Cal Basketball: Rebuilding Bears' Roster Won't Be Anything New For Mark Madsen
One of Mark Madsen’s first assignments as basketball coach at Cal is to rebuild the Bears’ roster. It’s nothing he hasn’t done before.
Four years ago, prior to his debut season at Utah Valley, Madsen inherited a far worse personnel situation.
Fresh off six seasons as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers, Madsen was replacing Mark Pope, who guided UVU to a 25-10 season in 2018-19 then left to become coach at BYU.
Three players, including the team’s top scorer, exited with Pope to play at BYU, and another transferred to Duquesne. In all, those four combined to average more than 36 points per game.
When the dust settled, just two players of any significance — guards Isaiah White and TJ Washington — stuck around to be part of Madsen’s first team.
He restocked his roster with seven Division I transfers, one junior college player and two high school signees.
The Wolverines were 11-19 in Madsen’s first season before posting an 11-11 record during the COVID season of 2020-21. From there, Utah Valley improved to 20-8 a year ago and 28-9 this season.
Cal already has seen four players off this year’s 3-29 team enter the transfer portal, although any of them would be free to return if both parties were interested. Gone, presumably, are point guard Joel Brown, forward Kuany Kuany and center Lars Thiemann — all seniors with a year of eligibility remaining — and sophomore wing Sam Alajiki.
Jalen Celestine, right, missed all of the 2022-23 season due to injury.
Photo by Chris Pietsch, The Register Guard
Here are the Bears’ seven scholarship players with eligibility left who remain on the roster:
— Marsalis Roberson, 6-6 sophomore guard (1.8 points, 31 games)
— Monty Bowser, 6-7 sophomore forward (3.8 points, 8 starts)
— Grant Newell, 6-8 freshman forward (8.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, 28 starts)
— ND Okafor, 6-9 freshman forward (3.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2 starts)
— Obinna Anyanwu, 6-7 sophomore forward (1.6 points, 6.6 min.)
— Jalen Celestine, 6-7 junior guard (DNP - injury)
— Devin Askew, 6-3 junior guard (15.5 points, 3.0 assists, 13 games)
Devin Askew was productive when healthy this season.
Photo by Darren Yamashita, USA Today
A few key questions:
— Will Askew be back? He was Cal’s most productive player when available, but missed more than half of the season with a variety of health issues, including season-ending surgery for a sports hernia. Cal is his third school in as many years, following one-season stops at Kentucky and Texas. Will he decide to settle in here or look for another home once more?
— Can Celestine get healthy? He was expected to be the Bears’ top returning scorer this season after providing 7.5 points per game as a sophomore in 2021-22. He had offseason knee surgery and never became healthy enough to get on the floor this season. Presuming he’s available, Celestine could be a key piece.
— Will Newell and Okafor, the team’s two scholarship freshmen this season, decide working under a former NBA power forward could be a benefit to their careers? Neither is close to being a finished product but Newell, in particular, shows promise.
— Is Bowser ready to blossom into a solid contributor? He showed enticing glimpses late this season, scoring double digits four times over the final eight games, and averaging 8.9 points during that stretch.
The Bears also have two 3-star, in-state high school signees, 6-5 small forward Rodney Brown of Temecula and 6-10 center Devin Curtis of Northridge. Madsen may have to re-recruit them to keep them on board.
That leaves room on the roster for a minimum of four more scholarship players, and Madsen is no doubt already scouring the transfer portal for players who might fill a need at Cal.
Convincing them to get on board a program that won just three games and does not have a well-established NIL program will be a big test for Madsen.
Cover photo of Cal sophomore Monty Bowser by CK Hicks, Cal Athletics
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
