Cal Basketball Preview: 10 Reasons to Feel Optimistic (Sort Of) About 2019-20 Season

Golden Bears won't reinvent the sport but figure to be better than past 2 years

It’s my job here to be the glass-half-full guy, but after back-to-back seasons of 8-24 and 8-23 by the Cal basketball team the best I can do is view the glass as maybe a third full.

The Golden Bears are not going to win the Pac-12 title this year.

They are not going to make it to the NCAA tournament.

This is not me being negative, just realistic.

Cal is in full rebuild mode in coach Mark Fox’s first season, and that’s going to take time. Fox said out after the Bears’ exhibition win over Division II St. Martin’s that the Bears aren’t even in the same galaxy they need to be defensively to deal with Pac-12 level competition.

Cal opens its regular season Tuesday night at home against Pepperdine, and the assignment won’t be easy.

Still, there are reasons to feel optimistic about the Bears, as long as that optimism is tempered with patience and reality.

(Click here for 10 reasons not to feel so optimistic about the season.)

Here are 10 things for Cal fans to feel good about as this program begins its climb back:

— The Bears appear to be on the same page with each other and their coach. They understand how tough the road ahead will be and they realize they are nowhere close. Fox has told them they will work harder than they ever have, and as long as they continue to embrace that challenge they will improve.

— This roster has some depth. Two scholarship players — junior Juhwan Harris-Dyson and freshman Kuany Kuany — are sidelined by injuries, and still the Bears had enough capable bodies to go 10 deep in their exhibition. We’re guessing Fox will continue to give everyone a look early in the season as he figures out what he’s got.

— Point guard Paris Austin won a state championship with Ivan Rabb and his Bishop O’Dowd High teammates on the floor at Haas Pavilion in 2015 and this is his last chance to achieve something he can take pride in before he leaves college. I expect him to show us the best of his game.

— The longer 3-point line is going to be a problem for some players, but not for Matt Bradley. The Pac-12’s most efficient 3-point shooter as a freshman last season, Bradley appears entirely comfortable with the new distance. And after sometimes fading to the background last season, he also knows he must be more assertive offensively.

— Kareem South may be just what the doctor ordered. The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi grad transfer looks like a Swiss Army Knife kind of player. In the exhibition, he had 23 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and no turnovers. He brings experience and will be motivated to show he can handle the jump from Southland Conference to the Pac-12.

— Among the three players who jumped ship after Wyking Jones was fired last fall, the one I believe was the toughest swallow for Cal wasn’t top scorer and rebounder Justice Sueing but freshman Connor Vanover. You just don’t find 7-foot-3 players who can shoot 3-pointers like Vanover. But the Bears have a new and intriguing center in 7-foot German native Lars Thiemann, who appears to understand the game, plays with a calm surprising for someone his age, and will impact the Bears where they need it most — on defense.

— One of the reasons I expect Austin to elevate his game is the presence of freshman Joel Brown, who was one of the top prospects to come out of Canada this year. Brown played less than 14 minutes in the exhibition but showed a pass-first mentality with 6 assists that may become contagious. He looked quick and his game showed a hint of polish.

— Jacobi Gordon may finally be healthy. The 6-foot-7 forward missed his senior season in high school after tearing his Achilles, and played just 10 minutes per game for the Bears as a freshman last season while still . Remember, Gordon was a four-star prospect and if he can regain some of what earned him that rating he will make a difference.

— Freshman D.J. Thorpe is an interesting prospect. He’s 6-8, 235 pounds and missed his high school senior season with an ankle injury. His dad, Otis Thorpe, averaged 14 points and 8.2 rebounds during a 17-year NBA career. Seems reasonable that some of that rubbed off on D.J.

— The biggest reason to feel at least a smidgen of optimism is simple: Whatever this season brings has to be better than the past two.

(Click here for a preview of the Bears' opener against Pepperdine.)