Cal's Andrej Stojakovic Seems Unlikely to Return for Wednesday's Game

When Cal won its first two games without Andrej Stojakovic, it seemed the Bears might be able to survive until he was ready to return. Saturday’s home loss to Syracuse told a different story.

And Mark Madsen’s comments on Monday suggested Stojakovic is unlikely to be back for Wednesday’s home game against North Carolina State as Cal (11-11, 4-7 ACC) tries to get back above the .500 mark.

"I would say Andrej is somewhere between day-to-day and week-to-week,” Madsen said Monday. “We’re hopeful to get him back soon. I think he’ll do some non-contact [work] today in practice. And, you know, there’s progress. He’s being very diligent in his rehab and we’re hoping to have him back, playing live, in the near future.."

Madsen did not definitively rule Stojakovic out for Wednesday's game against North Carolina State, a team Cal beat 65-62 on the road back on January 18.

But Madsen’s comments on Monday on Stojakovic’s status were virtually identical to what he said last week about him, and Stojakovic did not play in either game last week because of his lingering hip injury. Stojakovic did participate in some of the pregame warmup on Saturday, and he seemed to be moving fairly well, but was not ready to play in a game.

After Saturday’s loss to Syracuse, Madsen said he didn’t expect Stojakovic to be out for as long as a month, but that assessment did not bode well for him being available for this week’s home games against North Carolina State (9-12, 2-8 ACC) on Wednesday or against Wake Forest (16-6, 8-3 ACC) on Saturday. The possibility of Stojakovic being ready for the February 12 game at No. 2 Duke seems more realistic.

Cal is 2-2 in the four games without Stojakovic, but in retrospect, it appears the first game Cal played without Stojakovic – a 77-68 upset of Florida State in Berkeley – was the aberration. Cal has not been nearly as effective in the three games since then.

In the second game without Stojakovic, Cal nearly lost at home to last-place Miami, whose only win in the previous 16 games was against Presbyterian and was winless away from home. The Bears eked out an overtime win against the Hurricanes, but lost by 11 points on the road to SMU in their next game.

Then came Cal’s home game against Syracuse, which came to Berkeley on a three-game losing streak, a 3-7 conference record and a 1-8 mark in games played away from home.

Cal simply could not score against the Orange’s zone defense, a look the Bears are likely to see as long as Stojakovic is out and perhaps when he returns as well. Cal shot 17.4% from the field in the first half, putting Cal behind by 17 points at halftime. The Bears ended up shooting 28.6% for the game at home against a Syracuse team that entered the contest ranked 15th among the 18 ACC teams in field-goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 45.7% from the field.

Cal shot a season-high 35 three-point shots in that game, making only six of them. Unable to penetrate the defense, the Bears settled for perimeter shots, and that has not been an effective way for Cal to score. Cal is shooting just 26.3% from long range in conference games.

The absence of Stojakovic’s 18.9 points per game was so noticeable that Madsen said unprompted after the game, “We need Andrej back."

Stojakovic’s ability to get to the basket and draw fouls was missing in the Bears’ 75-66 loss to the Orange. And unless Stojakovic returns against the Wolfpack it will be missing again.

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