Pat Kelsey came along and quickly returned Louisville to its historic place among the most prosperous college programs of the last half-century. (Three NCAA titles between 1980 and 2013.) Other schools seek comparably good fortune, none more so than Cal, which last year ruefully extended to eight its streak of consecutive losing seasons, longest in the ACC during this century.
During the two most recent years, Cal was on the short side of the ledger as coach Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen, a Stanford grad,
took over. Last season Cal was 14-19, an incremental improvement over its 13-19 record in 2024.
Madsen might well feel like he’s paddling as hard as he can without making notable progress, as the Golden Bears lost a pair of underclassmen who paced the squad in scoring and, perhaps, talent.
Madsen’s minions were led in 2025 point production by Andrej Stojakovic, who finished sixth in the ACC with a 17.9-point average. Listed as a 6-7 guard, Stojakovic went largely unnoticed and failed to make any of the ACC’s three all-conference teams. He’s now at Illinois, his third school.
Cal freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson also shone, winning recognition as the league’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2025. He also make the ACC All-Rookie team. The 6-1 guard was edged out in preseason voting for ACC Rookie of the Year, getting 2 votes to Cooper Flagg’s 79. Wilkinson wound up among the ACC’s top 20 scorers at 15.1 per game, 17.0 in league outings. Then he too transferred, in his case to Georgia.
The Bulldogs host Georgia Tech on Nov. 14 and are at Florida State in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 2.
Historically the Golden Bears have been intermittently strong, as Duke discovered late last century, losing to an underclass-dominated Cal team in the second round of the 1993 NCAAs. The defeat ended a string of five straight Blue Devil appearances in the Final Four, not to mention a run of nine straight Sweet 16s.
The coach administering Duke’s defeat was Todd Bozeman. Eighteen games into that ’93 season, Bozeman had replaced Lou Campanelli, a pioneer in getting fired for abusive language directed at his own players. Bozeman was promoted from a position as Campanelli’s assistant, and became what was then the youngest Sweet 16 coach in history. Then he quickly lost his job due to more conventional abuse –paying players back when that was considered cheating.
Cal wound up with its 1996 NCAA appearance voided, a path UL was forced to travel two decades later with its 2013 title.
Better times were recently had by the Golden Bears from 2008 through 2014, when they went to the NCAAs four times in six years under Mike Montgomery.
And of course California was an evanescent national power in the late fifties, when Pete Newell, legendary teacher of big men and a noted tactician, directed the school to the ’59 NCAA title, an NCAA runnerup finish in 1960, and Elite Eight appearances in 1957 and 1958. Newell also coached a US Olympic team to a gold medal in 1960 behind all-time greats Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, whose Cincinnati and West Virginia teams were respectively beaten by Cal in the ’59 Final Four.
No wonder the playing floor at Cal’s 11,858-seat home arena, Haas Pavilion, is named Pete Newell Court.
Past glory doesn’t count for much in the present, but it sure beats enjoying none at all.
| UNAPPETIZING SLIDERS Longest Streaks Of Losing Seasons By ACC Programs, Since 2000 (Cal Compiled Record As A Pac-12 Member Prior To 2025) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| In Row | School | L Yrs In Row | Coaches In L Seasons |
| 8 | Cal | 2018-25 | Jones, Fox, Madsen |
| 6 | BC | 2012-17 | Donahue, Christian |
| 6 | Pitt | 2017-22 | Stallings, Capel |
| 5 | BC | 2019-23 | Christian, Grant |
| 4 | VT | 2012-15 | Greenberg, Johnson,Young |
| 4 | WF | 2018-21 | Manning, Forbes |
| 3 | GT | 2017-19 | Pastner |
| 3 | UL | 2022-24 | Mack, Pegues, Payne |
| 3 | WF | 2011-13 | Bzdelik |
