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Coach Cuonzo Martin previewed the team he thinks will take the court in 2014 and, in discussing his plans for transfers and recruiting, may have given some hints about the possibility of a blue and gold future for ex-Duck Dominic Artis, who was infamously involved in a sexual assault case.
[Martin] also confirmed the Bears are likely to go into next season with just 10 eligible scholarship players. Martin said he won't use either of the program's two open scholarships this summer, unless he's able to land a senior graduate transfer who is immediately eligible.
That means - although Martin cannot discuss recruits by name - there is nothing to online chatter that Cal might be pursuing former Oregon guard and Bay Area native Dominic Artis.
Ten players is a little too little for this level of play, but Martin thinks intelligent practice and strength & conditioning can circumvent this issue, so having his strength and conditioning coach Nicodemus Christopher should help.
Martin also gave his impressions of his new team:
"I'm definitely encouraged," he said. "I think we have a good core, good guys returning. We have veteran leadership in David Kravish, good, young freshmen that will be sophomores. Tyrone [Wallace] has been battled-tested, played a lot of minutes."
...
Martin said he wants [Jabari] Bird to be more aggressive offensively, needs Mathews to improve his ballhandling, and asked Kravish to spend time in the offseason working on his 3-point shot. [Christian] Behrens and [Roger] Moute a Bidias both impressed him during limited workouts.
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Three players—[Sam] Singer, Wallace and [Brandon] Chauca—will compete for the point guard spot, Martin said. Wallace, at 6-5, can play as many as four different spots on the floor and would be plugged in at power forward if the Bears opt to use a four-guard alignment at times, Martin said.
Cal Athletics
Women's Soccer
Men's Soccer
Volleyball
- The Bears are hoping the bonding they experienced during their European trip will strengthen their connection during the next season
- Our 2014 recruiting class is ranked 9th nationally
Women's Basketball
- Congratulations to Gennifer Brandon for her first WNBA start
Gennifer Brandon (@GennyB_25) started her first WNBA game last night for the @wnbachicagosky - had a career-high 4pts & 18 min #CalWBBall
— Cal Basketball (@CalWBBall) June 11, 2014
Men's Basketball
- Justin Cobbs is traveling like crazy to practice for NBA teams, including the Warriors
- Cobbs reveals how Coach Mike Montgomery announced his retirement to the team, which none of the players were expecting
Women's Water Polo
Football
- DE Brennan Scarlett is our most important non-QB player for 2014
- Phil Steele crunched the numbers and we'll be one of the least experienced teams in the Pac-12 and the whole nation
- Uncle Ted thinks we have the 7th and 10th best nonconference games out of all Pac-12 teams. We're the only Pac-12 school with two games on his top-ten list.
- Athlon Sports thinks our uniforms are the 10th best in the conference. Time to re-brand again?
- QB Aaron Rodgers thinks TE Richard Rodgers is underrated, but the coaches are using subliminal messages to tell him to work on his blocking
- Tampa Bay OC Jeff Tedford is as secretive as ever about his offensive system, but we can expect to see his famous tailback tandem
