PAC-12 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season
By Andy Patton
The Golden Bears are graduating two of their top three scorers from last season, guards Paris Austin and Kareem South, but fortunately, they will still have one of the top guards in the PAC-12, Matt Bradley, who averaged 17.5 points while knocking down 38.4% of his three-pointers last year.
Bradley won’t be enough to get this team out of the cellar, however, and in order for them to make any noise in the PAC, they’ll need some reinforcements. Fortunately, they added a pair of solid graduate transfer guards in Makale Foreman (Stony Brook) and Ryan Beltey (Penn).
Foreman averaged 15.6 points per game last year while attempting 8.8(!) three-pointers per game, giving Cal a much needed deep threat. Beltey averaged 12.8 points in four seasons at Penn, shooting 38.3% from downtown – giving Cal an even stronger outside threat.
The big kicker for the Golden Bears next season, outside of Bradley, will be borderline top-100 recruit Monty Bowser. The 6’6 forward projects to be a do-it-all utility player who can get to the basket, shoot from the outside, and play above-average defense.
The floor is very low for this Cal team, especially with a very limited frontcourt which should cause them all sorts of problems against bigger, more physical teams in the conference, but with a lot of outside shooting threats, there is a possibility they make some noise and finish middle of the….PAC.