California Golden Bears men's basketball
| California Golden Bears men's basketball | ||||
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| University | University of California, Berkeley | |||
| All-time record | 1435–1086 | |||
| Conference | Pac-12 | |||
| Location | Berkeley, CA | |||
| Head coach | Wyking Jones (1 year) | |||
| Arena |
Haas Pavilion (Capacity: 11,877) |
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| Nickname | Golden Bears | |||
| Student section | The Bench | |||
| Colors | Blue and Gold |
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| Uniforms | ||||
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| Pre-tournament Premo-Porretta champions | ||||
| 1927 | ||||
| NCAA Tournament champions | ||||
| 1959 | ||||
| NCAA Tournament runner-up | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| NCAA Tournament Final Four | ||||
| 1946, 1959, 1960 | ||||
| NCAA Tournament Elite Eight | ||||
| 1946, 1959, 1960 | ||||
| NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 1959, 1960, 1993, 1997 | ||||
| NCAA Tournament appearances | ||||
| 1946, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996*, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016 *vacated by NCAA |
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| Conference regular season champions | ||||
| 1916, 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1932, 1944, 1946, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 2010 | ||||
The California Golden Bears basketball team is the college basketball team of the University of California, Berkeley. The program has seen success throughout the years, culminating in a national championship in 1959 under coach Pete Newell, and the team has reached the final four two other times, in 1946 and 1960. The current head coach is Cuonzo Martin, who began his tenure in 2014.
The team plays its home games at Haas Pavilion, which was long known as Harmon Gym before being heavily renovated with money donated in part by the owners of Levi-Strauss. The arena was originally known as Men's Gymnasium and then later Harmon Gymnasium until the late 1990s when it went through renovations which displaced the team for two seasons.
The Golden Bears first played basketball intercollegiately in 1907 and began full conference play in 1915. The 1920s was the dominant decade for Cal basketball, as the Bears won 6 conference titles under coaches E.H. Wright and Nibs Price. Cal was retroactively recognized as the pre-NCAA Tournament national champion for the 1926–27 season by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.
Nibs Price would coach Cal with great success for 30 years from 1924 to 1954, earning a 449-294 total record, many single season winning records, and an additional 3 conference titles in the 1930s and 1940s.
Cal reached the pinnacle of the sport during the tenure of Pete Newell, who was head coach from 1955 to 1960. The Golden Bears earned the conference title four out of his five years and in 1959, won the NCAA title. In Newell's last year, Cal came close to another NCAA title, but lost to Ohio State in the final.
The fortunes of Cal men's basketball would never be the same after Newell. The next quarter-century would mostly be a dreary one for the program, despite having players such as Butch Hays (1981–1984) and Kevin Johnson (1983–1987) who would both set school records for assists. From 1960 to 1985, the Bears tallied only two winning seasons in conference play. Lou Campanelli served as head coach from 1986 - 1993. The highlight of this era was a 75–67 victory over UCLA in 1986 that ended a 25-year, 52 game losing streak to the Bruins. Campanelli in his first season took the Golden Bears to the 1986 National Invitation Tournament, the first post season appearance of any sort since 1960. In 1990, Campanelli led the Golden Bears to their first NCAA Tournament in 30 years.
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