Cal basketball to play with Syracuse, Texas, and Iowa in 2014 2K Classic

Could Cal and Syracuse be on the verge of yet another matchup?

The California Golden Bears are part of a four team field for the 2014 2K Classic in Madison Square Garden next season that includes the Syracuse Orange, Texas Longhorns and the Iowa Hawkeyes. The semifinal and final games will be played on November 20 and 21, with most of the games on ESPN (I’d imagine the third place game would be on ESPN2 or ESPNU).

If the seeding ended up drawing Syracuse, this would be the fourth time in seven years (and the third consecutive year in a row) that the Golden Bears and the Orange match up with each other. Syracuse has won all three of the meetings: One at Madison Square Garden in whatever the 2K Classic was called back then, one in the NCAA tournament in San Jose, and another in the Maui Invitational.

In addition to Syracuse, Cal doesn’t have an easy field to deal with. They will play a tournament-bound Iowa team that boasts one of the best offenses in the country and is returning five of their seven most significant contributors. Texas is also headed to March Madness, and that team figures to return just about everyone too.

The Bears could be underdogs in each of their first two games next season, so a split would probably be the desired result.