NCAA Tournament predictions 2013: Cal gets no love from the experts

The California Golden Bears are set to square off against UNLV in the round of 64 set to begin on Thursday.

According to USA Today's expert, Patrick Stevens, UNLV's 76-75 win early in the season at Berkeley wasn't a fluke and will carry over into this year's NCAA Tournament. But Cal at the time had yet to navigate all the way through the difficult and underrated Pac-12 Conference.

CBSSports has the same outcome in an aggregate simulation done by its team of prognosticators, and SI.com's resident NCAA hoops expert, Seth Davis, agreed in his bracket.

That means it's Cal against the basketball-watching world, and it's no different from the overall disdain that everyone outside of the West Coast has toward the Pac-12 in general.

Fortunately, the games have to be played, and Pac-12 Player of the Year Allen Crabbe could showcase his superstar form and will the team to a win in its first tournament game. He's that good. Coach Mike Montgomery's squad is battle-tested, and, if they play their best, can compete with anyone. Fortunately in a 40-minute game, that's all that's necessary to win one game.

That's always the goal in March -- to follow the old cliche.

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