Wallace will be back — good sign for Bears

Cal guard Tyrone Wallace will return for his senior season, he announced at a news conference Thursday, further raising expectations for the team.

“I think we could be really good,” Wallace said, with his teammates watching. “We think we could make a real run at the Pac- 12 championship.”

Wallace’s announcement keeps Cal’s offseason momentum rolling. He was their most important player last season, leading the team by averaging 17.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4 assists per game.

Now he’ll return to play alongside five- star recruit Ivan Rabb and key contributors Jabari Bird and Jordan Mathews.

Wallace isn’t the only one with high expectations. NBCSports. com recently listed Cal as the projected No. 14 team in the country to start next season.

“When you’re fighting for the top spot, you have to have all your parts,” head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “I think we have the parts.”

Since the end of the Bears’ season, Wallace had been weighing whether to forgo his final year of eligibility and enter the NBA draft. He had received a report from the NBA projecting his draft status and discussed the decision with his friends and family. Wallace didn’t reveal the content of that report, but some mock drafts listed him as a second- round pick.

There was an emotional factor tugging at Wallace, as well. By staying, he’ll make good on a promise he made to his grandfather, who died in August. The guard will get his degree either in the fall or the spring and will be the first in his family to do so.

“I promised him I would get my degree,” Wallace said. “I think it’s important for him and for me to stick it out and finish.” New assistant coach: As expected, Martin hired Wyking Jones from Louisville as an assistant coach.

Jones will replace assistant Jon Harris, who became the head coach at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville this month.

Jones had been an assistant with Rick Pitino’s Cardinals since 2011. During that period, Louisville went to two Final Fours and won the 2013 national championship.

Martin said his main priority was hiring a coach who could develop big men and recruit. Jones should be able to do both, as he scored 1,076 points playing forward for Loyola Marymount in the early ’ 90s and worked for two years as a travel team manager for Nike Elite Youth basketball.

“You watch how Louisville big guys, they always got better,” Martin said.