It is less than a week away from Cal’s season opener, and the Bears are raring to get started. With several new additions and a year into Mark Madsen’s Berkeley basketball revitalization project, here are my three top takeaways from this week’s media availability ahead of the 2024-2025 season that begins Nov. 4 against Cal State Bakersfield.

If I had to pick one word echoed the most by the team at media availability this week, it would have to be “excited.” That word was emphasized in every phase of the team’s makeup. From the new additions to the team via the transfer portal to the players getting ready for their blue and gold debut; there is excitement building around the Bears as the team enters its first season in the ACC, and it feels contagious.

“I feel like the team is in really good shape, we’re all jelling right now,” junior forward Joshua Ola-Joseph said Tuesday. “Obviously none of us have played together so we’re building chemistry with the two scrimmages we’ve had. So we’re moving forward and I’m very excited.”

It was also noteworthy to hear each of the three transfer players at media availability emphasize “family” throughout their time speaking with reporters. Ola-Joseph credited the coaching staff with building the “family-oriented” culture while Jovan Blacksher Jr. emphasized Madsen’s “family-guy” qualities. With a team full of transfers, the Bears need that chemistry-in-a-bottle recipe fast if they want to win in the ACC this season.

It’s no secret Madsen and the Bears essentially rebuilt their entire roster through the transfer portal this offseason. With six players out and ten players in, Cal is entering Year 2 of Madsen with an entirely new starting five. At least in the early portion of the season, it’s looking like the rotation will go 12 men deep, with no single go-to guy.

But in Madsen’s eyes, that’s not necessarily a negative.

“If you have one or two main guys, the defense can key in on those guys. They won't be able to key in on any one guy because we have so many different threats,” Madsen said. “There's going to be better floor spacing, there's going to be guys coming off the bench and having strong bursts on the defensive and offensive side."

It’ll be fascinating to see how this team experiments with its rotation and lineups in the games before conference play.

When thinking about some of the lessons he learned in his first season coaching the Bears, Madsen emphasized improving the things he and the team can do off of the hardwood. Madsen talked about how the coaching staff looked to improve the team’s preparation, nutrition, travel quality, and situational awareness in the offseason.

Madsen took it so far as to even look into how he could reconfigure the way the team practices throughout the summer months.

“You get four hours [of practice] in the summertime. Some coaches just take two sessions of two hours each on the court,” Madsen explained. “A lot of times we did four one-hour sessions because there are so many new guys and because I’m a big believer in repetition and teaching in different ways.”

Madsen and the Cal coaching staff are dedicating a lot of time and effort to get this strung-together team of transfers on the same page, which will be key moving forward in the NIL-Transfer Portal era.

The Bears open the season with two home games as Cal Poly makes its way to Haas Pavilion next Thursday following the opener against CSUB on Monday night. Tipoff for Monday’s game against the Roadrunners is set for 8:30 p.m.