BERKELEY - Year two of the Madsen era kicked off tonight in Haas Pavilion with a whole new cast of characters, with only one active player returning and a boatload of portal transfers playing together for the first time. The play was often uneven but the newcomers came together for an 86-73 victory over a game CSU Bakersfield squad.
It was an unconventional start to the season, with the game ending after 11 pm and the postgame press conference pushing midnight but the late night hours didn’t stop Cal head coach Mark Madsen’s very expectant wife Hannah from being in the stands despite being a week overdue with the latest addition to the Madsen family ready to make an appearance any day.
“We played 10 different players tonight,” Madsen said after the game. “Probably could’ve played 1-2 more guys and every one of them went in there and contributed to the win - scoring, rebounding, diving on a loose ball.
“This was a tremendous team effort tonight. There were multiple times in the game where we had high-level execution so as a coach, that’s very gratifying to see.
“Some areas of growth, I thought Bakersfield did a tremendous job changing the tempo of the game. We’ve got some room for improvement there. We’ve got to be able to handle that better but we made 31 of 40 free throws when we needed to and got a decisive win against a very well-coached team.”
The Bears were led by point guard Jovan Blacksher with 17 points on 6-for-14 shooting along with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. The fifth-year senior also had 4 turnovers on the night. The Bears turned the ball over 11 times on the night for a 6-turnover advantage. Overall, four of five starters for the Bears and five players overall scored in double digits, with shooting guard Andrej Stojakovic adding 16, forward B.J. Omot with 13, combo guard DJ Campbell with 12 and center Mady Sissoko with 10 points and 6 rebounds on an efficient 3-for-3 performance.
The half ended on 14-2 and 9-0 Cal runs to give the Bears some breathing room heading into the locker room with a Blacksher three and an Omot buzzer beater trey to end the half. The senior point guard led the scoring for the Bears heading into the locker room with 13 along with Andrej Stojakovic’s 10.
Both teams shot 40% from the floor but the Bears’ 9-2 turnover margin was a catalyst for the Bears’ big first-half lead.
The first half’s momentum didn’t carry over as the Roadrunners whittled the Bears’ lead to 11 in the opening six minutes of the second half with some sharp shooting from the floor and some sloppy play from the Bears. A pair of layups from Omot and forward Rytis Petraitis pushed the lead back to 15.
The game got sloppy from there as the Roadrunners stayed hot from the field and defended well, eventually working the Cal lead down to 7 on a Jamel Jones jumper with 59 seconds remaining. Jones led CSUB with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting in the loss.
With the Roadrunners forced to foul, the Bears converted from the line in their final three possessions, pushing the winning margin to 13 as time ran out.
"Overall, all five starters for the Bears scored in double digits, with shooting guard Andrej Stojakovic adding 16, forward B.J. Omot with 13, combo guard DJ Campbell with 12 and center Mady Sissoko with 10 points and 6 rebounds on a 3-for-3 performance."
Just a minor correction, but Joshua Ola-Joseph started and scored 4 points, as foul problems limited his minutes. While I personally believe BJ Omot has more upside than JOJ (and is more athletic than Petraitis), my assumption is that the staff prefers JOJ's defensive abilities over both BJ and Rytis. I expect all three swill make contributions as this team comes together.It is very pleasant to see a team with good players coming off the bench.
Thought the game was well officiated last night. Looked up the officials and Tony Henderson, who I think is the lead, is listed as an ACC ref---thought there was a chance they'd use west coast crews. No ticky-tack, players could play loose, good flow. Did you notice no stoppages to check video review? No grandstanding. What a welcome change from Pac-12. On the play where Mady dove on the floor and ended up on his back and threw that pass to Rytis for the dunk I kept thinking Pac-12 refs wouldn't have hesitated to call a travel. That was one of their favorites---anytime a player fell to the ground with the ball they couldn't blow their whistle fast enough. We're in a real hoops conference!
