BERKELEY — Analyst Charles Barkley may not always appreciate the Warriors, but he gave some love to Cal on Selection Sunday, calling the Golden Bears the most talented team in the country aside from North Carolina.
“We appreciate Charles for the shout-out,” Cal freshman Jaylen Brown said. “Now we’ve got to make sure we live up to the potential everyone says we have.”
The Bears (23-10) were given a No. 4 seed in the South region — their highest since the NCAA tournament selection committee began the seeding process in 1979 — and will face Hawaii on Friday in Spokane, Washington. The game will be televised on TBS, with an 11 a.m. tipoff.
Cal is playing in its 19th NCAA tournament, its first since 2013.
The Rainbow Warriors (27-5), coached by former Saint Mary’s College assistant Eran Ganot, were regular-season co-champs and tournament winners in the Big West Conference. One of their top players is senior point guard Roderick Bobbitt, an Oakland native and former Castro Valley High star.
The Cal-Hawaii winner will advance to Sunday to face either No. 5 Maryland (25-8) or No. 12 South Dakota State (26-7).
Cal coach Cuonzo Martin, whose squad is among a record seven Pac-12 teams to get into the 68-team field, said he wants his players to relax and enjoy the postseason.
“We put ourselves in position. Now just really have a lot of fun. We know it’s win or go home. It’s that simple. I think they’re excited,” he said.
Barkley, who lives in Phoenix and said he watches a lot of Pac-12 basketball, offered that he could not understand how the Bears lost 10 games with their level of talent.
Martin said that with the arrival of elite freshmen Brown and Ivan Rabb he knew there was going to a learning curve. Now the Bears have won nine of their past 11 games.
“I’ve always said we’re talented enough,” Martin said. “But when you have new guys, new parts, and you’re trying to make that jell, it takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight.
“They’ve made a tremendous amount of improvement. This is what I call fun times, because you work so hard to get to this point and now you just kind of let it all hang out.”
No one on the Cal team is likely more excited than senior point guard Tyrone Wallace, who made the decision to return this season partly because he wanted a return trip to the NCAAs. Wallace is the only Cal player with NCAA experience with the Bears, although junior Stephen Domingo played in the NCAAs while at Georgetown.
“It would have been disappointing if a team with this much talent didn’t make the tournament,” Wallace said. “This is personally what I came back for, in order to have a chance to make a big run. I think the sky’s the limit.”
Wallace said part of his job this week is to make sure his younger teammates are in the right frame of mind.
“There’s so much emotion. As a freshman I really didn’t understand what it means,” he said. “I was the young guy looking up to the upperclassmen. Now I’m the guy who’s been around the block.”
Wallace said he agrees with Martin’s mantra about having fun but said the equation also involves having success on the court.
“Whenever you win, you have fun. But you’re supposed to have fun in the process,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be so stressful that it’s weighing you down. I think it’s important to go out there and play loose.”
Martin said Wallace has influenced the Bears in ways that sometimes go unnoticed.
“I think he’s been mature all season long. He does his job on the court, leads his guys in subtle ways,” Martin said. “It’s a great time for him. It’s one of the reasons, outside of getting his degree, to come back to college, to be part of the NCAA tournament.”
“It feels good to be back in there,” Wallace said. “I’m just ready to get to practice, get ready and get out there and play.”
For more on Cal sports, see the Bear Talk blog at ibabuzz.com/beartalk. Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter at twitter.com/Jeff Faraudo.
