Haascoming: Cal Basketball is Back

Following an emotional, cathartic Cal win, please forgive me for being self-indulgent

photo via @calmbball twitter

I have been thinking about this game for six years.

I didn’t know when it would come. Many of the exact details were vague in my mind. But as soon as it was clear that Cal’s administration had destroyed the MBB program, I began dreaming about the day when it would come back from the dead.

It would come at home, in Haas Pavilion. It would be tense, with back-and-forth swings. More than anything else, it would have a packed house full of fans who were engaged from tip to buzzer. And I would be there for it.

In 2016, I made the plunge and got season tickets. This was not an idle investment - the drive from Sacramento to Berkeley is not insignificant, and making week day games was a challenge. But I wasn’t going to miss a special season with special talents. The Bears delivered on that promise with an undefeated home season and the program’s highest seed in NCAA tournament history.

What I remembered was how physically visceral that season felt. Haas is not Harmon, but when the fans show up it’s still a cramped experience. It’s hard to navigate the hallways. Somebody’s knee is always in your back. If you’re like me and you sometimes get a little . . . exuberant . . . you’re liable to accidentally elbow somebody. Toward the end of the 2016 season I started to have mild back pain from too many minutes sitting on cheap plastic benches, every muscle in my body clenched in anxious anticipation of whatever was going to happen on the next possession. At the end of every Pac-12 game that year I would be a sweaty, sore, ball of nerves*.

I loved every second of it.

Over the last six years, I have watched more Cal basketball than all but a few tortured souls. But very few of those minutes have come in Haas Pavilion. I went to a couple of games early in Wyking Jones’ tenure before voicing my displeasure by refusing to buy tickets became the clear course of action. I went to a couple of games early in the Mark Fox era, and by the time fans were allowed back in after COVID it was beyond clear that it was not worth my time to drive back and forth to watch an overmatched coach collect gigantic pay checks for doing very little.

And each year, the hole in my Cal fan heart grew larger.

But when the Bears suffered a gut punch buzzer beater loss to UW, then bounced back to beat Wazzu despite suffering ANOTHER buzzer beater, I felt like Friday could be the day. I couldn’t even leave Sacramento until 5:30, but I wasn’t going to miss this. My wife and I raced down I-80, furiously parked off Shattuck, power walked up to Haas (surrounded by enthusiastic but confused students trying to figure out where the student entrance to Haas is located) and got to our seats at the first media time out, as Jaydn Ott said something unintelligible to the crowd.

I was on the north baseline, very near the season tickets I used to have. As we sat down, I scanned the crowd and felt like I had been transported back to 2016. There was the court-side student section, standing, all wearing gold shirts, waving cardboard cut-out heads of various basketball players. Across from me, there was the band and the overflow students, stretching up into the rafters, all standing. To my right was a group of students including one dude holding a national championship trophy. The chairbacks were full.

All that was left was for the basketball team to deliver. What follows is a retrospective stream-of-consciousness recollection of Friday night. Please do not interpret this as anything close to good analysis.

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• I sit down and it’s already 9-4 Stanford. I’m nervous. Stanford is a tough team to figure out, with impressive wins and head scratching losses, but they shoot the ball very well, which plays into what has perhaps been Cal’s biggest weakness: shooting defense.

• Cal feels out of sorts early. Fardaws Aimaq can’t get looks about 7’1’’ Maxime Raynaud. Cal keeps leaving shooters open on defense. Stanford has four dudes shooting better than 40% from three, but they’re mostly missing their open looks.

• We can’t get looks inside. But we’re hitting our jumpers. Grant Newell hits a 3. Fardaws hits a 3. We’re staying in touch but we can’t get enough looks to get over the hump. Stanford finally hits a couple of their 3s to push the lead back up. Based on game flow and shot quality, they should probably be up by more than the 4-5 points the lead is at for most of the half.

• Stanford stretches out the lead to 8, but Fardaws finally gets inside touches and Keonte Kennedy hits a 3. That run momentarily ties it up, but a late 3 point play pushes the Stanford halftime lead to 4. I consider this a solid outcome, but enter halftime thinking that Cal will need to considerably tighten things up on defense to win.

• Stanford starts the 2nd half on an 8-2 run, and Cal’ only bucket in the first 3:30 came on a steal and layup from Keonte. The halfcourt offense is struggling. I am thinking two things at once: 1. Based on what I have seen and a 10 point Stanford lead, I’d optimistically put our chances of winning at maybe 20%. 2. This team has been tough as nails and has played 8 straight close games, and I have confidence that they will make a run to get this game close too.

• As if on cue, Grant hits a huge reverse layup after a great baseline cut. Then Keonte ambushes a passing lane for a fast break dunk, and then Jaylon Tyson hits a J. 6-0 run in a blink and we’re back in it. Haase calls a timeout that does no good, and Cal completes a 10-0 run to tie the game.

• Crap. Jaylon subs out and he’s walking gingerly. We watch with concern as he gets some kind of electrolyte supplement and lots of stretching attention from the trainers. He comes back, but has to immediately sub out, looking even more hobbled. Meanwhile, Stanford fights back and goes up 7. I love this team, but in my head I think that winning without Jaylon is probably a bridge too far.

• Cal laughs at my doubt. Jalen Celestine goes on a 7-0 run of his own. He and Grant are doing it all on both ends. We’re tied at 6-. Fardaws muscles through Stanford defenders twice in a row to put Cal up 4. Cal’s defense has tightened up and Stanford can’t get any open looks, but they’re drawing fouls and staying close with free throws.

• We’ve hit crunch time. Grant hits a clutch J. Jalen hits a clutch J. We’re up 1, but Stanford has the ball. Grant is hounding Brandon Angel and gets elbowed and the refs call Stanford for a clear foul! Yes!

• The refs go to the board to review. We are confident the refs are trying to decide between a common foul and a flagrant foul on Angel. During the interminable break, the jumbotron spots the Mayor of Oakland busting a move, then later transitions to Matthew Wykoff tearing his gold shirt off while Fernando Mendoza flexes next to him. In this moment I am 100% sure we will win.

• The refs bizarrely and insanely announce that Grant’s face fouled Angel’s elbow, and Stanford will get two free throws, which Angel hits to take the 1 point lead. In this moment I am 100% sure we will lose.

• The refs make up for their criminal act by calling an iffy foul on the court that sends Jalen to the line, where he calming hits both for the lead.

• Everything happens all at once. Chaos agent Kanaan Carlyle misses a runner. Cal gets Cone for 3 with a decent look but he misses. Fardaws almost puts back a follow up tip but can’t corral it. Stanford gets the long rebound and hits a long pass to Raynaud who has snuck out to the other end. He should score easily but as he attempts to gather past Jalen he drags his pivot foot and the refs give Cal the ball back.

• Jalen only gets 1 of 2, but Carlyle again attempts a wild runner that doesn’t have a prayer while begging for a completely nonexistent foul as the clock runs out. EXHALE.

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And then an explosion of joy. There were the players, who couldn’t decide between their desire to hug each other and their desire to jump around with their fellow students, and ended up settling for a confused mosh pit in front of the student section. There was Madsen, hugging anybody and everybody he could find before grabbing the mic to thank everybody for supporting the team. There was stadium announcer Matt Foley, signing off with a reminder that this could be Haas Pavilion for every game, if we all just decide to come back.

There was me, standing, pumping my fists because I had nervous energy with no clear outlet, happily enjoying the feeling of a sore back for the first time in years.

And there was a party in the locker room, where the man hired to turn this ship around chose to turn the attention to his team, where it belongs:

author

Cal Men’s Basketball on Instagram: “Rise to the occasion 🤜🤛 #GoBears”

January 29, 2024

There are only four home games left this year. Cal will host USC and UCLA in a week, then Oregon and Oregon State in late February. I hope you consider going; I’m going to make as many as I can manage.

Cal basketball is back.