Cal: Despite 8-24 mark, Bears optimistic about future.

LAS VEGAS — Cal head coach Wyking Jones got emotional after Wednesday’s loss to Stanford in the Pac-12 tournament, an 18-point drubbing that brought a fitting end to the worst season in program history.

“I want to thank you guys,” Jones told his team in the postgame locker room. “… Regardless of the record, you guys are the first team to play under me as a head coach. You never threw in the towel. You fought. … As long as I coach, I’m always going to remember you.”

Unfortunately for Cal, many of the memories will probably be soiled by a season’s worth of ugly play and historically awful results.

The Bears (8-24) lost more games than any team in the history of the program and piled up some of the nation’s worst numbers during the process.

Cal was No. 219 in the RPI rankings as of Thursday morning, the lowest among major conference teams and four spots worse than Pittsburgh, which went 0-18 in the ACC and fired its head coach, Kevin Stallings.

The Bears lost 19 games by double figures, including a conference-record 12 during Pac-12 play. Their minus-9.9 scoring margin ranked behind San Jose State, which went 4-26 and has won 25.5 percent of its games during the past seven seasons.

“Although it was a tough season, I really enjoyed coaching these young men,” Jones said. “I think we built a culture, and we’ll continue to do so. … I’m very proud of this team, because through all the ups and with the majority being downs and losses, they continued to stay together. They continued to be close, and they continued to fight and believe in each other.”

It was quite a feat to keep the team together as it lost 17 of its final 18 games, winning only a 74-70 home game against Oregon State during the closing nine weeks of the season. The Bears ended up last in 12 of the 21 team statistical categories that the Pac-12 monitors.

Cal averaged 98.7 points per 100 possessions (294th of the 351 Division I teams) and dished out 9.8 assists per game — one of only six teams in the country to average less than 10. The Bears allowed 105.6 points per 100 possessions (175th) and allowed opponents to shoot threepointers at a much higher rate (39.9 percent) than the Bears did (28.6 percent).

“We learned so much as freshmen,” said forward Justice Sueing, one of seven freshmen on the roster and one of three who started most of the season. “Next year, I think we have to use all of that knowledge and bounce back. Next year, 100 percent, it won’t be like this.”

Cal doesn’t have a player taller than 6-foot-8 returning, and the tallest, freshman Grant Anticevich, averaged 1.5 points and 1.6 rebounds per game and had three blocked shots in 171 minutes.

The Bears do return quite a bit on the perimeter, including Sueing and guards Darius McNeill and Juhwan Harris-Dyson — each of whom showed signs of becoming solid Pac-12 players.

Cal loses five seniors, with only Marcus Lee and Kingsley Okoroh having been regular rotation players, and returns 71.4 percent of its scoring, 71.7 percent of its assists and 79.1 percent of its steals.

Having spent the last offseason installing the team’s defenses and offensive sets, Jones said he’ll spend this break working to improve individual talents within those systems.

“That’s the first thing on my list,” he said. “We’re going to really spend the spring and summer focusing on getting these guys better.”