BERKELEY, Calif. β Former Arizona and Cal assistant coach Jay John sported a sling over his right arm before Thursdayβs game, which was hardly surprising for somebody who works in Haas Pavilion these days.
Not only had seven of Calβs 13 scholarship players missed a collective 78 games entering Thursday, but John said he ruptured a biceps tendon during a pickup game at Cal.
βStill love the game, though,β said John, an assistant coach under Lute Olson at UA who later became the head coach at Oregon State.
John, who graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School, is an associate athletic director for sports administration at Cal.
Silence for Lou
Before the game, Cal held a moment of silence for former Bears coach Lou Campanelli, who died at 84 on Jan. 30.
Campanelli arrived at Cal in 1985, leading the Bears to their first win over UCLA in a quarter-century.
Before that 75-67 win at Harmon Gym, according to what forward Jon Wheeler told the San Francisco Chronicle, Campanelli kept his pregame speech to the point: βGo out and play the game the way youβve been taught. No matter what happens today, the sun will come up tomorrow. I love you, Golden Bears.β
In 1990, Campanelli also led Cal to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 30 years.
Senioritis
What Cal guard DeJuan Clayton lacks in games played, heβs made up for in years watching.
Clayton started Thursdayβs game for Cal after missing games at Colorado and Utah last weekend, giving the Bears scoring and an absurd amount of college basketball experience.
Clayton is actually in his seventh year of college basketball, having received two injury redshirts and the extra COVID replacement year of eligibility for playing in 2020-21. Clayton entered Thursdayβs game having scored a total of 1,601 points, including 1,518 at Coppin State, 16 over just two games at Hartford last season and 67 over seven previous games at Cal this season.
Arizona fans could be spotted inside the βHaas Clubβ booster area during the UA-Cal game Thursday night in Berkeley.
Wildcat invasion
Not only were the Haas Pavilion stands about a third full with Arizona fans, but there was a clear Wildcat streak even inside the exclusive confines of the βHaas Clubβ booster area.
Before the game, several fans wearing Arizona gear β including one with an Andre Iguodala No. 24 jersey β enjoyed some of the pregame spread while on a big-screen television on the wall, the UA womenβs team was shown facing Stanford at McKale Center.
Gearyβs side gig
As he walked into Haas Pavilion on Thursday for his job as Arizonaβs radio analyst, Reggie Geary said he was already thinking of what to ask UA coach Tommy Lloyd and Warriors coach Steve Kerr as emcee of a UA foundation event Friday near Stanford.
Geary will have plenty of experience to draw from, as well as relationships with both coaches. A former Wildcat standout in the middle of the Lute Olson era, Geary played in the NBA and coached at several pro and amateur levels before moving into his current role as Arizonaβs director of development.
Filipino Heritage Night
Instead of marketing Thursdayβs game as a βGold Out,β which would have been impossible for a team that averaged only 2,170 fans entering Thursday, the Bears instead gave out 2,000 free gold T-shirts with a design that fit with the schoolβs Filipino Heritage Night theme.
A Filipino food truck and a beer garden were also planned to set up shop outside Haas Pavilion, but the food truck canceled shortly before the game.
Waving the flags
Cal and Washington State are the two Pac-12 teams that can rival Arizonaβs international reach.
The Bears and Cougars each have six players from outside the United States, while Arizona has eight. A total of 12 Division I teams have six or more international players, led by Maine with 11.
The Bears have players from Canada (Joel Brown and Jalen Celestine), Australia (Kuany Kuany), Germany (Lars Theimann) and Ireland (Sam Alajiki and ND Okafor).
Arizona has players from France (Adama Bal), Serbia (Filip Borovicanin), Mali (Oumar Ballo), Estonia (Kerr Kriisa and Henri Veesaar), Lithuania (Azuolas and Tautvilas Tubelis) and Sweden (Pelle Larsson).
