Cal Basketball Video: Coach Mark Fox Praises Matt Bradley for His Growing Maturity
With a little over 6 minutes left in the first half Tuesday night, Cal sophomore Matt Bradley picked up his second personal foul. Coach Mark Fox sat him for the rest of the half.
Two things happened that swung the game in Cal's direction on the way to an 87-71 season-opening victory over Pepperdine in front of 3,780 fans at Haas Pavilion.
First, Bradley's teammates kept playing, battling back from a seven-point deficit to pull within 37-35 at halftime.
Then, Fox talked with Bradley in the locker room.
"He played with some maturity. Foul trouble, when you have to sit there for a couple minutes, can be hard for some young guys to manage and to handle," said Fox, a winner in his debut game as the Bears' head coach.
"I talked to him at the half about why I sat him and I said, `Listen, now you're not in foul trouble.You only have two. You can go be aggressive and just play like you practice. And to his credit, he did just that."
Bradley scored 18 second-half points, attacking the basket and firing away from the longer collegiate 3-point arc. He shot 7-for-7 in the second half, including 4-for-4 from beyond the arc, to finish with a career-high 25 points.
Bradley said he got encouragement from all corners after the first half, when his time on the bench (9 minutes) nearly equaled his time on the floor (11 minutes).
"My teammates were just saying, `Matt, you've got to come out there and set an example, stay strong,' " he said. "When I came back in the second half, it was just second nature. I wasn't really thinking much, I was just playing.
"It felt really good."
Bradley led the Pac-12 Conference in 3-point accuracy last season, but only once all season did he match the five he made against the Waves. There were times last season, as a freshman, when Bradley receded to the background and almost disappeared.
He said at Pac-12 media day that he intended to be a more aggressive player, and he showed the kind of good decision-making and assertiveness Fox will appreciate.
"I have no idea what happened last year, and to be honest we don't even look at it. We don't talk about it," Fox said. "We're just trying to make this group as good as we can.
"I think Matt's maturing as a player. This is one game not a season. We can't sprain our wrist patting ourselves on the back. But I'm really proud of these kids for the win."
