Shorthanded Cal Bears Bounced in First Round of the NIT

It had to feel a bit like deja vu for the Cal Bears, as they were missing two stars and couldn’t overcome in losing a first-round tournament game.

Last season, the Cal Bears went into the NCAA Tournament and a first-round matchup against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors without senior Tyrone Wallace and junior Jabari Bird, both dealing with injuries that popped up days before the game. This year, though the tournament was different, had a similar feel for the Bears.

Cal faced off with Cal State-Bakersfield on Tuesday in the first round of the NIT Tournament, and went in extremely short-handed again. For the second straight year, Bird was out for the postseason opener, this time because of a concussion. In the first minute of Cal’s Pac-12 Tournament loss to Utah, Bird hit his head on the floor, and was diagnosed with a concussion. The team was also without Ivan Rabb, their star power forward who was dealing with a foot injury. Rabb missed time early in the season because of a foot injury as well.

So Cal, a team that struggled to put up points through pretty much the entire season, had to figure out a way to score without their top two scorers. They averaged 68.2 points per game this season, with Bird scoring 14.3 and Rabb adding 14. Cal was missing 28.3 points from their two stars, or 41 percent of their per-game average.

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It was not an easy journey without their leaders, and Cal looked like a high school team playing a college team in the first half. Cal hit just one of their first 11 shots, and turned the ball over five times in the first seven minutes. The Roadrunners, on the other hand, had their way against Cal. They made six of their first nine attempts, and jumped out to a lead as large as 13 in the first 10 minutes.

The Bears didn’t get on the board until after four minutes had already passed, when Stephen Domingo‘s three-pointer ended Bakersfield’s 8-0 run to start the game. They didn’t make another field goal until over nine minutes in when Grant Mullins dropped a triple.

But the Roadrunners kept heaving up shots, and a lot of them kept finding the bottom of the net. The lead stretched out to 25 in the first half, and the Cal Bears’ team that felt they should be playing in the NCAA Tournament were being embarrassed as a number-one seed in the NIT.

Cal came out of the locker room with a much different look. The defense played with more intensity, and the Bears’ shot started falling. They kept chipping away at the big lead as Dontae Coleman and Roger Moute a Bidias led the offensive charge. Mullins hit his second three-pointer with about two minutes to play, cutting the lead down to eight.

The lead would get down to six, but that would be as close as the Bears would get the rest of the way. They just didn’t have enough offensive firepower to get any closer, and the Roadrunners would continue to hold them off. The top-seeded Bears were one-and-done, falling 73-66 while their two stars could only watch. For both of them, it was likely their last game as Bears.

Bird is set to graduate, having never played an NCAA Tournament game with Cal. He had something of a breakout season this year, but didn’t get his opportunity to shine on the biggest stage. Rabb is probably headed for the NBA draft, and while he could forego the big leagues for the second straight season, that seems extremely unlikely.

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If one bright spot could be picked out of this game, it’s Kingsley Okoroh setting the school’s single-season blocked shots record. Early in the first half, the 7’1″ Englishman blocked his 74th shot of the season, surpassing David Kravish‘s record from the 2013-2014 season. The team also received a career night from Coleman, as he did his best to cover for the loss of Bird. The redshirt freshman scored a career-best 26 points in 27 minutes, hitting 11 free throws and grabbing four rebounds as well.

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