Coach Mark Madsen, from the 2024 matchup vs Cal-Poly. Photo courtesy Rob Hwang.
As the football team continues its strong start and grabs the attention of the Cal fandom, basketball junkies such as myself are already looking forward to October practice sessions and November tip-off. On August 29th, Coach Mark Madsen and I were able to connect via phone and have a pleasant conversation about the upcoming season.
The conversation below has been lightly edited for reader clarity
Bentpawn(Don): “How are you feeling going into year three? You basically have had, obviously, two years, but every year it’s felt like a different team, a different approach.”
Coach Madsen: “We kind of have been hit with the two craziest years in NIL history, and that was two years ago, and then this past year. And so I’m very hopeful that with the House Settlement, this whole environment will normalize and stabilize and really give a chance for more continuity. Because especially last spring, you had just, you had all types of things happening in the college basketball world, and I think with the House settlement this will help stabilize things.”
”Your roster is interesting. You’re lacking the really top end star power, at least on paper. But actually, as an aggregate, it’s the top rated transfer class you’ve had overall. It feels almost like you’ve got eight to ten starters. What’s your approach coming into this season on this roster makeup and balancing it all and juggling it?”
“Well, I would say this is probably the deepest team that we’ve had since I’ve been here, in terms of experience. Guys that can step in and do things on the court You know, guys that are really smart players. We have a really deep team, and we’re going to have strength in numbers. You know, strength in numbers play as hard as you possibly can when you’re in the game. And we got a lot of guys who can contribute.”
”What are you seeing out of Sammie Yeanay? He’s an interesting one to me, a four star out of high school who obviously played limited minutes last year.”
“I think Sammie has tremendous upside. Sam is somebody who’s got great physical stature. He can step out and shoot it. He’s got a really good feel for the game, and he’s someone that we hope is going to be at Cal for a very long time.”
“What does it mean for Matt Bradley to come back as the grad assistant for you? A little bit of prodigal son homecoming for Cal. What’s he bought so far?”
“Matt Bradley is someone who can probably do anything he wants to do in this world with who he is as a person, his educational background, the leadership and, you know, I think he’s going to give coaching a go. And I think Matt has really brought a lot to be the TA. So technically, you know certain things he can and can’t do, but having his presence around our guys, having his wisdom and leadership, somebody who’s won the highest level… he’s really added a lot to this program, and we’re very fortunate.”
“When I look at the schedule, I’m really excited. I don’t know how much it’s on your radar. Getting the ACC Blue Bloods into Haas, the non conference looks nicely balanced between some good challenges and then some other opponents. Have you looked at schedule and what are your thoughts?”
“We purposefully created a very competitive schedule. We’re playing, obviously, at Kansas State, UCLA on a neutral floor, home against the University of Utah. You know, we’re playing a lot of teams that have a rich history. And we’re playing some tough local opponent also. You look at the ACC schedule, you look at the teams that will be coming into Haas. This is one of the best college basketball schedules locally, maybe the best.”
“Yeah totally excited about seeing, like, North Carolina. It was exciting with the women’s team last year when they were here. I’m expecting another level excitement when they show up at Haas next spring.”
“Yeah, no doubt.”
“Meghin Williams joined the women’s program in the role of a GM, there have been changes in leadership at the university level with Chancellor Lyons starting this year and Knowlton transitioning out. What do you see as far as an evolution for the men’s basketball program over the next year or two. And how are you feeling about it all?”
“Look, rebuilding something is a process. And look, we won thirteen games the first year. We wish we could have won five or six more. Last year we won fourteen games, you know, probably five or six more that that we could have won. And so the goal this year, win twenty plus. Win twenty plus games. You know, we had a couple of games, one possession games that we need to execute better just to get that win. And so we, as we continue to build and continue to progress this program, we’re incredibly excited about the direction. We’re excited about the process that we’re undertaking, and the results are going to follow.”
“Defensively last year, there were issues around defensive switching and assignments. Is that something you work on from a coaching level, improving some of the approaches coming into a season with a new roster? Like, I know this was a little bit of a weakness last year, I want to make sure we’re approaching it better this year?”
“No question. We’ve worked incredibly hard on communication. A lot of times when you have a defensive miscue, many times you can trace it back to the communication on the floor. And so we’ve been repping that this summer, we’ve been working on it. We’ve added some wrinkles into our defensive scheme. Our defense was not good enough last year, and as we really broke things down over the summer, we made specific changes to certain aspects that are going to yield fruit. We’re going to make it tougher on other teams. We’re going to have different wrinkles that we can put out there on the court to improve our defense.”
“I’ve been impressed with your in game coaching. Last year, your roster kind of necessitated a clear out and drive-and-dish kind of approach, with Andrej and Jeremiah being focal points there. The year before, almost a point point-forward kind of approach with Jaylon Tyson being a facilitator. This year’s lineup is exciting to me, because I love the diversity. I’d love to see a twin towers lineup potentially at some point with, really with Ilic and Dort(Madsen chuckles). Just what are you seeing as far as a strategic approach at this point?”
“I think we were top 100 offensive efficiency last year. We want to get up in the top 50 or better. We have a lot of guys that have proven themselves to be elite shooters, and so we’ve been looking for our best shooting. We’ll add a few more ball screen actions. We’ll add a few more off-ball actions that play to our players strengths. You mentioned, kind of point forward with Jaylon Tyson, open some lanes up and driving. We had some tremendous flashes last year, guys were really talented scorers. This year we’ll keep certain aspects of our offense, it will custom tailor other parts to our players strengths. You know, it used to be you could go out every single year and just only recruit to your exact system, but with the transfer portal, it makes it a little bit more difficult. And so we have our base system, but on top of it, we need to have the flexibility to play to our players strengths, and so we’re doing that again this year. And so the Cal community is going to see a couple of new actions that play to support our players’ strengths.”
“I’d like to think that Tex Winter would love this lineup, this roster.”
(laughing) “There’s no doubt that both Tex Winter and Phil Jackson would love this roster. Particularly the depth.”
“What are you seeing from the returners? Does Rytis still fill his Swiss army knife role, or is he being asked to take on something slightly different with the way the roster is built?”
“Rytis is a guy who can play multiple positions. Rytis can change a game with his energy. He’s a tremendous leader in the locker room. Can knock down the open three. You know, he was, he played hurt a lot last year, and he was still incredibly effective. Rytis is the guy where I have opposing coaches, opposing referees, coming up to me and saying, I love the way that guy plays. I love the way he plays, too. He’s the ultimate team guy.”
“He’s a fan favorite.”
“Yeah, no question. DJ Campbell, I mean, somebody who he stepped up in huge moments last year to help us win games, at NC State with the huge free throws. You know, Miami at home. Versus Virginia where he just was an absolute lockdown defender. So DJ Campbell is also someone who can play a lot of different roles. He can do a lot of different things. Lee Dort – tough, intense, punishing, physical. One of the top rebounders in the country. Lee is someone who has gotten himself in better and better physical condition ever since he arrived.”
“With the clips I’ve seen with DK Dut and Lee Dort, just being that enforcer and that really, that presence down low so far. Is there a good kind of competition amongst those guys down low?”
“We just had a practice, and the guys battled and fought and scrapped. It’s physical. It’s an absolute dog fight. It’s almost hand to hand combat, and yet after practice, the guys are laughing and joking together, and they’re they’ve got great locker room camaraderie and chemistry.”
“That’s the end of my questions, Coach. Anything you call out or let the fan base know going into the season?”
“Number one, I cannot express enough gratitude for the support, passion and energy that you guys bring to every game. This year, you’re going to see some things that we’ve added on both sides of the ball that’s going to make certain you’ll see a very, very exciting style of play.”
“Thanks for the time. Appreciate it. Coach.”
SCHEDULE OVERVIEW
The non-conference schedule was released in late July. As Coach Madsen mentioned in his comments, the non-conference slate is highlighted by matchups against the Kansas State Wildcats on the road on November 13th, a neutral game vs UCLA at the Chase Center on November 25th, and a home matchup vs the Utah Utes on December 2nd. Kansas State visited Haas Pavilion in 2022, winning 63-54. Cal will have eleven non-conference games in Haas before conference play begins in late December.
The conference schedule, released last week, has Cal opening up ACC play at home against preseason top-10 ranked Louisville on December 30/31, followed by Notre Dame on January 2nd. The majority of midweek games are currently flexed between Tuesdays and Wednesdays and will be finalized as the season gets closer.
Cal students have a very good reason to come back from winter break a week early, as ACC legacy programs Duke and North Carolina will make their first trip to the Bay Area schools in mid-January, the week before the spring semester resumes. Cal will play Stanford twice, will not play North Carolina State, and will play all other ACC teams once.
The Golden Bears’ season tips off on Monday, November 3rd, as the CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners visit Haas Pavilion. It is a rematch of last year’s season opener for both teams, in which Cal won 86-73.