PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2023

Mark Fox

Lars Thiemann

Monty Bowser

California Golden Bears

Postgame Press Conference

Washington State - 69, Cal - 52

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Cal. Coach, we'll start with an opening statement and then we'll take some questions.

MARK FOX: Congrats to Washington State. They're a difficult team to defend. We played 'em 10 days ago and really did a nice job defending their three-point shooting. We weren't as good in that area today, and then when we did force misses the first half they just really pounded us on the glass. So give them credit. Obviously disappointed for our team.

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll take some questions.

Q. Any thoughts about going to a press earlier in the game? It was pretty effective in the second half on at least closing it down to 11 and the pressure defense seemed to help a little bit and at least make it interesting there towards the end a little bit.

MARK FOX: I'll be honest with you, it's something we talked about, but we just have no depth. We had Joel, Monty, and Kuany. We didn't have enough depth to -- you start extending your defense like that you're going to have to substitute more often. Like, we didn't have enough bodies to really extend ourselves like that for a long period of time.

We talked about it, though, and the bit that we did do it at the end was effective. But that's the reason we didn't.

Q. For everyone, but I'll start with Mark. It seems like despite everything you guys went through this season you kept that group pretty together. What was kind of the key to that and how did you achieve that? For the players, how did you guys feel like Coach kind of helped to keep you guys together?

MARK FOX: Well, I would credit the character of our young people. One of the things that we feel like is fundamentally important is that we have the right character in the room. We obviously had lots of curveballs, including the one today with Grant Newell. But we have good young people on our team, and they stayed committed to a process and constantly readjusted, and so I would just credit the character of our young guys.

LARS THIEMANN: Yeah, I would definitely agree to what Coach said. We've got a lot of great character on our team. I also felt like Coach did a great job keeping us together no matter how hard it got. Like, it was a really rough season, obviously, but he made sure that we stayed together, that we never splintered, and we did that.

MONTY BOWSER: I would say although this is, in my three years, this has been the toughest season that I've had here at Cal, this has really been the most together that a group I've been a part of has been. Everybody on the team loves each other. We love our coaching staff. So it was just tough fielding a lot of curveballs that were thrown our way.

But if you looked at our team from the outside perspective, not knowing our record, not knowing the things that we have been through, you would know that we have a group of guys that really like each other and love playing together.

Q. Monty, 19 points, career high. Nice game. Anything special about the looks you were getting tonight or anything to kind of get you to that point tonight?

MONTY BOWSER: No. My teammates did great job finding me in spots that I can score the ball. Yeah, that's really all I can say about it. Since there's been a lot of people out, my role has increased, so I tried to be more aggressive, but my teammates just found me in spots that I could score tonight.

Q. Kind of looking back on this season, obviously not the way you wanted it to go, is there anything in hindsight you wish you could have done differently to change things or was there just too many obstacles with the injuries and everything to overcome?

MARK FOX: I would say not as an excuse, but as an explanation. Like, if you looked on paper, like who would be our starting point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center, we played without four of 'em tonight. I think Devin Askew played 12 or 13 games, DeJuan Clayton played eight or nine. That obviously crippled our ability to score.

So looking back like, you know, in baseball the guys that can hit the curveball stick in the major leagues, right? They can kind of see it coming. It's hard to see some things coming. I thought we just tried to continually readjust to give ourselves chances to win.

Obviously I didn't get that done, but these guys continued to stay the course and, yeah, looking back, you know, outside of trying to stay healthier, should we have done something different in the pre-season conditioning or lifting or fed 'em different? I don't know. I mean, we have to evaluate all that. But nothing's sticking out right now.

Q. Obviously a tough season, a lot of injuries. How do you feel about the future of Cal basketball?

MARK FOX: Well, I'll tell you, like everyone in recruiting is like, Can you bring somebody in that can start? Well, we're going to bring two in that can start because they have started before in Devin and Jalen as they get healthy and return.

Monty obviously has really taken a step forward in the past couple months. Grant Newell, who had just a great freshman year, is only going to get better and better. We still have ND and Obinna and we have some really talented kids coming in. We got some guys that need to make COVID decisions. So I think it can flip really quick. But we got to get healthy and we have to have the right approach the entire off-season.

Q. There's obviously been a lot of just chatter and speculation about your job status. How do you handle that? How do you just handle all the speculation out there?

MARK FOX: You want me to be honest?

Q. Yeah.

MARK FOX: I don't pay any attention to any of it because we try and deal within our program and within our administration in truth. We try to be very up front and honest and transparent in the challenges that we have and the things that we have to overcome and endure. We understand that there's an expectation to be successful. We didn't do that this year.

But most people that sit where you're sitting now never are on the inside. They don't know the things that you have to deal with that administrators or coaches or players do. So it's not your fault or people that have that chatter, it's not their fault that they don't know. But it comes with the territory. It does. I'm not a young coach anymore. I've been through it. So it doesn't bother me. I know -- I'm not saying it's unfair. Criticism comes with the territory. But I also know what we were going to have to endure here to get this thing back to where it needs to be.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, coach. Thank you guys.