Tribute idea for renowned coach
Cal named the court at Harmon Gym after Pete Newell in 1987 and installed a sculpture of him in the Haas Pavilion club room in 2006.
USF head coach Kyle Smith has a great idea for the next tribute to the renowned Bay Area coach.
“We should be playing these games every year, and it should be called the Pete Newell Classic,” said Smith.
The Pete Newell Classic was an annual game Cal played more than a decade ago when a big-name program came to Berkeley. But in Smith’s opinion, Cal and USF — two of the teams coached by the Basketball Hall of Famer — always should be the participants.
“It’s what is right. It’s good for basketball,” Smith said.
Newell was USF’s baseball and basketball coach from 1946 through ’50 and led the Dons to the 1949 NIT championship.
After coaching at Michigan State, he returned to the Bay Area to coach Cal from 1954 through ’60. He went 119-44, winning four consecutive conference titles and the 1959 national championship.
Wednesday’s game is the first meeting between the schools since 2008, but they have signed contracts to play in each of the next two seasons.
The game will mark the third of a three-game stretch for the Bears (2-4) against the Bay Area’s West Coast Conference teams. In their first meeting against Santa Clara since 2006, Cal won 78-66, and in their first trip to Moraga since 1988, the Bears lost 84-71.
“Competition is competition, whether they’re right down the road or coming from out of state,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said. “It’s all the same. It’s all still a battle. It’s all still competition. It’s all still an opponent. To me, it doesn’t make any difference the teams we are playing are local. We still have to go out there and try to win the game, whether they’re local or not. …
“Because they’re local, I’m going to coach different? I’m not going substitute different. I’m not going to play different guys. We’re still going to do the same things we did against St. John’s against San Francisco.”
Smith admits that WCC schools have more to gain from playing Pac-12 schools than vice versa. But, he said, it’s good for Bay Area basketball to see these games, especially with the rise of the WCC programs.
St. Mary’s has solidified itself as a perennial Top 25 candidate, and USF has opened this season 7-1. The Dons are beating opponents by an average of 22.5 points per game behind a solid defense and a rhythmic offense orchestrated by point guard Frankie Ferrari.
“It’s really healthy for Bay Area basketball,” Smith said. “There is great tradition at all of these programs, and it’ll be neat to see if we all can continue to get better.”
After fending off Santa Clara’s comeback attempt with maybe its best 6½ minutes of the season to close the Nov. 26 victory, Cal saw just how good the local WCC teams can be Saturday night at St. Mary’s.
The Gaels had 19 assists in shooting 60 percent from the field, going 13-for-25 from three-point range in an 84-71 victory. The Bears had just six assists and seven three-pointers — and eight turnovers — in the game.
Jones wants Bishop O’Dowd alum Paris Austin (15 points, 4 assists per game) to lead the offense more effectively and said Cal too often tried to shoot over two defenders instead of passing to an open player.
“That’s not a good shot. As talented as we may think we are, trying to shoot over two defenders is not smart basketball,” he said. “It’s games where we tried to do too much and played a little bit of hero ball that we didn’t play well. We can’t do that.
“Our guys have to do a better job of trusting each other, and Paris Austin has to do a better job of being a facilitator for us to be good. We have talented guys on the roster who can make his job very, very easy if he’ll embrace that role.”