Cal Basketball: Matt Bradley Earns Pac-12 Player of the Week After Weekend Sweep

Bradley is the first Cal player to earn the honor in three years

Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos

Here's the latest sign that the Cal basketball is showing life: The Pac-12 Conference has honored Matt Bradley as its Player of the Week.

The Bears hadn’t won the award in three years, dating back to Ivan Rabb earning it on Jan. 9, 2017.

Bradley got the nod this week after powering the Bears to a pair of Pac-12 victories. He had a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds for his second career double-double in a 73-66 win over Washington State.

Then he scored 17 points, including five in overtime, in Cal’s 61-58 victory over Washington.

In both games, Bradley delivered in the big moments late in the game.

He drilled a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left to boost Cal’s lead to 72-66 against WSU, and he banked in a 3-pointer with seven seconds left to beat the Huskies.

For the two games, Bradley averaged 21.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists while shooting 55 percent from the field and 46 percent from 3-point range.

He appeared calm and decisive and played with confidence. That’s in contrast to recent games, where Bradley sometimes appeared to be trying too hard to carry his team.

In three previous games, he averaged 16.3 points and 7.7 rebounds, but only had two assists and shot 37 percent from the field, including 2-for-18 on threes.