Oftentimes last season it took Jaylon Tyson filling up the stat sheet for Cal to come away with a victory. The formula has changed in Year 2 for the Bears under Mark Madsen. Cal now wants the recipe to involve a variety of players night and night out.
Madsen's squad started the season on the right note Monday night as all 10 players that took the floor at Haas Pavilion contributed with at least one basket in the 86-73 win over Cal State Bakersfield.
Half of that group had at least 10 points, including four of the five starters. Fifth-year senior transfer guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. led the way with 17 points to go with 4 rebounds and a team-high 4 assists.
"Probably could have played one or two more guys," Madsen said about the balanced effort from his team. "And, every one of the 10 went in there and contributed to winning. Scoring, rebounding, diving on a loose ball, this was a tremendous team effort tonight. There were multiple times in the game when we had high-level execution. As a coach, that was very gratifying to see."
When Madsen and his staff rebuilt the roster during the offseason and brought in 11 new scholarship players, the goal was to find a way to have a well-rounded group that didn't have to rely on the efforts of a small group to bring victories.
Monday's win over the Roadrunners was certainly an indication that Cal will have a variety of contributors as the season moves ahead.
In addition to Blacksher, the Bears had four other transfers score in double figures including Andrej Stojakovic (Stanford), who had 16 points and went 9 for 9 from the free-throw line, plus DJ Campbell (Western Carolina) with 12 and Mady Sissoko (Michigan State) with 10 to round out the contributions from the starting unit.
With the fifth starter, Joshua Ola-Joseph (Minnesota) in some foul trouble early in the second half, the Bears turned North Dakota transfer BJ Omot for some help off the bench.
Omot delivered with 13 points and 4 rebounds in 29 minutes Monday night including connecting on two of Cal's seven 3-pointers.
"We're very unselfish, so whoever scores we're gonna be happy for them," the 6-foot-8 Minnesota native said. "Obviously, we have a lot of talent on the team, so different nights different people are gonna lead for scoring. All we wanna do is just win, so we don't even look at it like that."
The Bears took charge early Monday night and led from the 14:22 mark through the end of the game. Cal created some separation late in the first half when it pushed a 6-point lead to 18 in the final 3:38 of the opening period.
The 14-2 run was sparked by strong play from both Omot and Blacksher, who hit three 3-pointers and shot 50% from the field in the first half.
The Bears had a couple dry spells coming out the half and it led to CSUB cutting the lead down to 11 points with 14:03 to play. Cal turned up the intensity and pushed its lead back up to 16 and one point in the second half but the Roadrunners would go on another run to make it a 7-point game with just under a minute to play.
It was just enough of a scare to give Madsen some things to work on with his team ahead of its second game Thursday against Cal Poly.
"I think this was great for us tonight," Madsen said. "... We prepared for it, we knew it was coming. At times we handled it, and at times they sped us up. So, what I'm really happy about is now we have the film to continue to work with our guys. It takes time to mesh and put together a new roster, and we've been at it all summer and it's still an ongoing process."
There were 48 fouls called in the game allowing Cal to head to the line for 40 free-throw attempts. The Bears connected on 31 of those opportunities, including having five players go perfect from the free-throw line, allowing them to make up for a 7-for-23 effort from 3-point range in the win.
A clean first half allowed Cal to open up its big lead with just 2 turnovers through the first 20 minutes. The Bears did end up with 11 turnovers overall Monday night giving them something to focus on improving especially when an opponent dials up the pressure as CSUB did later in the game.
Cal's matchup with the Mustangs is set for a 7 p.m. PT tip at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night.
