Game Info: Sunday, March 22, 2026 - 9:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Haas Pavilion - Berkeley, Calif.
TV: ESPNU | Listen: sjuhawks.com | Live Stats: sjuhawks.com | Saint Joseph's Game Notes | Cal Game Notes 

Social Media
Twitter/X: @sjuhawks_mbb | Instagram: @sjuhawks_mbb

Opening Tip
Saint Joseph's continues on in the NIT with a Second Round matchup on Sunday, March 22, facing the Cal Golden Bears. Tipoff from Haas Pavilion is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. EDT with the game airing on ESPNU.

Not Done Yet!    
For a third consecutive year, Saint Joseph's has been selected for the National Invitation Tournament. It is the 19th appearance in the NIT for the Hawks overall. SJU is one of five Atlantic 10 teams in the tournament and one of seven competing in the postseason overall.

Bringing Awards to Hawk Hill    
Saint Joseph's was well represented in the Atlantic 10 All-Conference honors, as announced by the league office on Wednesday. Justice Ajogbor earned co-Defensive Player of the Year accolades. He was also named to the All-Defensive Team and the All-Academic Team. Derek Simpson garnered First Team recognition. Jaiden Glover-Toscano is on the Second Team. Austin Williford picked up All-Rookie honors. Steve Donahue was voted as the A-10 Coach of the Year.

Hawks In the NIT    
SJU has an overall record of 17-18 in the NIT. Wednesday marks the team's 19th appearance in the tourney. Wednesday was the first win in the National Invitation Tournament for St. Joe's since a 71-62 win against Rutgers on March 16, 2006. It has reached the finals twice, in 1996 and 2005.

Been A While    
Sunday will be the first time in more than two decades that Saint Joseph's and Cal will meet in men's basketball. Playing an ACC team is not unusual for the Hawks, however, at least in recent years as St. Joe's has faced Virginia Tech twice and Syracuse once since the beginning of the 2024-25 season. Prior to December 21, 2024, SJU hadn't played an ACC foe since beating Wake Forest, 89-69, on November 15, 2018 at the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

Rewriting The Record Book    
Several St. Joe's players have already moved into or are on the verge of cracking single-season and career marks on Hawk Hill. Justice Ajogbor enters Sunday with 160 blocks at Saint Joseph's in just two seasons, already sixth on the SJU all-time list. His 86 blocks last season are the eighth highest total in a year and his 74 this year are 10th. Derek Simpson moved into the single-season top-10 at Saint Joseph's in assists with his eight against VCU. He now stands at 177 in 2025-26 and is fourth on the SJU list. His effort against Colorado State moved him up four spots on the chart, passing Hawk legends Matt Goukas, Jr., Rap Curry and Tasheed Carr. Simpson is also shooting at an 85.4 percent clip at the line in his career with the Hawks, the third highest total in program history. His rate of 91.3 percent this year currently stands as the top mark. Jaiden Glover-Toscano has 86 three-pointers made this year and moved into 10th place on the St. Joe's single-season list on Wednesday, passing Taylor Funk's total in 2017-18.

Winning The Close Ones    
March 4 against Davidson may not have been the prettiest win of the season, but it displayed the grit down the stretch that St. Joe's has become known for this season. The Hawks are now 5-0 in contests that are decided by three points or less. Three of those games have been in A-10 play with a 67-65 win at Richmond and a 76-73 victory against George Washington. More impressive is that four of the five games have come in either road or neutral site games. In addition to Richmond and Davidson, SJU topped Princeton 60-58 at the Jersey Jam on November 30 and Temple, 70-69, at the Big 5 Classic on December 6.

No Second Chances    
Opponents tend to go one-and-done in their chances down the floor against Saint Joseph's thanks to being one of the top defensive rebounding teams in the nation. The Hawks average 27.2 defensive boards a contest, 28th in NCAA D1 and second in the A-10. Overall, SJU is 37th nationally at 38.8 caroms an outing.

Miles And Smiles    
Since earning its first road victory of the season at Richmond on January 11, the Hawks have not been intimidated wherever they play. Saint Joseph's is 8-3 in its last 11 road and neutral site games. Its only losses coming at the hands of VCU twice and at George Mason, which was 14-1 at EagleBank Arena heading into the game. They are 6-2 in true road games during the span. The team has lived up tot he philosophy that defense travels, holding its opponents to 64.7 points per game and 38.2 percent shooting. Going deeper into the numbers, the perimeter defense has been exceptionally impressive with teams connecting on 28.9 percent from three-point range. Most recently, the Hawks held Colorado State, a team that came into the game ninth nationally in   three-point percentage at 39.1, to just 7-for-30 from beyond the arc. The Hawks have also outrebounded teams by 4.3 boards an outing. Individually, Derek Simpson is scoring 15.4 points in those games and is hitting 36.5 percent from distance. Justice Ajogbor is tallying 8.8 per game with 6.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocks a night, while connecting at 68.8 percent clip from the floor.

Gotta Guard The Post    
In his time at St. Joe's, Justice Ajogbor has been known almost exclusively for his defense. In the last several games, however, he has become an offensive force in the low post.
In his last five games, he is averaging 12.0 points per game on an eye-popping 31-for-39 (79.5 percent) shooting. Included in that stretch are a career-high 20 points against La Salle on March 7 and 18 against Davidson in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals. In 63 games in an SJU uniform prior to this most recent stretch, he had averaged 4.9 points per game.

Scouting Report    

• Cal enters play 22-11 overall and is coming off a 91-73 victory against UIC in the First Round. The Golden Bears finished ninth in the Atlantic Coast Conference, far exceeding their preseason poll ranking of 16th.
• Leading the offense for Cal is Dai Dai Ames at 17.0 points per game. Joining Ames in double figure scoring are Justin Pippen (14.4), Chris Bell (13.9) and John Camden (13.8). Lee Dort tops the team in rebounding at 7.8 a contest. Pippen has been the main distributor with 141 assists.
• Living at the line and taking care of the ball have fueled the Golden Bears this season. Cal is 14th nationally in free throw percentage at 78.3 percent and is 61st in free throws made per game at 16.9. It also ranks in the top-80 in NCAA D1 at just 10.5 turnovers per game. While it was only middle of the pack in three-point attempts in the ACC, the Golden Bears made them when they took them, sitting third in the conference and 37th in the nation, connecting on 36.7 percent of their shots from distance.
• Cal is very dependent on its starting lineup for its offense, ranking 349th of 361 teams in bench scoring at 11.79 points a night. For as much as it scores a lot at the free throw line, it also puts its opponents there, sitting last in the ACC and 289th in NCAA Division I, committing 18.7 fouls per game. Rebounding can also be a concern as the Golden Bears were 277th in the country with a -1.8 rebounding margin.
• Mark Madsen is in his third season as the head coach at Cal. 2025-26 has been a breakout season with the Golden Bears winning 22 games after finishing below .500 in Madsen's first two seasons. Prior to coming to Berkeley, he spent four seasons at Utah Valley, culminating in a 28-9 record and an NIT semifinal appearance in 2022-23.

All-Time Series    
Sunday is the second ever matchup between the Hawks and Golden Bears with SJU winning the previous matchup on December 20, 2003.

Last Time Against Cal    
In one of the closest games of the historic 2003-04 season, Saint Joseph's downed Cal, 59-57 at the Pete Newell Challenge in Oakland, Calif. Jameer Nelson was the only Hawk in double figures, leading all scorers with 19 points, also topping SJU with six rebounds. St. Joe's held Cal to 8-for-28 shooting in the first half and took a 28-22 lead at the break. In the second half, the Golden Bears hung tough and eventually tied the game at 57-57 with 58 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws that came on an intentional foul, giving Cal the ball back. The Golden Bears didn't score on the ensuing possession and Nelson ripped down the rebound off the miss. He then brought the ball down the floor and waited out the clock before hitting the game-winning, fadeaway jumper with 4.3 seconds to go.

20-20-20     
St. Joe's enters the Second Round of the NIT with a 23-11 record, a historically significant number for the Hawks. It marks the third consecutive year that SJU has won 20 or more games. In the 116 years of Saint Joseph's basketball, there have only been two other times that the men's basketball program has won 20+ games in three straight years. St. Joe's won 21, 25 and 25 games in the seasons from 1979-80 to 1981-82 and then claimed 26, 30 and 24 victories from 2002-03 through 2004-05.

Clamping Down     
Through the first three Atlantic 10 games, St. Joe's allowed 84.7 points per game, skewing its overall numbers for the year. The last 18 games, however, have seen a resounding turning of the tide. Beginning with the game at Richmond on January 11, the Hawks are surrendering just 66.2 points a night, the best in the A-10 since January 10 and 23rd nationally. They have held 13 opponents to 68 points or fewer and kept three four below 60. The 38.5 percent field goal percentage defense in the last two months is second in the nation. They are also surrendering just 29.9 percent from beyond the arc. Not surprisingly, the defensive effort has fueled Saint Joseph's rise in the standings. Its 14-4 mark and .778 winning percentage are third in the A-10 behind VCU at 14-2 and 14-3 for Saint Louis. No other team was better than 9-6.

Up Next    
The winner of the Saint Joseph's-Cal game will face the winner of the contest between New Mexico and George Washington in a quarterfinal matchup on either March 24 or 25. The location of the contest has not been determined.