Cal basketball coach Mark Fox says he's "cautiously optimistic" about this team, that this could be the year the Golden Bears take a step forward in the rebuilding effort he began in 2019 that now enters its fourth season.

Fans mostly fixate on the results -- three straight losing seasons under this regime and a team picked 11th out of 12 in the Pac-12 preseason poll.

But Fox looks around at his roster, buoyed by two transfer guards expected to make an immediate impact and a couple freshmen Fox is particularly high on, and he just sees the difference from what he inherited several years ago, even if the plan hasn't proceeded exactly as envisioned to this point.

"Just the physical pieces as you look at our roster construction -- our point guard this year will be as big as our starting small forward was my first year," Fox said a couple weeks ago in a one-on-one interview with Golden Bear Report. "We now have multiple guys who can play in the paint, protect the rim. We have athleticism at the forward spot that we've never had. So we, physically, I just think will look much better. We do have some depth if we can stay healthy, which has been a bit of a challenge for us.

"But the only way for anything to be rebuilt is with the right foundation -- every house of cards falls down. I wasn't going to go the house of cards route because this thing, once it's put back together, should be able to stay in a very comfortable place."