Cal Basketball Video: Sophomore Matt Bradley on the Changes Under Way with the Bears
Coming off the worst back-to-back seasons in Cal basketball history, the Bears are starting over this year with new coach Mark Fox and a half-dozen new recruits.
It was no big surprise that the Bears were picked to finish last in the Pac-12 in the conference's annual media poll.
But that doesn't mean the Bears have to like it or settle for residence in the basement.
Sophomore wing Matt Bradley talks in the video above about how Fox and his staff are approaching practice and what the emphasis has been.
"It feels really good," Bradley said. "Coach Fox came in and immediately built winning mentalities in all of us. And he's holding everybody accountable. Not just the players, but the managers.
"I feel like with Coach Fox coming in, things are going to change and it's going to look really good for us this year."
Certainly there is vast room for improvement. Cal was 8-23 last season, 8-24 the year before that. Never before had the Bears fared so poorly in consecutive seasons.
It was worse still in Pac-12 play, where Cal was a combined 5-31 under former coach Wyking Jones.
This team returns a half-dozen players, including point guard Paris Austin, who joined Bradley at Pac-12 media day in San Francisco.
Newcomers include five freshmen -- point guard Joel Brown of Canada, forward Kuany Kuany of Australia, forward/center Lars Thiemann of Germany, forward D.J. Thorpe of Texas and guard Dimitrios Klonaras of Greece -- and graduate transfer guard Kareem South of Teaxs A&M-Corpus Christi
