Pac-12 Basketball: UCLA, Oregon atop WTE offseason rankings for 2022-23
By Joey Loose
10. California
Recent history has not been kind to California. Since Cuonzo Martin left the program in 2017, the Golden Bears have won a grand total of 51 games across five seasons. While not markedly better, things have been trending slightly upwards since Mark Fox took over the program three years ago, but clearly, they haven’t exactly been making notable strides quite yet, finishing just 12-20 last year.
The three best players from last year’s squad were all seniors and are all gone, with Jordan Shepherd and Andre Kelly certainly missed the most. The Golden Bears do get a nice addition with point guard Devin Askew, who previously spent time at Kentucky and Texas and will hope to make more of an impact on the west coast. Jalen Celestine (7.5 ppg) is the leading returning scorer and California will hope he has even more of an impact on both sides of the ball.
The Golden Bears are depending on a lot of role players to take on bigger roles this season, perhaps not a recipe for success on a team that’s struggled as much as they have in recent years. Askew is a nice piece and a few of these younger players should take steps forward, but there are no big solutions here. Maybe Askew finally plays like a star, but don’t be shocked to see California dawdling near the bottom of the league standings again.