Cal Basketball: Mark Fox Grew Sick of Hearing 'How Bad We Were Going to Be'
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: The Cal basketball team was expected to be pretty bad this season. Some of us wrote that, most of us were thinking it.
Not Mark Fox.
The Bears’ first-year coach didn’t dwell on the previous two seasons, when the Bears went 16-47, including 5-31 in conference play. While conceding that there was much to do, Fox tried to embrace the possibilities even when three players with eligibility remaining jumped ship after combining to score 995 points in 2018-19.
If that didn’t leave the cupboard entirely bare, it certainly created a lot of shelf space. Fox welcomed back just a half-dozen returnees and meshed them with five freshmen and a graduate senior transfer.
The Bears were picked to finish last in the conference, the same place they resided the two previous seasons. And in case it ever slipped his mind that this season would be challenging, Fox was reminded at every turn.
“In the pre-season, in the off-season, I just got sick of everybody telling us how bad we were going to be,” he said Saturday after the Bears beat Utah 86-79 in overtime. “I just didn’t think we would be (bad). I just wasn’t going to accept that. And I wasn’t going to let our team accept that.”
For much of the season, progress was hard to see. Cal started strong, then met reality with a Madison Square Garden date vs. Duke. Before you knew it, the 4-0 start became 6-8, then 10-15.
There were encouraging moments, but also the realization that the roster needed beefing up. The Bears weren’t big enough, quick enough and certainly not experienced enough.
Fox knew it but declined to give into it. His coaches and players just kept working, and the Bears employed a careful, conservative approach to offense that shortened games and tried to give them the best chance to compete. It wasn’t always pretty, but Fox was trying to change a mindset.
“It was a constant message,” Fox said. ”As I’ve told them, the change in this team and this program had to start from the inside. And the belief had to start from the inside. The trust had to start from the inside.
“Fortunately for me, I have great young people who bought into what we’re doing.”
Junior forward Grant Anticevich insists the players had faith from the start “that we were going to be better than what people said. You can see us getting better and better every game and we’re in a good place right now.”
Where they are now is 13-16 overall, 7-9 in the Pac-12 and alone in eighth place after winning three of their past four games. It certainly hasn't always been smooth sailing. Just two weekends ago the Bears lost by 35 points to a Washington team that had dropped its previous nine games. Then they swept the mountain schools at home this past weekend.
The Bears trek to Oregon this week with a just single conference road win on their resume, but also with the knowledge that if they somehow win twice they will finish the regular season at .500 in Pac-12 play. A tall order, for sure.
“We’re not anywhere near where we want to be. We’re nowhere close where we want to be,” Fox stressed. “But I think the perceptions and the feelings about our team and this program are drastically different than what I heard all summer.”
Here are a few reasons why:
— Matt Bradley becomes a headliner: Bradley averaged 10.8 points as a freshman last season, but largely was an afterthought for opposing defenses as the third or fourth option in the Cal offense. He has been the focal point this season and has drawn a higher level of defensive attention, but has scored double digits in all but one game and is fifth in the Pac-12 at 17.9 points per game.
— Paris Austin finishing strong: Playing for his third head coach in four years, the senior point guard improved his game the past two months and provided the Bears with a much-needed a second scorer. Fox said after the Utah game that Austin has had a season that “changed the momentum of Cal basketball.”
— Anticevich shoulders a new role: A year ago, the 6-8 forward from Australia averaged 11.7 minutes, 2.7 points and 2.1 rebounds while starting just four times. He been in the starting lineup every game this season, bumping his production to 8.4 points and 5.6 rebounds while playing nearly triple the minutes.
Photo by Cody Glenn, USA Today
— Andre Kelly showing promise: Undersized as a 6-8 center, the sophomore averaged 6.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and shot 48 percent over the season’s first 20 games, but has hiked those numbers to 10.0 points, 6.9 rebounds and 66-percent shooting the past nine games.
— The freshmen begin to blossom: Joel Brown, likely to become the starting point guard a year from now, delivered his most impactful performance Saturday against Utah, overcoming stitches in his hand to contribute 11 points and a key late steal. Kuany Kuany and D.J. Thorpe showed Fox enough in the loss at Washington two weeks ago that he rewarded both with starts vs. Colorado.
— More aggression, more poise: Cal averaged just 17.5 free throw attempts through their first 24 games, but has bumped that to 27.0 the past five. The Bears are also taking better care of the ball — just 9.7 turnovers in seven conference wins compared with 13.3 in the nine losses. “We are just more and more comfortable offensively,” Fox said.
Cal has completed its home schedule with a 12-5 record, and continuing to make progress at Haas is a priority. “We have to establish that we’re going to be really hard to beat at home,” Fox said.
To get there, the Bears will need to be better, which Fox hopes will lead to bigger crowds. Cal drew an average of 4,941 fans to 17 home games — its lowest mark since Haas opened in 1999-2000 — although attendance for the final seven Pac-12 games was at 6,500 per.
“Our fans have been tremendous,” Fox said. “I want them all to bring a friend next year.”
