Cal Basketball: Four Ex-Bears Secure NCAA Bids as Players or Coaches
Justice Sueing and Connor Vanover, who began their college basketball careers at Cal, have landed in the NCAA tournament with their new teams.
Sueing and Ohio State (21-9) earned a No. 2 seed in the South region and will open the NCAAs on Friday against Summit League champion Oral Roberts (16-10). Connor Vanover and Arkansas (22-6) were seeded No. 3 in the South and are matched against Colgate (14-1) of the Patriot League on Friday.
Both Sueing and Vanover exited the Cal program following the ouster of coach Wyking Jones in 2019.
Meanwhile, two former Cal teammates will make their NCAA tournament head-coaching debuts at Indianapolis, where the entire event will take place. Dennis Gates of Cleveland State and Shantay Legans of Eastern Washington each has guided his school to just the third NCAA berth in program history.
Gates and the Vikings (19-7), seeded No. 15 in the Midwest, will play Friday against No. 2 seed Houston (24-3), winner of the American Athletic Conference tournament. Legans’ Eagles (16-7) are a No. 14 seed in the West and will face No. 3 Kansas (20-8) on Saturday.
"I wish we were playing them and not Kansas," Legans quipped.
"It's exciting. I know how hard Dennis has worked -- he was an assistant for a long time, He got his opportunity (at Cleveland State) and he turned that program around. You always want to see your teammates do well, especially your close friends."
Gates and Legans played together on Cal teams that reached the NCAA tournament in both 2001 and ’02. Gates was a junior when Legans arrived as a freshman, and provided a leadership example that Legans says was helpful to his career.
"He was confrontational," Legans said of Gates' basketball personality. "You learned that. I was younger guy looking up to him. If you're going to be a captain on the team, you can't be afraid of conflict and holding guys accountable. He was really good at that. As I moved through my career, that stuck with me."
Here’s a look at the four ex-Bears headed to the NCAAs:
JUSTICE SUEING, Ohio State: A former two-year Cal player, the 6-foot-7 junior forward comes off his best game with the Buckeyes on Sunday. He forced overtime by converting a putback and free throw with 23.6 seconds left in regulation and scored a season-high 22 points in the 91-88 loss to Illinois in the Big Ten tournament final.
Sueing has started every game this season for the ninth-ranked Buckeyes and averages 10.9 points and 5.6 rebounds. He has scored double digits 17 times this season and has four double-doubles.
Oral Roberts features high-scoring Max Abmas (24.2 points per game), who had 33 points vs. Oklahoma State.
Sueing averaged 14.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in his two seasons with the Bears. He was Cal’s leading scorer as a sophomore in 2018-19, but won just 16 games in two games with the Bears — five fewer than than the Buckeyes have totaled so far in 2020-21.
Connor Vanover
Photo by Jay Biggerstaff, ,USA Today
CONNOR VANOVER, Arkansas: Vanover spent one intriguing season in Berkeley before transferring back to his home-state team. The 7-foot-3, 247-pound sophomore started 26 games for the eighth-ranked Razorbacks, who won nine of their past 10 games. Vanover averaged 6.6 points and 4.7 rebounds with a team-best 52 blocked shots.
He scored 23 points in the season opener vs. Mississippi Valley State, then had 16 rebounds and six blocked shots vs. North Texas in the Razorbacks’ second game. He had six games of at least 10 points but was scoreless in just 13 total minutes over the past two games.
The Razorbacks' opener vs. Colgate promises to be up-tempo. Arkansas is seventh in the nation in scoring at 82.4 points per game and Colgate is No. 2 at 86.4.
As a freshman at Cal in 2019-20, Vanover averaged 7.5 points and shot 36 percent from the 3-point arc. He found a groove late in the season, producing 12.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks over the final 11 games. He scored 24 points in a win at Stanford.
DENNIS GATES, Cleveland State: Gates, 41, guided the Vikings to the regular season and tournament titles in the Horizon League in his second season. Cleveland State is in the NCAAs for the first time in 13 years, but has found success at the event, beating Wake Forest in 2008 and advancing to the Sweet 16 round in 1986.
Gates, who spent seven seasons at an assistant at Florida State before arriving at Cleveland State, has a veteran team. The top players are senior guard Torrey Patton (14.9 points, 8.0 rebounds) and junior guard Tre Gomillion (10.5 points) and junior guard D’Moi Hodge (10.4 points), who made 10 3-pointers and scored scored 46 points in a game this year.
Houston is led by Quentin Grimes, a former 5-star Kansas recruit, but the Cougars' success is based on physical, hard-nosed defense. Just like Cleveland State.
Playing at Cal for Ben Braun, Gates averaged 5.6 points as a senior in 2001-02.
SHANTAY LEGANS, Eastern Washington: Legans, 39, is in his fourth season as head coach of the Eagles. He has a record of 75-48, including 39-15 the past two years, and was named Big Sky Coach of the Year in 2020 when EWU won the regular-season title before the pandemic canceled the league tournament.
This is Eastern’s third trip to the NCAA and the program is still seeking its first victory after first round losses to Oklahoma State in 2004 and Georgetown in 2015.
EWU's first-round foe, Kansas, had to leave the Big 12 tournament due to a COVID situation. David McCormack, who averaged 16.7 points over four games prior to sitting out the conference tournament, is expected back.
The Eagles are led by 6-foot-9 junior forward and Big Sky MVP Tanner Groves (16.5 points, 7.8 rebounds).
Legans played three seasons at Cal, the first two alongside Gates, starting 79 games at point guard. He averaged 9.0 points and 4.1 assists before transferring to Fresno State for his senior season.
Cover photo of Justice Sueing by Kyle Roberts, Columbus Dispatch
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
