Cal Basketball Heads East to Face Struggling Syracuse Program

Cal must improve its offensive execution after a rough outing in a home loss to Clemson, coach Mark Madsen said Monday.

But Syracuse, which will host the Bears on Wednesday, seemingly has deeper problems.

Cal (17-7, 5-6 ACC) is coming off a 77-55 defeat to No 20 Clemson, just the Bears’ second loss in their past six games.

The Orange (13-11, 4-7) have have lost six of their past seven outings and face a brewing controversy involving highly touted freshman Kiyan Anthony, son of the program’s most prominent basketball alum.

Coach Adrian “Red” Autry benched Anthony in Saturday’s 72-59 loss at No. 18 Virginia, prompting a social media uproar but a muted public response from Antony’s father, Naismith Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony.

"He'll be good! They say it's part of the journey. A little adversity don't hurt,” Carmelo Anthony, who led Syracuse to the 2003 national title as a freshman, wrote on his Instagram page.

Kiyan Anthony was a top-50 national prospect and part of a top-20 recruiting class. He’s averaging 8.9 points but over the previous eight games was producing just 5.5 points on 32-percent shooting.

Autry, also a former Syracuse star, is in his third season as successor to legendary coach Jim Boeheim. Autry won 20 games his debut season but is 27-30 the past two seasons. He talks in the video at the top of this story about defending Cal.

His benching of Anthony had some on social media predicting his time as coach Syracuse may be nearing an end. Autry called it a coach’s decision, nothing more. And it sounds like Anthony is likely to be back on the floor Wednesday when the Orange tips off vs. Cal at 4 p.m. PT (ESPNU).

“He’s a young player, obviously with a lot of attention surrounding him,” Autry said. “It’s (about) getting him ready for this next game.”

Cal’s third ACC road trip of the season pits the Bears against two struggling opponents. After Syracuse, Cal will play Saturday at Boston College (9-14, 2-8), which has lost four games in a row. It's a chance for the Bears to make some headway in pursuit of its first NCAA tournament bid since 2016.

To make that happen, Cal must clean up its offensive execution after being outscored 23-1 over a nearly 13-minute stretch in the first half against Clemson.

The Bears committed seven turnovers and missed 14 consecutive field-goal attempts while watching an early 13-9 lead transform into a 32-14 deficit.

“First of all, Clemson’s an outstanding defensive team, so they took us out of a lot of things,” Madsen said. “There was a 12- or 13-minute stretch where we got absolutely dominated by Clemson.

“In that stretch, there was probably three to five times where we go out and don’t go to our assigned areas. We don’t actually run the play that was drawn up or we don’t run the play that we’ve run hundreds of times.”

Madsen gave Clemson credit and also suggested that injuries recently have prevented the Bears from doing a lot of 5-on-5 work in practice. Mostly, he said, it was poor execution. “That stretch offensively killed us.”

Center Lee Dort, who has missed the past four games with a leg injury, is “doing more and more” in practice, said Madsen, who stopped short of suggesting a return date.

Madsen also hinted that 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Sammie Yeanay may be getting close to making his debut with the Bears. Yeanay transferred to Cal in the offseason from Grand Canyon, where last season he suffered an early-season injury that has kept him on the shelf since then.

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