Freshman Grant Newell Just Getting to Know His Famous Cal Basketball Namesake

Bears coaching icon Pete Newell died when the rookie forward was just 6 years old.

Grant Newell was six years old when Cal coaching icon Pete Newell died in 2008 at the age of 93. So you can’t really blame the Bears’ freshman forward for not having any familiarity with his legendary namesake.

“All I really know is he won a national championship here at Cal, if I’m not mistaken,” Newell said. “I didn’t know all that until I got here, until I saw the last name on the court. I was kind of curious. That’s pretty much all I know about him.”

Pete Newell / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

Of course, every long-time Cal fan knows all about Pete Newell, who coached the Bears to four NCAA tournament appearances, back-to-back Final Fours and the 1959 national title. He coached the gold-medal winning 1960 Olympic team, as GM of the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and is a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame.

It was a bit of an eye-opener for Grant Newell — a Chicago native who spent last season at the IMG Academy in Florida — to step onto the basketball court at Haas Pavilion for the first time and see his last name painted on the floor.

“I was kind of shocked. It’s definitely kind of funny, ironic . . . someone with the same last name as me, his name’s all over the place,” Newell said. “It’s definitely cool.”

Grant Newell is just beginning to make a name for himself with the Bears. He’s coming off perhaps his most well-rounded performance, a 13-point, 12-rebound effort in Cal’s 80-76 win over Colorado on New Year’s Eve afternoon.

Newell is averaging 7.5 points and 3.5 rebounds for the season, but those numbers climb to 9.4 and 4.6 over the past five games, when he’s also shooting 59 percent on 2-point attempts. He scored a season-high 17 points several weeks ago against Butler.

“I think I’m playing all right,” he says in the video above. “There’s always things anyone can be doing better.”

In particular, Newell said he has tried to improve his defense and rebounding, adding it helps that the game is slowing down a bit now.

“It definitely was a lot faster at the beginning for me,” he said. “Now, halfway through the season, I feel like I’m getting the hang of it a lot more. Getting a lot more comfortable adjusting to how strong some of the players are and not being sped up at times. Just being able to see the floor and play a lot smarter.”

Coach Mark Fox is encouraged by how well Newell is absorbing knowledge and adjusting to the college game, especially given what the team has needed from him with teammates sidelined by injury.

“We’re asking more than probably what it fair,” Fox said after the Butler game. “He’s become productive. . . . That young man is really playing as hard as he can for us.”

It was impossible to project what Newell might be able to provide the Bears as a freshman after he missed all but four games last season at IMG Academy because of a back injury.

“I think it definitely put me behind a lot. When I first got here I was definitely out of shape. It was kind of hard to keep up with the pace,” he says in the video above.

The injury is completely behind him now, and Newell said he has no regrets about his year at the prep school in Florida after graduating high school in his hometown of Chicago.

“It was definitely difficult because I wanted to get more than four games out of it,” Newell said. “It happened and I dealt with it and I’m here, so I’m grateful for all of it. I definitely got a lot of good out of being there, being around a lot of great people, a lot of great players, great facilities. bettering myself. I took advantage of all of that and I think I’m feel like I’m reaping all that right now.”

The Bears (2-13, 1-3) resume Pac-12 Conference play Friday at home against Stanford (5-9, 0-4). Tipoff is 6 p.m.

They hope to duplicate their performance against Colorado, minus the final 2-plus minutes, when they succumbed to the Buffaloes’ full-court pressure and gave up most of an 18-point lead before holding on to win.

“I think we played good,” Newell says in the video above. “The ball was going around really well. It was a really good game plan by the coaches and we executed the game plan. We were making shots — we weren’t really forcing any shots.

“Played good defense, up until the last 2 minutes. Besides that, I think it was our best game so far.”

Cover photo of Grant Newell by Darren Yamashita, USA Today