Cal Men Picked to Finish 11th in Pac-12 in Preseason Basketball Poll

The hiring of Mark Madsen as Cal's coach and the addition of several high-profile transfers has Golden Bears fans excited, but that apparently has not impressed members of the media, who picked Cal to finish 11th in the conference in its preseason Pac-12 basketball poll.

Arizona was chosen as the preseason favorite, as the Wildcats received 18 first-place votes from the 26 media members who voted. USC is picked second, UCLA third and Oregon fourth.

Cal received only 67 voting points, putting it ahead of only Oregon State, which is picked to finish last.

Madsen, who coached Utah Valley to a 28-9 record last season, has his own ideas about Cal's potential.

"We have lofty goals," Madsen said Tuesday at Pac-12 media day. "You look at our personnel, I think we have a team a lot of people don't want to play this coming year. Other coaches, they can see what we've done, they can see the personnel. Other teams are not going to want to play us."

The Golden Bears still carry the negative image of the team coached by Mark Fox the past four seasons, and last year's awful showing in particular. The Bears went 14-18 overall and 7-11 in the Pac-12 in Fox's first season in 2019-20, then fell to 9-20 and 3-17 the next season, then 12-20 and 5-15 in 2021-22 and finally 3-29 and 2-19 last season before Fox was dismissed.

Last season was the worst in Cal history, which is why the Bears are rated so low in the preseason poll.

"All the experts can weight in and pick who's going to win, Vegas can make their line and all those things," Madsen said, "but when it's all said and done everyone still has to play in a game. Every team is going to have to chase our players around the court. Every team is going to have to deal with our physical and tough inside players posting up, sealing and rolling to the basket.

"The words I would use for Cal is grittiness and toughness. I'll reiterate that, just as a coach, there are certain team you just don't want to play. We're that team."

Cal has not had a winning season since 2016-17, when the bears went 21-13 overall and 10-8 in the conference in Cuonzo Martin's final season as head coach. The last time Cal received a postseason berth was the season before that, when the Bears lost in the first round of the 2016 NCAA tournament.

Madsen, who drew attention for his dance steps while a member of the Lakers after they won a championship, said he would dance again when Cal reaches the Sweet 16.

Here is the preseason media poll (with first-place votes in parentheses) and the voting points:

1. Arizona (18) -- 303

2. USC (4) -- 264

3. UCLA (4) -- 249

4. Oregon -- 228

5. Colorado -- 210

6. Arizona State -- 148

7. Utah -- 139

8. Stanford -- 131

9. Washington -- 108

10. Washington State -- 94

11. Cal -- 67

12. Oregon State -- 42

Cover photo of Mark Madsen by Cal Athletics

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