Cal Basketball: After a Week Off for Exams, Bears (0-11) Visit Santa Clara (10-3)
It’s not just Cal basketball fans who are tired of the losing.
The Bears’ players, with nothing to show in the win column after their first 11 games, are just as frustrated. But they aren't inclined to check out on their season.
“It’s pretty tough after a couple losses . . . a lot of losses, actually.” said junior guard Devin Askew, the team’s leading scorer. “It can’t rain forever.
“We’re going to get around the corner and get through this. It’s tough. It’s just going to take a lot of work and a lot of trust. Once we figure everything out, and it starts with us first, we’ll be good.”
Now the nation’s only winless Division I team, the Bears (0-11) have had a week off for final exams and will go after their first victory on Sunday afternoon at Santa Clara (10-3). Tipoff is 2 p.m. at the Leavey Center.
Freshman forward Grant Newell, coming off a collegiate-high 17 points in a loss to Butler last Saturday, certainly didn’t anticipate his Cal career beginning this way.
“You just can’t hang your head after all these losses. I just try to keep going. We’ve all been trying to do that,” Newell says in the video above.
Askew returned to action against Butler after missing one game after contracting COVID. He scored 17 points against the Bulldogs, is averaging nearly 21 points over his past four outings and is second in the Pac-12 at 18.2 for the season.
A transfer from Texas who spent his freshman season at Kentucky, Askew has had to carry a heavy load while the Bears await the return of injured players. Projected starting guards Jalen Celestine and DeJuan Clayton have yet to play and aren’t expected to be available Sunday.
The Bears hope that freshman post ND Okafor is ready to go after missing two games because of COVID.
“It’s like one big puzzle, our team,” Askew said. “When you’re missing two pieces the puzzle’s never complete. Three pieces the puzzle’s never complete.
“They’re not going to be the saviors,” he said of teammates he hopes will be back soon, “but all of us together as one whole is a really good group. We trust each other, we believe in each other. It’s tough right now, but it doesn’t mean it’s forever.”
Coach Mark Fox, after the Butler game, expressed no optimism about the timetable for Celestine and Clayton making their debut. Celestine is working his way back after off-season knee surgery and Clayton, a 1,500-point career scorer at Coppin State, has struggled to get past after a hamstring injury he sustained in camp.
“Am I confident we can get somebody healthy? No. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not.” he says in the video above. “Do we need that desperately? Absolutely.”
Fox told the story about a conversation he had with Boston Celtics general manager Brad Stevens when the NBA team practiced recently at Haas Pavilion. The two chatted about how good the Warriors but also how helps they were a couple season back when their best players all were injured.
“Now, we don’t have Steph and I’m damn sure not Steve Kerr,” he said. “But there’s just so much offensive weaponry sitting over there in street clothes. It’s been forever. And we’re not making the progress I hoped we’d make there.”
Cal beat Santa Clara in Berkeley last season, but the Broncos are playing well, with seven wins in their past eight games.
Santa Clara has three significant scoring threats, starting with sophomore guard Brandin Podziemski, a transfer from Illinois, who is averaging 18.2 points and 8.7 rebounds. He has five double-doubles and four games of at least 27 points, including 34 vs. Georgia Southern.
Sophomore guard Carlos Stewart is scoring 14.8 per game and coming off a career-high 29 points vs. UC Irvine. Stewart is averaging 21.5 and shooting 59 percent on 3-point attempts over the past five games.
Forward Keshawn Justice scored 26 against Irvine on Thursday night and is providing 12.8 for the season. A 6-foot-7 senior, Justice has totaled 1,346 points in his Santa Clara career.
Cover photo of Cal guard Devin Askew by Darren Yamashita, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
