Cal Basketball: Matt Bradley Gets Some Preseason Love From Lindy's

Golden Bears' junior named All-Pac-12 and the nation's 35th-best player

Expectations are modest for the Cal basketball team, but junior guard Matt Bradley is getting some attention.

Lindy’s college basketball preview has named Bradley to its five-player All-Pac-12 first team and ranks him as the 35th-best player in the country.

In its feature, Lindy’s Top 150, the magazine says, “Bradley is much better than most non-Pac-12 followers realize.”

A second-team All-Pac-12 selection by the coaches last season, he averaged 17.5 points.

“Bradley has been a bright spot since stepping foot on campus,” the magazine wrote.

A 6-foot-4 native of San Bernardino, Bradley has scored 893 career points and early this season figures to become the 47th Cal player to reach 1,000 points.

At his current pace, if he stays four seasons and remains healthy, Bradley could challenge to become Cal’s career scoring leader. The No. 1 spot belongs to Jerome Randle, who scored 1,835 points from 2006-07 through 2009-10, winning a Pac-10 title his senior season. Randle scored just 581 points his first two seasons at Cal.

Bradley had 11 games of at least 20 points last season, topped by a career-high 26 points in wins over both Washington State and Colorado.

Iowa’s Luke Garza sits atop Lindy’s list of the nation’s elite players. Arizona State guard Remy Martin is the highest-rated Pac-12 player at No. 9, followed by USC freshman Evan Mobley at No. 14 and Stanford freshman Ziaire Williams at No. 16.

Martin earned a place on the magazine’s All-America third team and is the Pac-12 Player of the Year. The Pac’s top returning scorer at 19.1 points per game, Martin also was cited as the league’s most entertaining player.

Filling out Lindy’s all-conference first team are Mobley, Williams and Colorado’s McKinley Wright IV.

The all-Pac-12 second team: Ethan Thompson, Oregon State; Josh Christopher, Arizona State; Timmy Allen, Utah; Oscar da Silva, Stanford; Chris Smith, UCLA.

The all-Pac-12 third team: Will Richardson, Oregon; Chris Duarte, Oregon; James Akinjo, Arizona; Quade Green, Washington; Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA.

Lindy’s All-America first team includes just one West Coast representative, Gonzaga senior forward Corey Kispert. Rounding out the first group are Baylor’s Jared Butler, Villanova’s Collin Gillespie, North Carolina’s Garrison Brooks along with Garza.

The college basketball season is set to begin on Nov. 25. Cal, which went 14-18 last year in its first season under coach Mark Fox, has not released its schedule.

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

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