Cal Basketball: Matt Bradley Adjusting to Vigilant Defenders

Bears' top scorer is learning what it takes when opponents make him a priority

Photo by Soobum Im, USA Today

Matt Bradley was Cal’s best basketball player this past season and everyone on the other team knew it. The sophomore wing led the Bears with a 17.5 scoring average despite the fact that opposing defenses geared up to stop him.

“He’s still a work in progress,” Cal coach Mark Fox said after Bradley scored a career-high 26 points in a Jan. 10 win over Washington State. “I know with other teams, he’s the focal point of their defense. `Stop Matt Bradley - he’s the best scorer on the team.’

“For him to be productive against defenses that are geared up for him, be efficient, that’s a big step forward for him. He can get much better.”

Bradley is in full agreement.

“I think I made great improvement from my freshman year, which I’m extremely proud about,” Bradley said in our interview last week. “Most of all, I’m really excited to see that there’s a lot of holes in my game that I can fill going into next season, not only just athletically or skill-wise but being a better teammate, being a better captain.”

One area of growth Bradley is coping with is the added defensive attention he received as a sophomore.

“That was one thing I did kind of struggle with throughout the course of the season. Preseason not really much because they didn’t necessarily have as much time to study your game,” he said. “As far as Pac-12 play, they had me locked in on what I like to do on the floor.”

It showed at times.

During a seven-game stretch that included the Bears’ first six conference games Bradley averaged 16.4 points but shot just 29 percent from the 3-point line.

Bradley said his coaches and teammates helped him break out, and over the final 13 games of the season he scored at a 17.8-point clip and shot nearly 43 percent from beyond the arc,

“It was definitely a hard thing to get used to,” he said of the defensive attention he received. “But once I did, I felt comfortable and I actually embraced it.”

Bradley earned a spot on the All-Pac-12 second team and his coach said it was well-deserved.

“The year that Matt Bradley had, 100 percent of the credit should go to Matt,” Fox said last month. “He had a phenomenal year when you look at his production, his consistency. He’s a great competitor, he has been very coachable and he’s allowed himself to look at a new situation and style of play.”