Cal Basketball: Three Ex-Bears Get Their NCAA Tournament Assignments

Matt Bradley, Andre Kelly and Connor Vanover all landed automatic bids with their teams.

Three former Cal basketball players will be dancing this week.

Matt Bradley and Andre Kelly joined Connor Vanover as NCAA tournament qualifiers this weekend, and all three of their teams got their assignments on Sunday.

Bradley and San Diego State were given a No. 5 seed and will open the NCAA tournament against No. 12 Charleston (31-3) on Thursday at Atlanta.

Kelly and his UC Santa Barbara teammates collected a No. 14 seed and are matched against No. 3 Baylor (22-10) on Friday at Denver.

Vanover and Oral Roberts already had locked up an automatic NCAA bid before the weekend. The Golden Eagles were assigned a No. 12 seed and will take on No. 5 Duke (26-8) on Friday at Orlando, Florida.

A fourth ex-Bear, Justice Sueing, tried to power Ohio State into the NCAA field but the Buckeyes lost in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament and didn’t make the cut.

Kelly played four seasons and left as a graduate transfer after last season, Bradley spent three seasons at Cal before opting out, Sueing was here for two years and Vanover played in Berkeley for just one season.

Together, at both Cal and their current locations, they have totaled 6,079 career points.

Two coaches with Cal connections, Dennis Gates and Joe Pasternack, each secured their second NCAA bids as head coaches.

Gates, who played for the Bears from 1999 through 2002, led Missouri to a 24-9 record in his debut season, earning himself a contract extension through the 2028-29 season with a starting salary of $4 million. Gates previously coached Cleveland State to an NCAA bid in 2021.

Missouri was given a No. 7 seed and opens NCAA play against No. 10 Utah State (26-8) on Thursday at Sacramento.

Pasternack, who worked in various capacities on Ben Braun’s coaching staff from 2000 through 2007, led UC Santa Barbara to its second NCAA berth in the past three seasons. 

Pasternack’s name has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the Cal vacancy after Mark Fox was fired on Thursday. He coached three seasons at New Orleans and has a record of 132-52 in six years art UCSB.

Matt Bradley / Photo by Orlando Ramirez, USA Today

— MATT BRADLEY, San Diego State: Cal’s best player for two of his three years in Berkeley, the 6-5 guard won MVP honors at the Mountain West Tournament this weekend after scoring 16 points in the Aztecs’ 62-57 win over Utah State in the championship game.

A two-time All-Mountain West first-team selection. Bradley is averaging a team-best 12.9 points for the 20th-ranked Aztecs (27-6), who have won 10 of their past 11 games.

The move to San Diego State marked a dramatic change in the fortunes of Bradley’s college career. After going a combined 31-61 in three seasons at Cal, he has helped the Aztecs to a two-year record of 46-15 with a second NCAA bid now secured.

After the Aztecs clinched the Mountain West regular-season title with a 67-50 home victory over Wyoming on Saturday, Bradley admitted he wasn’t clear on the protocols for cutting down the nets.

“Going up there and cutting the net, I’ve never done something like that before so I didn’t know where to cut from,” said Bradley, who has scored 2,258 career points for the Bears and Aztecs. “Just having experiences like that is something I’m going to think about for the rest of my life.

“I wanted the ring. I’ve seen my teammates having it and I was like, ‘I need one for myself.’ That’s what I did and now it’s time to win games in March.”

Andre Kelly / Photo by Joe Camporeale, USA Today

— ANDRE KELLY, UC Santa Barbara: The 6-8 forward from Stockton stuck it out at Cal for four seasons, topping 1,000 career points before exiting as a graduate transfer to UCSB in pursuit of an opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament.

Kelly got that Saturday when the Gauchos (27-7) beat Cal State Fullerton 72-62 to capture the Big West Conference tournament title. UCSB’s win total is a program record.

Kelly is averaging 9.5 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds for the Gauchos, who tied UC Irvine for the Big West title and ride a seven-game win streak.

Kelly was sidelined for UCSB’s 70-59 loss to Irvine vs. in February after being suspended one game for fighting against with Ty Johnson of UC Davis in an incident that sparked a brawl between the teams. One month earlier, Kelly scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Santa Barbara’s 73-65 win at Irvine.

Connor Vanover / Photo by Steve Branscombe, USA Today

— CONNOR VANOVER Oral Roberts: The 7-foot-5 senior center, who transferred to Arkansas after one season at Cal then moved onto Oral Roberts for this season, was named to the Summit League all-tournament team after posting 10 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots in the Golden Eagles’ 92-58 rout of North Dakota State in the Tuesday night title game.

Vanover averaged 15.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocked shots while shooting 63 percent from the field in three Summit tournament wins.

For the season, he is averaging 12.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 blocked shots for a 30-4 team and was named Summit League Newcomer of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

Justice Sueing / Photo by David Banks, USA Today

— JUSTICE SUEING, Ohio State: The 6-7 forward, who averaged 14.1 points per game in two seasons at Cal when he transferred after 2018-19, was a starter for a Buckeyes part of a Buckeyes’ squad that came up two wins shy of securing an NCAA berth.

He had 16 points Wednesday night in a 65-57 win over Wisconsin, but needed to win the Big Ten tournament to earn a bid and they were ousted 80-66 by fifth-ranked Purdue in the semifinals. Ohio State wound up 16-19 overall after a 5-15 record in conference play.

Sueing averaged 12.3 points — second-best on the team — and 5.4 rebounds after totaling 44 points and 14 rebounds in three Big Ten tourney games. In 131 career games at the two schools, Sueing scored 1,648 points, including 33 vs. Texas Tech this season.

Cover photo of Matt Bradley by Orlando Ramirez, USA Today

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