Will Cal on CW be worth seeing?

California University announced this week that it will have two men's-women's basketball doubleheaders televised live this season on Pittsburgh's WPCW. The first is Saturday when the Vulcans host Lock Haven in PSAC West Division contests.

WPCW televised live all of the Vulcans' regular-season home football games last fall. As for basketball, California didn't have much wiggle room with dates, having to settle for two Saturdays. The latter will be Feb. 19 against Gannon, the final regular-season games at Cal's Hamer Hall. California will move into a new on-campus convocation center next season.

The games against Lock Haven shape up to be mere exhibitions for Cal. While Lock Haven's women's team sports a respectable 2-3 division record and 9-7 overall mark, Cal (4-1, 13-4) is chasing the West Division title.

The men's game shapes up as one that will challenge WPCW announcers Stan Savran and Paul Alexander to keep viewers interested. Lock Haven is 0-5 in the PSAC West and 1-15 overall, and is coming off a 111-38 loss at Clarion. In that game, Clarion led 57-11 at halftime and had a 46-0 edge in points off turnovers. Lock Haven forced only four Clarion turnovers and shot 29 percent from the field. Clarion led by 73 points with more than six minutes remaining.

The bad part is the 73-point loss isn't Lock Haven's largest margin of defeat. The Bald Eagles lost by 106 points -- that's right, 106 points! -- to West Liberty (154-48), the No. 1-ranked team in NCAA Division II. Lock Haven also shot 29 percent from the field in that game and gave up 21 three-pointers.