Cal Basketball: Pac-12 Analyst Don MacLean Says Bears Will Continue to Improve

With so many new pieces, Mark Madsen's squad has yet to become an efficient defensive team.

Pac-12 Networks analyst Don MacLean, who also happens to be the leading career scorer in conference history, says new Cal coach Mark Madsen has taken a smart approach to rebuilding a program that produced a 3-29 season a year ago.

Four Division I transfers have become the Bears’ top four scorers — the offense is night and day better than a year ago.

But as Cal (4-7) prepares to face fourth-ranked Arizona (9-2) in its Pac-12 opener on Friday night at Haas Pavilion, MacLean understands where the Bears have fallen short so far.

Don MacLean / Photo by Kirby Lee, USA Today

“They’ve struggled defensively,” he said this week, alluding to the fact that Cal ranks last in the Pac-12, allowing 75.9 points per game. “That’s the hard part of bringing in a bunch of guys who have been at a couple different schools that have learned different schemes, different terminology, and now you’ve got to put them together. It’s not going to be immediate.

“I do think with their talent level, by February I think they’ll be better defensively and they’ll be winning some games. I don’t think they’re going to win them all and I don’t think they’re going to finish in the top half of the league, but they’re not going to win (just) one game in league, I’ll tell you that.”

MacLean, the 53-year-old UCLA alum and former nine-year NBA player, will be part of the Pac-12 Network coverage team Friday night when the Wildcats visit for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

“Arizona is really good. They made a commitment to the defensive end this year and they’re much better defensively than they have been,” MacLean said. “They’re clearly the best team (in the Pac-12) . . . second place isn’t even close.”

McLean prefaced all of his remarks about the Bears with the fact that coaching the college game these days is more complicated than ever.

“It is awfully hard to be a college basketball coach right now. And especially one that’s taking over a program that didn’t do well at all the last few years,” he said. “With NIL, with the portal, with everything that’s going on in college basketball, it’s really hard to go in to a program that won three games and flip the thing around immediately.

“So you have to make a decision: Am I going to be here for 5-6-7 years where I can just recruit freshmen and try to build this thing? Or do I bring in players and try to flip the narrative around now? What Mark did was basically bring in veteran players who he thought could turn it around and they could win some games now.”

That was the right call, given the circumstances, MacLean believes.

“Watching them play this year is way different than watching them the last few years. I happen to like Mark Fox a lot but for whatever reason — COVID, recruiting — they just couldn’t get it together,” he said, referring to Madsen’s predecessor, who was 38-87 in four seasons at Berkeley.

“What Mark’s done with these veteran players is at least inject some life immediately into the program. Not only with who he brought in but with his personality, his energy, his enthusiasm, his intensity — all the things he brings.”

Winning back the fan is critical after Cal averaged just 2,155 fans for 17 home games last season — worst in the Pac-12 and lowest in the history of Haas Pavilion, now in its 25th year.

“He had to change the narrative and inject some life. They’re 4-7 right now, but watching them play you’re like, this is much different than it was,” MacLean said. “It looks a lot better, it’s more fun to watch, they get up and down, they score.”

No reasonable evaluation of Madsen’s efforts to rebuild the program can come sooner than after three seasons, MacLean believes.

“If in Year 3 they’ve spun it around and they’re winning games and it just looks different,” he said, “then you’ve got the right guy, which I think is going to happen with Mark, I really do.”

The Bears took a step up in terms of talent level by bringing in forward Fardaws Aimaq and guard Jaylon Tyson from Texas Tech, 3-point specialist Jalen Cone from Northern Arizona and defensive catalyst Keonte Kennedy from Memphis.

Aimaq, Tyson and Cone have combined to average nearly 51 points while Kennedy has provided a lift at the other end of the floor since becoming healthy the past four games.

“The last game I was at, the UC San Diego game, he kind of kick-started them. He got into the passing lanes and stole it and got out in transition,” MacLean said, referring to Kennedy's contributions to the Bears’ 71-67 win in their most recent outing a week ago Wednesday.

“That’s what they’re going to have to get to, (where) their defense creates such easier offense. If they continue to work on the defensive end with what they already have offensively, I think they can be pretty good.”

Cover photo of Cal guard Jaylon Tyson by Daniel Dunn, USA Today

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