kyle Weaver, Robbie Cowgill and the rest of the seniors, University Housing has extended residence hall closing time until 10 a.m. Sunday, March 9.