Cal hires Mark Madsen: Will the former Stanford star revive a dreary program and spark and Bay Area basketball resurgence?

In what can only be described as a startling upset, Cal made a shrewd hire to fill its basketball coaching vacancy. The Bears on Wednesday selected Mark Madsen to revive the program and, in the process, flipped the script on their Bay Area rival.

Four months after Stanford hired a former Golden Bear, Troy Taylor, to resuscitate its football operation, Cal appointed a former Cardinal star, Madsen, to salvage a product that has sunk to unprecedented depths.

In that regard, Cal basketball reflects the general state of affairs in Berkeley, where football is struggling for traction, women’s basketball is floundering and athletic director Jim Knowlton is under investigation for his handling of accusations of abuse levied against former swimming coach Teri McKeever.

Otherwise, everything’s grand on Bancroft.

Exactly what role Knowlton played in the basketball coaching search isn’t known. He was responsible for the misguided decision to hire Mark Fox four years ago and could be out of a job when the McKeever investigation concludes.

Also unknown: How strongly did the Bears lean on associate athletic director Jay John, a former Pac-12 coach, to identify the program’s savior? And what role did Mike Montgomery, the ex-Cal and Stanford coach, play in getting his former player, Madsen, hired?

Then again, those details are ultimately irrelevant.

The end result is all that matters in a coaching search, and Madsen, who did quality work as Utah Valley’s head coach — and was on the Hotline’s short list of options for Cal — fits the model on several fronts.

Our reaction to the move:

— Unlike Wyking Jones, who steered Cal off a cliff during two atrocious seasons (2018-19), Madsen has actually proven himself as a head coach. His annual win totals (chronologically) during four years at Utah Valley: 11-11-20-28.

And unlike Fox, who was fired by Georgia a year before taking over in Berkeley, Madsen is hungry to prove himself at the highest level of the sport. He’s no retread.

Madsen, 47, grew up in the Bay Area, understands Cal’s academic mission, has an NBA pedigree (Lakers and Timberwolves) and played for two elite basketball minds (Phil Jackson and Montgomery).

As a coach, Madsen paid his dues in the NBA’s D-League and on the Lakers’ staff before taking over Utah Valley.

— That resume made Madsen the ideal fit for Stanford, but his alma mater opted to retain Jerod Haase despite the program’s lingering mediocrity (seven seasons with no NCAA Tournament bids) and increasing irrelevance.

In fact, Cal’s move ratcheted up the scrutiny on Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir, whose decision to stick with Haase when Madsen was available constitutes a massive risk.

If the former Stanford star rehabilitates Cal while the Cardinal continues to struggle under Haase, then Muir’s decision will look like a gaffe for the ages.

— Of course, Madsen’s success depends largely on the level of resources Cal is willing to plow into basketball. To this point, there is no evidence the administration cares about winning. (Same goes for Stanford, by the way.)

The Bears are a low-budget operation compared to many of their Pac-12 peers. They lack a dedicated practice facility, are hesitant to fully embrace name, image and likeness (NIL) and have limited options with the transfer portal.

Put another way: Cal basketball is a tough gig, brutally tough, as currently constructed. The worst season in school history (3-29 overall, 2-18 in conference) is mostly, but not entirely on Fox.

What promises, if any, did the university make to Madsen?

Will it increase the recruiting budget and support more charter flights to and from competitions?

Will it enlarge the salary pool for assistant coaches and the cash needed to craft favorable non-conference schedules?

Will it actually build the basketball programs a practice facility?

Or was Madsen simply desperate for a power conference coaching job and wary of waiting another year for his alma mater to (potentially) call?

Some answers might trickle out when Madsen is introduced Monday at Haas Pavilion, four years and one day after Cal welcomed Fox to a doomed existence in the very same location.

— In a larger sense, Madsen’s appointment carries relevance beyond the walls of the Cal basketball program.

The entire athletic department, derailed by COVID and struggling to recover momentum, needs an injection of energy and success.

So, too, does the Bay Area. The collective regression of Cal and Stanford in the two needle-moving sports has turned the regional into a black hole for college sports.

It wasn’t long ago — the middle of the 2010s, in fact — that Stanford football was winning the Pac-12 title and Cal basketball was playing in the NCAA Tournament.

And before that — the middle of the 2000s — Stanford basketball was a March Madness regular and Cal football was dueling USC for conference supremacy.

But the combination of highly questionable hiring decisions on both sides of the Bay and the shifting landscape of college sports, where player movement and economic pressures are pushing academically-oriented schools to the fringes, have conspired against the Bears and Cardinal.

That competitive downturn in the Bay Area has implications for the Pac-12, as well.

USC and UCLA produced strong seasons in both football and basketball but are departing for the Big Ten in the summer of 2024.

Given the outsized role California plays in the success of college sports on the West Coast, the conference cannot afford both an exodus in L.A. and prolonged irrelevance in the Bay Area.

The only place a Madsen-fueled turnaround would be problematic, it seems, is Stanford.

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