Cal Basketball: Mark Fox Credits Haas Crowd in Win Over Washington
Although 11,858-seat Haas Pavilion was less than half full Saturday evening, Cal coach Mark Fox credited the crowd with the Bears' 61-58 overtime victory over Washington.
"We don't win without the crowd that was here today," Fox said immediately after the game. "We don't win the game without them."
The crowd of 4,660 at Saturday's game was the second-highest of the season for the Bears, who are averaging 4,028 fans per home game. That would represent a continued decline in home attendance. It dropped to 7,168 in 2017-18 and to 5,807 last year.
It's been several years since Cal has packed Haas Pavilion. In 2015-16, when Cal featured four future NBA players (Jaylen Brown, Tyrone Wallae, Ivan Rabb and Jabari Bird), the Bears averaged 9,217 in attendance, and they sold out games against Stanford, Arizona, UCLA and USC. That team won 23 games and reached the NCAA Tournament.
So it's pretty simple: Cal needs to win to draw the fans. Saturday's game was a start, thanks largely to the Bears' defense, which limited Washington to 29.5 shooting, a season low for the Huskies and a season low for a Cal opponent.
Saturday's crowd was fairly quiet through most of Saturday's game, but it came alive in the closing moments of regulation time and the overtime period. And it responded when Fox encouraged the crowd.
Matt Bradley, who banked in the game-winning three-pointer with seven seconds left, and Grant Anticevich both played 42 minutes, and needed the energy.
"I thank [the crowd] for delivering when they did with energy," Fox said. "I don't want to ask them to stand up and scream and holler, but when I did they delivered. We don't win the game without them, because we had two guys play over 40 minutes and we're fatigued, but when there's that kind of support coming from your crowd, it's really important and today it was an advantage."
