Cal Basketball: Matt Bradley Cleared to Play at Oregon on Thursday Night
Pac-12 scoring leader Matt Bradley is expected to return to action when Cal hits the road to face No. 21 Oregon Thursday night. But there remains no timetable for Grant Anticevich to play again after undergoing a Dec. 17 appendectomy.
Bradley has been sidelined with an ankle injury since landing on the foot of a USF defender during the Bears’ 72-70 victory on Dec. 13. He missed the Bears' past two games.
“He’s on the mend,” Cal coach Mark Fox said Wednesday morning. “I anticipate he should play.”
Anticevich’s return has no timetable, Fox said, and the senior forward has yet to be cleared for any basketball activity.
The Bears are otherwise healthy, Fox confirmed, as they trek north to resume Pac-12 play. Cal is 5-4 with a three-game win streak, but 0-2 in conference games. Oregon is 6-1, 1-0 in the Pac-12 and has won six games in a row.
“Oregon’s a very quick team, a very powerful team. They’re deserving of their ranking,” Fox said. “There’s no question we have some challenges.”
The challenge will be somewhat less overwhelming if Bradley is able to bring his 19.1 points per game to the equation.
“Matt wasn’t able to practice really at all before the holidays. He had two weeks of recovering,” Fox said. “He’s been able to do some stuff since we came back (after Christmas).”
Fox confirmed that Bradley suffered the injury when a USF defender tried to close out while Bradley was in the air releasing a jump shot. The USF player wound up too close and Bradley came down on his foot, twisting his ankle.
Starting with the 2017-18 NBA season, a new "closeout" rule allows officials to call flagrant or technical fouls on defenders if they do not give shooters room to safely land.
No foul was called on the play where Bradley was injured, and any call on that play in college would be a regular personal foul.
“Obviously with importance on 3-point shooting now, it also increases the importance of contesting 3’s,” Fox said. “If you’re really contesting, sometimes you’re in his landing zone. It’s a very unfortunate play. It cost the kid two games.
“I wouldn’t be surprise if this doesn’t become a greater penalty in the college game like it is in the NBA.”
The NBA implemented the rule the year after the Warriors’ Zaza Pachulia slid under the foot of then-Spurs’ star Kawhi Leonard, causing him to suffer an injury that sidelined the all-star forward for the rest of the 2017 postseason.
Fox said there is no change with Anticevich, except that his mood is improving,
“He was laughing yesterday. That was good to see because it’s been a tough deal,” Fox said.
Anticevich is from Australia, so he hasn’t been able to return home or see his family since the surgery.
“This is the one guy who never left town,” Fox said. “Talk about being isolated for an extended period of time.”
Anticevich had experienced some stomach issues in the days leading to his appendicitis attack, but they were passed off as nothing serious.
“Obviously, it was something else,” Fox said.
Anticevich’s roommate, fellow Australian Kuany Kuany, drove Anticevich to the hospital late that night in what Fox previously called a heroic effort.
“You never want those calls in the middle of the night,” Fox said. “Kuany really was as good of a teammate as you can be. His instincts told him his teammate was in trouble and he got him to the hospital
“I said, `You two Australians couldn’t find one closer?’ They drove past about five hospitals.”
Fox said he talked his way into the hospital at a time when COVID-19 protocols typically prevent visitors. “The doctor came in when I was in the room and the conversation with the doctor put me at ease,” Fox said. “I realized he was in a good place.”
Anticevich has lost “a significant amount of weight,” Fox said, but otherwise is doing well.
“They took great care of him,” Fox said of the doctors and staff at the UCSF hospital in Berkeley. “He was so miserable (prior to the surgery). He was grateful they were able to fix him.”
COVER PHOTO OF MATT BRADLEY BY KELLEY L. COX, USA TODAY
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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
