Cal Basketball: Jerome Randle Cheers on His Alma Mater But Bears Stay Winless
Jerome Randle, Cal’s career scoring king, was courtside at Haas Pavilion on Wednesday night to support his winless alma mater against USC.
The Bears closed to within three points midway through the second half but the Trojans answered with a 20-0 run spanning 8 minutes and went on to a 66-51 victory in the Pac-12 Conference opener at Haas Pavilion.
At 0-8, Cal is off to the worst start in program history and one of six remaining Division I teams in the country without a victory as the calendar turns to December.
Randle, who led the Bears to the 2010 Pac-10 title, attended the team's afternoon shoot-around then contributed to the game-night crowd of 3,648, a season-high.
“It’s hard to watch but one thing I can say is I understand that you have ups and downs in basketball,” said Randle, 35, who expects to play one more season of international ball before retiring. “It’s easy to support when things are going well but real fans support when things are not going so well.
“I know it’s tough. It hurts me more because I know how tough it was for me after my (first) two years to get it back to where it once was before.”
The Bears went 6-12 in conference play in each of Randle’s first two seasons, then hired Mike Montgomery as coach. By his second season, Cal won its first conference championship in 50 years.
“Mike Montgomery came in and helped us see the game differently and we changed things around,” Randle said.
Randle met with Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton before the game, but declined to share details of their conversation. He said he was at the game to support the team and would not say anything disparaging about coach Mark Fox, who is 35-61 in his fourth season.
“I’m just hoping that collectively, as a family, we find a way to figure it out,” Randle said.
Another ex-Golden Bears’ star, Sean Lampley, was on hand for the game, and Fox said afterward he appreciates their support.
“Former players have been unbelievable to us,” Fox says in the video at the top of this story. “They understand the entire process we have to go through. Jerome’s been just tremendous. To have them back is meaningful because they need to be a part of it.”
The Bears’ next game is Sunday on the road against unbeaten and fourth-ranked Arizona, which has won the past 11 matchups against Cal. Fox knows the game will be challenging, but doesn’t want his players overwhelmed by the losing streak.
“I know what I signed up for here,” he says in the video above. “But the must-wins in life are like when you got to the doctor and he says, `I’ve got bad news, you’ve got cancer.’ That’s the must-win.
“These kids can’t feel that kind of pressure right now . . . This team’s going to have to earn their right to win, and that’s going to be difficult.”
Senior forward Kuany Kuany said Fox has remained upbeat and consistent through this difficult stretch.
“He’s been the most positive on the whole team. He refuses to let us quit,” Kuany said. “I feel like we’re all picking up from that. He’s very consistent with his energy. We look at him and don’t want to quit because we’ll let our coach down.”
Generating points has been a challenge all season for Cal, the lowest-scoring team in the Pac-12. The Bears failed to score in the first 5 minutes of the game and shot 17.6 percent (6-for-34) in the first half, yet trailed just 27-22 at the break.
Cal had just two turnovers in the first half, compared with nine for the Trojans, but the missed easy shots were too much to overcome, as Fox notes in the video below.
Transfer guard Devin Askew scored a game-high 23 points for the Bears, although he shot just 7 for 21 for 33 percent. The rest of the team converted 11 for 44 for 25 percent, and Lars Thiemann, with 10 points, was the only other Cal player to reach double figures.
The Bears, who never led, pulled within 46-43 after a put-back by Thiemann with 10:35 left.
USC then used offensive rebounds on its next two possessions to score second-chance points, and that triggered the 20-0 surge in which the Bears missed 11 straight shots.
"Got to three and quite frankly, I think, we ran out of gas," Fox said. "We had no juice at the end."
Reese Dixon-Waters scored 17 points for the Trojans (5-3, 1-0) while Drew Peterson and Joshua Morgan each had 14.
Cover photo of former Cal star Jerome Randle acknowledging fans at Haas Pavilion by Kelley L. Cox,KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
