Cal Bears have nothing to lose this college basketball season
BERKELEY, Calif. 鈥� The preseason Pac-12 rankings have come out and it is not good for the Cal Bears as they were picked to finish dead last in the conference.
Being selected to finish last in the conference means there is literally nothing to lose. If they finish last it is what everyone is expecting, but if they end the season in a higher spot, they should feel some sense of accomplishment. The Cal Bears were picked to finish last with good reason, however.
They ended last year with the worst record in the Pac-12 with just three wins and 17 losses in conference play. Their overall record was not much better finishing the year with just nine wins and 20 losses. In the Pac-12 preseason poll, they only received 44 points in a tiered voting scale given to each team based on where they are picked to finish. That is 41 less than the 11th place finisher in the pool, the University of Washington.
One thing that Cal does have is experience and an older team. Three seniors are returning that head coach Mark Fox expects a lot from this year. One of those is Andre Kelly, who finished second on the team in 2020 with just over 10 points per game. His points and rebounding average have improved every year he has been at Cal so far in three seasons and he will look to even further improve on those numbers again.
The Australian native, Grant 鈥嬧�婣nticevich, is another senior who was having a standout season for the Bears until he had emergency appendix surgery after being one of the leading scorers and rebounders for their team. When he returned, he was just not the same player as earlier in the year but will look to get back to last season鈥檚 form for this year.
The last senior that will make an impact is Makale Foreman, who had back problems last year after transferring to Cal from Stony Brook College. Like Anticevich, Foreman had a good start to the year shooting 38% from three but then shot just 21% in the final 15 games from the same area.
鈥淲ith all these guys last year, the durability factor, without an offseason . . . guys can wear down and I think that probably happened to Makale a little bit,鈥� . 鈥淎cross the roster, we had a lot of little injuries that had we had a normal offseason those things probably would not have been as impactful, we could have avoided some of those.鈥�
Incoming freshmen will also play a factor this season as three athletic freshmen have been added to the team. The three freshmen include guard Marsalis Roberson and forwards Obinna Anyanwu and Sam Alajiki. All of these players have high confidence and will play a big factor in the team鈥檚 season.
鈥淚f you asked the three of them who鈥檚 the most athletic, they would all raise their hands, they are three very talented young guys,鈥� . 鈥淎nd I think they all have a level of athleticism that fits into this league.鈥�
It could be a very different team this year if their veteran players can stay healthy and these freshmen make a positive impact.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.