Cal Basketball: JC Point Guard Malik Zachery Picks Buffalo Over Golden Bears

Coach Mark Fox is still seeking a second floor leader for his 2020-21 squad

Cal lost out on junior college point guard Malik Zachery, who announced Wednesday he will play next season for Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference.

Coach Mark Fox had hoped Zachery, from Chipola (Fla.) College, would give the Bears a second floor leader to go with Joel Brown, who just completed his freshman season.

Zachery had narrowed his list of schools to Buffalo, Cal and Ole Miss.

While announcing his decision on social media, Zachery wasn’t terribly specific about why he chose Buffalo, other than the coaches made regular contact with him through Zoom calls and he was comfortable with the Bulls’ success with JC transfers.

Geography and the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the Bears' chances.

Buffalo has qualified for the NCAA tournament four of the past six seasons, starting in 2015 under coach Bobby Hurley, now the coach at Arizona State. Nate Oats guided Buffalo to three NCAA bids in his four seasons before bolting for Alabama a year ago.

Current coach Jim Whitesell led the Bulls to a 20-12 mark in his debut season this year, including 11-7 in MAC play, although Buffalo was not expected to earn an NCAA at-large bid.

The Bulls may also have had a geographic advantage over Cal because Zachery is originally from Syracuse, N.Y., just 150 miles from Buffalo. Because of travel limitations due to the coronavirus pandemic, Zachery was unable to make a campus recruiting visit to Berkeley.

The Bears were 14-18 in Fox’s debut season, on the heels of winning just eight games each of the two previous seasons. Brown started 17 games at point for the Bears, averaging 2.4 points and 1.8 assists. But Fox still is seeking a second ballhandler for his team, which loses senior point guard Paris Austin. 

*** Fox talked late in the season in this video about the contributions and sacrifices Austin made for the team: