California vs Notre Dame Prediction 1/2/26 College Basketball Picks Today

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the California Golden Bears meet Friday in college basketball action from Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. Here’s a California vs Notre Dame prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best California vs Notre Dame pick.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish Betting Preview

The Irish opened their year on a 5-3 run, losing to Ohio State, Kansas and Houston with wins over LIU, Detroit, Eastern Illinois, Bellarmine and Rutgers otherwise. Notre Dame beat Missouri, TCU, Idaho and Evansville in succession over their next four games before a loss to Fort Wayne. Over 13 games that would give the Fighting Irish a 9-4 overall record to start the year.

On Tuesday versus Stanford, Notre Dame had a 22-17 lead going into the second half. The Irish managed to fend off the Cardinal 25-23 the rest of the way and took the win in the end 47-40. Tops in scoring as the only team player in double-digits was Jalen Haralson with 13 points and four rebounds. Carson Towt added 10 rebounds with eight points as well.

California Golden Bears Betting Preview

Over on the California side, they beat CSU Bakersfield, Wright State and CSU Fullerton before a loss to Kansas State. A winning streak started after that with victories versus Presbyterian, Sac State, UCLA, Utah, Pacific, Dominican CA, Northwestern State, Morgan State and Columbia. In their first 13 games of the year that would give the Golden Bears a nice 12-1 overall record.

Matched up against Louisville on Tuesday the Bears were down by 14 points at halftime. California was outscored 42-36 the rest of the way, leading to a 90-70 loss. Chris Bell was the team’s top scorer with 20 points and Justin Pippen added 17 points with five assists and three rebounds. Lee Dort put up 12 points with nine rebounds in 29 minutes of work during the loss.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish @ California Golden Bears Betting Trends: January 2, 2026

Why the California Golden Bears will win

• California has won each of its last 12 home games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• California has won the first half in eight of its last nine night games at Haas Pavilion against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Why the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will win

• Notre Dame has won each of its last nine night games.
• California has lost six of its last seven night games against Conference opponents.
• California has lost the first half in 10 of its last 11 games against Conference opponents.

California vs Notre Dame Prediction

I’ll go with Notre Dame but you could argue this one either way. The Irish are coming off a low-scoring win over Stanford (87 combined points), shooting just 32.1 percent from the field with 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from outside. Notre Dame rebounded well (a 43-34 advantage) and had a 30-18 edge on points in the paint, though. Prior to that the Irish had 76 or more points in four of five games, but they’ve been below 70 points in consecutive outings now.

As for Cal, they fell to a good Louisville team in their last outing. The Bears put up just 33.9 percent shooting in that one with a 46-24 rebounding deficit and a 36-16 disadvantage on points in the paint. The good news is that Cal has 70 or more points in all but two games so far this year. They should score pretty well in this one if Notre Dame doesn’t flummox them on defense.