Cal Basketball: Two Crises Challenge Mark Fox to Stay Connected to His Players

George Floyd's killing on top of the coronavirus create `an unprecedented time'

Photo by Cody Glenn, USA Today

Mark Fox understands the limits of his life experience.

Feeling first-hand the fear and anguish of racism isn’t part of his realm as a 51-year-old white man.

“I can’t offer advice from a position of experience because I genuinely have never experienced that because I’m white,” said Fox, the second-year basketball coach at Cal. “I can only share the experiences that have been shared with me from others.”

As America tries to come to grips with a centuries-old issue following the latest murder of a black man — this time, George Floyd, killed by a Minneapolis police officer — Fox acknowledges he leans at times on others close to him to provide answers for his players.

Nine of Cal’s 13 scholarship players are black, and Fox doesn’t pretend to know how each of them might be feeling right now.

“I do have an excellent staff of coaches and the African American men on my staff are a little older,” he said. “They’re wise, intelligent men and they’re a great resource for me and I think for our players at this time.”

Trent Johnson, 63, was born in Berkeley and has coached at Stanford, Nevada, LSU and TCU. Johnson serves as Fox’s senior advisor of sorts, an analyst and director of player development.

Assistant Marty Wilson, 53, previously was head coach at Pepperdine, and Andrew Francis, 46, had a long tenure as an assistant at Iowa.

The landscape is greatly complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent most Cal players home two months ago. Home is across the ocean for German center Lars Thiemann and Greek guard Dimitrios Klonaras.

“This is an unprecedented time to have these two things occur obviously at the same time,” Fox said. Because of the pandemic, all conversations with his players are on the phone or through video conferencing.

“We haven’t really talked about basketball at all recently,” he said. “For me, I’m trying to make sure that we keep our players safe and in a mentally healthy place.

“I try to do a lot of listening.”

Fox said all of Cal players are healthy although he does not believe any have been tested for the coronavirus.

He declined the discuss specifics of “private conversations” with his players, but he recently expanded a team Zoom conversation to include two prominent basketball analysts, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley and former coach Jeff Van Gundy.

“We haven’t had our guys all in the same room since we left Las Vegas,” Fox said, referring to the Pac-12 tournament, which was canceled on March 12, the day after the Bears beat Stanford in an opening-round game.

“You’re trying to stay connected through the Zooms but those aren’t nearly as personal as you want them to be. It’s a bit of a challenge,” he said. “Every once in a while you want someone else to come in and share. I thought it made a typical Zoom meeting a little bit special.”

Fox knows Van Gundy through USA Basketball coaching experiences, and became acquainted with Barkley, an Auburn alum, when he was coaching in the Southeastern Conference at Georgia.

Asked if his players were familiar with Barkley as player given that his career ended just as they were being born, Fox laughed. “It’s funny as he spoke how close some of their faces got to the screen.”

Barkley and Van Gundy talked about “life and basketball,” and made their strongest points about matters off the court.

“I think ultimately the opportunity that these young men have to get a life-changing education and just how important that will be for them personally and their communities going forward,” Fox said of the message the players got.

When Cal’s players will be able to get back on the court at Haas Pavilion remains uncertain. Although the Pac-12 has announced players can return to campus on June 15 for voluntary workouts, that’s not an automatic green light at every school.

“We don’t have that information yet. We’re probably getting close to learning more,” Fox said. “There’s so many different layers to who has to approve you coming back. It’s your campus, your county, your state.”

The timetable will be impacted by the fact that Alameda County has the second-most coronavirus deaths in Northern California and the most confirmed cases.

“It’s probably going to take a little longer,” Fox said.

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*** San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich's emotional reaction to the state of America.

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