By Morris Phillips

California will face Hawaii in their NCAA tournament opener on Friday at Spokane, WA. The fourth-seeded Bears could face fifth-seeded Maryland and top-seeded Kansas in successive rounds if they’re fortunate enough to advance.

So here’s what to know:

The Bears were seeded slightly higher than expected, with most prognosticators pegging them as a five, but seven Pac-12 teams qualified, and the conference’s elevated profile (over the Big Ten specifically) was obvious in the finished brackets. But it’s just as apparent that Cal is the lowest-regarded four seed, facing a potential matchup with a five in the Terrapins that they probably will be an underdog against. Also, if the teams are s-curved 1 through-16, then a regional semi matchup against overall number one-seed Kansas would be the fate of the lowest four seed.

“I thought it was a good seed,” Coach Cuonzo Martin said. “Obviously a very talented Hawaii team and also good to play in Spokane. We won’t have to do a lot of heavy traveling so that’s always good.”

“I feel like the sky’s the limit,” Tyrone Wallace said. “I think we’ve played some very good teams very tight until the end and so at this point in the season anybody can get hot. We just have to make shots because a game can go either way.”

In Hawaii, the Bears will see the Big West regular season and tourney champs, a team with size and the inside-outside combo of point guard Roderick Bobbitt and 6’11” Stefan Jankovic, the Big West player of the year. If Jankovic has difficulties against Cal’s more than capable front line, then Bobbitt will be the man for Cal to stop. Bobbitt, the Oakland native, shot 8 for 12 from the field and scored 32 points against Oklahoma in Hawaii’s narrow loss at home to the Sooners back in December.

The Rainbows are coached by first-year, first time head coach Eran Ganot, a former St. Mary’s assistant under Randy Bennett, who is well-versed in the Gael’s screen-and-roll based offense. The 33-year old Ganot would seem to be less experienced than Cal’s Martin, who won three NCAA games two seasons ago, but the youthful Hawaii coach was closely linked to St. Mary’s post-season success and the development of Matthew Dellavadova and others.

Cal enters the tournament healthy and rested, with their last game on Friday, giving them a full week of preparation for their opener in Spokane. Also, senior leader Wallace appears back on top of his game after scoring 26 points in the overtime loss to Utah.

The Bears will focus on getting their two freshman in the mindset of playing their best basketball yet, with 6’10” Ivan Rabb becoming a bigger factor offensively and Jaylen Brown needing to regain the shooting touch that propelled him to being named Pac-12 freshman of the year.

In a bit of a scheduling oddity, the Rainbow Warriors and the Bears have just one common opponent, UC Santa Barbara, as Hawaii played no Pac-12 teams and Cal played just one Big West team. Both teams defeated the Gauchos easily, as the Rainbows beat UCSB both home and away.

Hawaii is fiercely protecting that half-a-day of preparation that would have been lost had they returned home on Sunday after beating Long Beach State in the Big West tourney final on Saturday night. The Rainbows will remain in Anaheim for a few extra days, then fly to Spokane in advance of Friday’s opener.

The Bears could experience a long weekend in Spokane as a result of the new NCAA tourney television contract and the wall-to-wall game start times. The Bears open at 11am in Spokane on Friday, but if they advance, may not play until 5pm or after on Sunday.

Seeding is of note for both teams. Hawaii is making its first NCAA appearance since 2002, and its’ first as a member of the Big West. That conference switch paved the way for this being the lowest-seeded Hawaii team to qualify as the previous incarnation of the Rainbows played in the Mountain West, and wouldn’t have been seeded as low as 12^th from that more prominent conference. The Bears are seeded fourth, their highest seeding in the history of the program.

Cal has lost just one of 13 meetings with Hawaii in basketball… The Bears are back in the NCAA tournament after two seasons without an appearance… Is Cal better off this time of year under Martin or former coach Mike Montgomery? In Montgomery’s six seasons in Berkeley, the Bears won a conference regular season crown, but had only two NCAA tournament wins. Martin won three NCAA games and made a Sweet 16 appearance in his only tournament appearance as a coach, in 2014 with Tennessee.

Scheduling couldn’t be more important than in college basketball, right behind coaching and personnel. For Cal, the key to losing 10 games, but earning a four seed was undeniably their sneaky tough home schedule in which they went 18-0 with 14 of those 18 opponents in the Top 100 in RPI. Why sneaky? Cal has a win over No. 48 USC among their eight Top 50 wins, and wins over UCSB (97), Arizona State (98, won both home and away) and UCLA (99) among their seven wins among teams ranked 51 to 100.