Madsen, Ola-Joseph, Blacksher and Campbell Talk About Upcoming Season

With Monday's season opener vs CSU Bakersfield quickly approaching, Cal head coach Mark Madsen, forward Joshua Ola-Joseph, point guard Jovan Blacksher and combo guard DJ Campbell talked with bay area media about the upcoming season and more after today’s practice in the RSF.

"We're incredibly excited about our 10, 11, 12 newcomers from different programs," Madsen said. "So it's been a great opportunity to bring the group together to install our new terminology, because everyone comes from different terminology. And so now we got a summer to put in our system, our sets, our terminology. The guys have embraced it. The team's really been coming together. Incredibly excited about the year. 

"I think we have a very unselfish group. We have a group that really gets excited to make their teammates better. We have a group that has that competitive fire. We want that competitive fight on the court."

Madsen was asked about his likely starting five for Monday’s opener but the second-year Cal head coach deferred on his answer.

"We have a number of guys," Madsen said. "We probably have 8, 9, 10, guys that all capable of starting, and we'll narrow in and continue to hone that one balance on opening night and we'll unveil it opening night.

“We have a lot of different players who can score the ball,” Madsen said. “I’ll start with Jovan Blacksher, a proven scorer at multiple levels.

“You can go right down the line. Andrei Stojakovic - somebody who knocks down the three and had a great freshman season at Stanford. He can score the ball.

“DJ Campbell, a guy who has great footwork and he can go down to the post and post guys up. He knocks down the three. He led his conference in 3-point percentage last year. 

BJ Omot - really an exciting player who can handle the ball and has tremendous length. He’s also someone who can score the ball. So we have no shortage of guys that can put the ball in the hole.”