Cal Sports Report

NIT Semifinals: A Glimpse of Cal's Future With Mark Madsen?

Madsen's Utah Valley team loses to UAB in overtime on Tuesday, so he could be announced as Cal's head coach this week.

Jake Curtis

Utah Valley coach Mark Madsen is expected to be Cal's next head basketball coach unless something unforeseen happens, and he is available to accept the Bears' job after Utah Valley lost to UAB 88-86 in overtime Tuesday night in an NIT semifinal game  in Las Vegas.

An announcement regarding Cal's head coaching position could come as soon as Wednesday and is likely to come this week.

Had Utah Valley won Tuesday, the announcement would probably be delayed until after Thursday's NIT championship game.

Assuming Madsen accepts Cal's offer as anticipated, did Golden Bears fans get a clue as to what to expect from a Madsen-coached team based on Tuesday's game against UAB? Well, the Wolverines showed they can score points, something Cal was unable to do while going 3-29 this season.

For the fourth time in its final five games, the Wolverines scored more than 80 points.  The Golden Bears scored more than 80 points only once this season.   Utah Valley averaged 85.3 points over its final seven games; Cal averaged 54.2 points over its final six games.

Madsen has some personal issues to address. He is monitoring the status of his wife, who is expecting their fourth child at any time. So he made arrangements to fly back home from Las Vegas if he was alerted that the baby is on its way.  

He was not with the team Sunday or Monday and did not come to Las Vegas until Tuesday morning so he could stay home with his wife as long as possible. Whether that will have any influence of the timing of Cal's announcement of its next coach remains to be seen.

“It’s not my timetable, the baby is going to come when the baby comes. We’re excited about that. That’s the most important thing,” Madsen said during a halftime interview on ESPN2 Tuesday.

The Wolverines attempted 20 three-point shots and made just five of them.

Madsen has some impressive athletes at Utah Valley, including 7-foot Aziz Bandaogo:

Taking the Cal job would bring Madsen back to the Bay Area where he grew up.  He attended San Ramon Valley High School, which is closer to Cal than it is to Stanford, the school at which Madsen played his college ball.

The question, of course, is whether Madsen can get Cal to the point where he would do a dance like he did while a member of the Lakers during their parade following an NBA championship:

And Cal can't claim a percussion section like this:

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Cover photo of Mark Madsen by Rob Schumacher, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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