Putting Aside NCAA Disappointment, Cal Ready to Roll in the NIT

With all due respect, the NIT is college basketball’s postseason consolation prize. Every team strives to play in the NCAA Tournament, and Cal was no different.

Absent from the NCAAs since 2016, the Bears gave themselves a chance to get back to the Big Dance this season. But after losing three of their final four games, including a quick exit from the ACC tournament, Cal missed out on the NCAAs and is preparing for a Wednesday home game against the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) in the NET.

Mark Madsen, Cal’s third-year coach, understands the dynamic. He played 12 games in March Madness during his four seasons (1997-2000) at Stanford, including a Final Four as a sophomore in ’98.

“There’s a human nature side to this thing,” he said, when asked how his players have moved past the disappointment of missing out on the NCAAs. “I think this group surpassed all expectations to be right there, to have a chance to compete to be in the NCAA tournament.

“We came up short. So there’s a natural human nature letdown for a moment.”

He’s now convinced the Bears (21-11) are ready to face UIC (19-15) of the Missouri Valley Conference at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Haas Pavilion.

“I really credit the players and the staff because we’ve had two early morning practices, yesterday and today, and the energy has been absolutely outstanding. The execution has been very, very good,” he said.

Noting the Bears’ nearly decade-long postseason drought and the modest expectations outsiders put on this team, Madsen said the squad should be proud of steps they’ve taken this season.

“That can be celebrated. A lot of the national experts, I think, picked us right at the bottom of the ACC to start the season,” he said. “We ended up being the ninth seed and had we played a little bit better we might have finished at the sixth or seven level.

“All that being said, we have extremely lofty goals for this program. This is not the end. We’re going to achieve our goals. It’s going to take work, it’s going to take patience and it’s going to take a lot of effort. But a lot of great things ahead for Cal.”

While working toward that, the Bears get to play beyond the conference tournament, something no Cal team has done in nine years.

“Our guys love basketball and they love to compete. A lot of teams right now don’t have the opportunity to compete because that opportunity wasn’t afforded to them,” Madsen said. “To have the chance to play meaningful games at this point in the season is something we’re all grateful for.”

Madsen said Cal’s three defeats over the past four games, which derailed their NCAA chances, all featured different storylines:

— Feb. 28 vs. Pitt: A 72-56 home defeat to one of the ACC’s worst teams triggered the Bears’ season-ending slide. “Against Pitt, we weren’t ready to go. You’ve got to be revved up every single game,” Madsen said. “After the game and studying the film and just reading body language on the court, Pitt came out completely revved up and ready to go from the start. It took us too long to start the engine in that game.”

— March 7 at Wake Forest: After beating Georgia Tech on the road, the Bears couldn’t duplicate that performance in an 80-73 loss at Wake. “We played a fantastic first half,” Madsen said, referring to a 37-29 lead. “And then Wake Forest in the second half was the more physical team. They shoved us under the basket, they got the offensive rebounds. We had chances at the rim with some layups that were missed. We weren’t able to capitalize on those.”

— March 11 vs. Florida State at ACC tournament: Poor shooting doomed a solid start by the Bears, who trailed for the final 32 minutes of a 95-89 defeat. “They switched defenses quite a bit. We had worked on it, we had prepped for it but we didn’t execute well enough,” Madsen said.

“Each game was different,” Madsen summed up. “You look at each game and you learn from each game and you get better from each game.”

The Bears would like to keep playing as long as possible. But if the lessons learned from those defeats don’t take, their season could be over by Wednesday night.

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky