Cal’s Coleman finds his groove in SoCal swing

Cal’s Coleman finds his groove in SoCal swing

After half of season of yo-yoing minutes between Don Coleman, Stephen Domingo and Roger Moute a Bidias, head coach Cuonzo Martin has to feel pretty confident about turning to Coleman for this week’s games against the Washington schools.

The sophomore guard averaged 13.5 points on 60 percent shooting as the Bears’ split their games against UCLA and USC last weekend.

In his first 12 games, Coleman averaged 2.8 points on 32.4 percent shooting.

[...] Coleman made 12 field goals in the two Los Angeles games after making 11 in his first 12 games combined.

Coleman transferred to Cal after averaging 19.9 points, 6.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game at Lawson State Community College (Alabama) last season.

Kameron Rooks missed 10 games, Jabari Bird missed six and Ivan Rabb and Grant Mullins each missed two games, so there was more mixing and matching than role solidifying.

Martin said he loves the guard’s lateral quickness and innate desire to compete on defense.

At times Thursday, Coleman will get the assignment of guarding Washington freshman Markelle Fultz, who is averaging 22.1 points per game on 45.3 percent three-point shooting.

“My confidence might have kind of lowered during part of the season, but after the UCLA game, I gained a lot of confidence,” he said.

Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.