Cal Basketball: Coach Mark Fox Understands Justin Wilcox's Pain

This was a friendly bet that Cal football coach Justin Wilcox wanted to lose.

And he probably still will.

But on Wilcox’s 44th birthday Thursday, it seemed just a bit more possible that the Cal basketball team might actually play a game before the football team is able to do so.

Mark Fox, the Bears’ second-year basketball coach, told reporters on a Pac-12 media video conference that he talks regularly with Wilcox, whose team still had no resolution about Saturday’s scheduled game at Arizona State.

“We’ve been talking a couple times a day, it seems like for months now. I’ve got great respect for coach Wilcox and their team and what they’re going through,” Fox said. “All offseason he kept saying, `You’re going to play a game before I do.’

“So we made a lunch wager on it. I thought I was going to win until the last 10 days.”

*** Here is the full video of Cal's portion of Pac-12 basketball media day with Matt Bradley and Mark Fox:

College basketball teams can begin their seasons on Nov. 25 — less than two weeks from now — although the Bears still have not announced any non-conference games.

The Cal football team lost its opener last Saturday against Washington after one defensive lineman tested positive for COVID-19 and others in his position group, and beyond, were forced into quarantine after contact tracing identified them as having been potentially exposed. Because the Bears had no available players on the defensive line, the game was ruled a no contest.

All week the ASU game is in jeopardy, and there may now be problems within both programs. Cal made no announcements by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, but at least the Bears practiced. The Sun Devils canceled football practice, without explanation but in a move that prompted widespread COVID speculation.

There also was talk that perhaps Cal and ASU are attempting to reschedule their game for Sunday. Or even Monday. Presumably, that could help the Bears get back players who were put into 14-day quarantine periods.

Fox can relate and he sympathizes. His team had been practicing for about a week starting in mid-October when one of his players tested positive and practice was shut down for five days.

“It wasn’t a lot of fun,” Fox said.

But it gives Fox some insight into what Fox and his team are experiencing.

“He and I see our responsibility to young people, our responsibility to Cal, very much in the same way. We’re wired a lot alike and we’ve developed a really good friendship,” Fox said.

“I’ve just tried to communicate to him what we went through when we had a shutdown. Their sport is structured differently, obviously, than ours. We’ve tried to be great teammates to each other. I know I’ve appreciated his friendship immensely.”

Fox said his team is not ready to play a game yet, and the Bears still have no answer from the NCAA on the eligibility of sophomore guard Jarred Hyder, a transfer from Fresno State.

He said the week-long interruption that need on Nov. 1 was especially difficult because the Bears had not been together in the gym as a team at all through spring, summer and into fall.

“Nobody had the spring in college basketball. Some teams had the summer. Most teams had the fall,” Fox said. “We really didn’t have anything that was normal.

“We didn’t return inside of Haas Pavilion with our whole team together until the official start of practice. We only got six (practices) in and then we were shut down. We knew we were going to start behind and then the stoppage was a challenge.”

Fox said he’s proud of how his team has navigated these once-in-a-lifetime obstacles. He acknowledged that while irresponsible people are more likely to catch the virus, “it can also come to you.”

The Bears’ learning curve in Year 2 under Fox shouldn’t be as unpredictable because returning players understand what he wants. But Fox said the comfort level he would have anticipated has been disrupted.

“I would say that nothing feels like the second year right now because of the pandemic.”

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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