Mark Fox

Born in Walnut Creek, Madsen is an East Bay local. Madsen is coming off a 28-9 season as head coach of Utah Valley — the winningest in school history.

The pair arrived at Cal in 2019 from Canada and Australia, respectively. Their departure will further entrench Cal’s dire scoring struggles and represent significant loss for an already-feeble Cal team.

Here are three steps the Bears can take to begin the path back to March Madness — or at least out of worst-team-in-the-nation territory.

It can be done. It has been done. But apathy has slowly poisoned a university administration and athletics department that does not seem to care about the passionate, devoted community of Cal football and basketball fans.

In a game that was truly reflective of their year, the Bears just did not have it in them to compete with Washington State. The Bears finished the season with an all-time low 3-29 record, going 2-18 in Pac-12 play and ending the year on a 16-game losing streak.

The move was announced by Cal Athletic Director Jim Knolwton on Thursday, just one day after the Bears crashed out of the Pac-12 tournament in a 69-52 loss to Washington State.

Somehow, Cal is in the tournament, and even if it may seem like it’ll need divine intervention or Jaylen Brown in disguise to help win a game, never say never.

It feels like just yesterday that UC Davis was in town to open the season in Haas Pavilion, but this past weekend ushered in the final two home games of the season.

Cal will look to end its season at Haas Pavilion strong and give a positive send-off to the seniors this weekend.

The 3-24 Bears couldn’t even take back some pride from their trip to Los Angeles: USC and UCLA took turns giving their Northern neighbors a nightmare in Southern California.