Cal Basketball: Bears Seek First Victory Wednesday vs. Texas-Arlington

The visiting Mavericks are coming off an upset win at San Francisco on Monday.

Will game No. 13 be lucky for the beleaguered Cal basketball team on Wednesday?

The nation’s only winless Division I men’s basketball team at 0-12, Cal tries again to alter the course of its season when it takes on Texas-Arlington (5-7) in a 4 p.m. game at Haas Pavilion.

A lot will hinge on whether the Bears have junior guard Devin Askew, their leading scorer, for the game. Askew injured his right foot or ankle late in the first half of Sunday’s loss at Santa Clara and did not return.

His status for Wednesday is unclear.

Without Askew and his 16.9 points per game, the Bears will struggle to score. Even with him, offense has been a huge issue for Cal, which ranks 349th nationally in scoring at 58.0 points per game.

Senior point guard Joel Brown, who had season highs of 13 points, six assists and three steals vs. Santa Clara, said the Bears haven’t given up.

“It’s definitely hard . . . but since my freshman year what I’ve learned is you can’t really dwell on all these losses,” he says in the video at the top of this story. “You’ve just got to figure out a way to come back and keep pushing. It’s all about your response going forward.

“What I tell the younger guys is this is definitely a terrible position that we’re in. But we put ourselves in this situation and we’ve got to control what we can.”

Cal has played all season without Jalen Celestine and DeJuan Clayton — two injured veteran guards who were projected as starters. That’s stripped depth from the Bears’ rotation and caused it to become less experienced.

But Brown believes the Bears’ younger players are making progress.

“There’s definitely growth. There may not be a drastic change overnight but I can definitely see the growth since the season has started in their mentality and approach,” he said. “And as long as they continue to do so our chances will continue to get better.”

This is actually not the deepest into the calendar year Cal has gone without a victory. During the 1941-42 season, the Bears didn’t get their first win until a 50-38 victory over Ohio State on Dec. 27. But that was just the team’s third game of the schedule in the weeks after Pearl Harbor was attacked, thrusting the U.S. into World War II.

Cal has an eight-day break after Wednesday before resuming Pac-12 play with a series of three home games — Dec. 29 against Utah, Dec. 31 against Colorado and Jan. 6 against Stanford.

UTA has a complicated resume though 12 games. The Mavericks are coming off a surprising 68-63 win at San Francisco, which entered the game with a 9-3 record and coming off a road win over a previously undefeated UNLV team.

The Mavericks never trailed and led by as many as 17 points against the Dons, who played in the NCAA tournament a year ago.

"We were just the tougher team tonight – it was a great win for our program and for our players,” UTA coach Greg Young said afterward. “It wasn't easy, and we had to hold on, but we haven't been in those situations much this year. I'm just proud of our grit and toughness tonight."

Prior to Monday, UTA had dropped three in a row, although by a total of just 13 points. That included a 61-57 loss at LSU. But the USF win was just the second this season for the Mavericks against a Division I team.

Arlington, which vaulted from No. 296 in the NET computer rankings to No. 251 with the USF victory, has no one averaging double-figuring scoring. The team’s top scorer is 6-foot-9 sophomore Shemar Wilson, who contributes 9.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

Cover photo of Cal's Devin Askew, center, and Lars Thiemann by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo