FILE: The California Golden Bears logo is seen on a ball cart before the game against the Charlotte 49ers during the Raising the B.A.R. Invitational at Haas Pavilion on Nov. 15, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif.

The day before SMU’s first game in the men’s NCAA Tournament, head coach Andy Enfield used a question about one of his injured star players to accuse Cal of having an unsafe setup at Haas Pavilion.

SMU was one of the last teams to make the 68-team field for March Madness and will have to win a play-in game against Miami Ohio on Wednesday. And at least in the coach’s eyes, a recent run of poor form can be tied to its Atlantic Coast Conference matchup with Cal in Berkeley on Feb. 25, which was the night senior guard B.J. Edwards last played for the Mustangs.

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With 3:40 left in the first half, Edwards was sprinting back on defense to slow a Cal fast break when he leaped to the basket. Edwards missed blocking the layup, and in the process, he landed awkwardly at the foot of the stanchion, the main structure that holds up a basketball backboard and hoop. 

Edwards immediately crumpled in a heap, grabbing at his ankle and exiting the game. He didn’t return that night and hasn’t played since. Meanwhile, SMU has lost five of its past six games. Edwards is in the top three in pretty much every per-game statistical category for the Mustangs: minutes (33.2), points (12.7), rebounds (5.9), assists (4.9) and steals (a team-high 2.3). 

On Tuesday, Enfield was asked about Edwards’ status for the win-or-go-home game in Dayton, Ohio, the next night. The coach used the question to heap praise on Edwards and began to explain how Edwards got hurt.

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“He had an unfortunate injury — he fell in the Cal basket support. The basket support’s too close to the baseline. There’s not enough clearance,” Enfield said. “It’s like a Paul George-type injury where he hit the basket support and hurt his ankle. But he’s made a lot of progress.”

After the reference to the NBA star’s gruesome injury in Las Vegas from 2014, Enfield barely took a breath before he went on a tangent that called out Cal: “By the way, I don’t see how, in today’s environment, you don’t have enough clearance under the basket at a power conference school, but that’s an avoidable injury.” Enfield concluded by saying Edwards is “moving well” in practices but didn’t commit to playing him in Wednesday’s game.

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It’s not clear why Enfield decided this was the time to take a shot at a conference rival for something that happened nearly three weeks ago. He didn’t make the positioning complaint in a postgame radio interview after that Feb. 25 loss and hasn’t mentioned the issue in other media conferences when Edwards’ absence came up in the past five games.

SFGATE reached out to Cal asking for a comment about Enfield’s remarks. In an emailed statement, Cal spokesperson Jonathan Okanes said: “The positioning of our baskets in Haas Pavilion are completely compliant with NCAA regulations. Student-athlete safety and welfare is always a top priority of Cal Athletics.”

FILE: Celia Sumbane of the Auburn Tigers attempts a basket against Lulu Twidale of the California Golden Bears at Haas Pavilion on Nov. 22, 2024, in Berkeley, Calif. The stanchion that holds up the basketball rim and backboard is visible at the top of the photo.

The NCAA’s 150-page men’s basketball rulebook discusses what the organization calls “support systems” for backboards: “Any support system below or behind a backboard shall be at least 8 feet behind the plane of the backboard face (and at least 4 feet from the end line) and a height of 7 feet or more above the floor.”

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That’s different from what the NCAA calls its “restraining line,” a line of demarcation that’s located 6 feet from the end line of the playing court. That line indicates where “non-playing personnel” — cheerleaders and media members — must stay behind during play. 

For many ACC schools, that also is where their stanchion base is located, either directly level with the line or even behind it. (Here’s how it looks at Stanford, for example.)

The NCAA rules allow schools to have the stanchion rest in front of that 6-foot line, and at least five ACC schools appear to place theirs in front of the “restraining line” — Cal, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Pitt.

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SFGATE reached out to the ACC, asking if the league has a different standard than the NCAA and if the conference had fielded complaints about Cal’s stanchion configuration. The conference did not respond by the time of publication.

For what it’s worth, Enfield is no stranger to the setup at Cal. The second-year SMU head coach previously spent 11 years at USC, Cal’s old Pac-12 rival, and saw his teams play 10 games at Haas Pavilion in the past 13 years.

Enfield is scheduled to coach his first NCAA Tournament game at SMU on Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. PDT against Miami Ohio. Cal is also slated to play on Wednesday evening, hosting the University of Illinois at Chicago in the National Invitation Tournament at Haas Pavilion.

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