The 2009–10 California Golden Bears men's basketball team represented the University of California, Berkeley in the 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. This was head coach Mike Montgomery's second season at California. The Golden Bears played their home games at Haas Pavilion and participated in the Pacific-10 Conference. They finished the season 24–11, 13–5 in Pac-10 play to win the regular season conference championship, their first regular season title since the 1959–60 season. They lost to Washington in the finals of the Pac-10 tournament. They received an at–large bid to the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, earning an 8 seed in the South Region. They defeated 9 seed Louisville in the first round before falling to 1 seed and AP #3 Duke in the second round. The Blue Devils went on to claim their fourth national title.
Pre-season In the Pac-10 preseason poll, released on October 29 in Los Angeles, California during the Pac-10 media days, California was selected to finish 1st in the conference.
Roster
#NameHeightWeight (lbs.)PositionClassHometownPrevious team(s)0Nigel Carter 6'4"205GSo.Los Angeles, CA, U.S.Dorsey HS1D. J. Seeley6'4"195GSo.Stockton, CA, U.S.Modesto Christian HS2Jorge Gutierrez6'3"195GSo.Chihuahua, MexicoFindlay Prep3Jerome Randle5'10"172GSr.Chicago, IL, U.S.Hales Franciscan HS10Jamal Boykin6'8"240FSr.Los Angeles, CA, U.S.Fairfax High School HSDuke12Brandon Smith 5'11"185GFr.San Ramon, CA, U.S.De La Salle HS13Nikola Knezevic 6'3"190GSr.Belgrade, SerbiaFifth Economy School14Max Zhang7'3"240CSo.Yantai, Shandong ChinaNo. 4 Yantai HS15Bak Bak 6'9"210FFr.Sun Valley, CA, U.S.Village Christian HS21Omondi Amoke 6'7"225FSo.Oxnard, CA, U.S.Oxnard23Patrick Christopher 6'5"220GSr.Compton, CA, U.S.Dominguez HS24Theo Robertson 6'6"230FSr.Pittsburg, CA, U.S.De La Salle HS32Robert Thurman 6'10"245FSo.North Edwards, CA, U.S.Desert HSNorwich43Harper Kamp 6'8"250FJr.Mesa, AZ, U.S.Mountain View HS45Markhuri Sanders-Frison 6'7"275CJr.Portland, OR, U.S.Jefferson HSSouth Plains
Coaching staff Name Position Year at Cal Alma mater (year) Mike MontgomeryHead coach 2nd Colorado State (1976)Jay John Assistant coach 2nd Arizona (1981)Travis DeCuire Assistant coach 2nd Montana (1994)Gregg Gottlieb Assistant coach 3rd UCLA (1995)John Montgomery Director of basketball operations 2nd Loyola Marymount (2007)
Schedule and results Source All times are Pacific
!colspan=9| Exhibition
!colspan=9| Regular season
!colspan=9| 2010 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament
!colspan=9| NCAA tournament
Notes Point guard Jerome Randle was named the 2010 Pac-10 Player of the Year. He also became Cal's leading scorer on March 13, 2010, when Cal defeated UCLA 85–72 in the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament, surpassing Sean Lampley with 1,790 career points. March 17, 2010 – Forward Omondi Amoke was suspended for violating team rules going into the NCAA tournament, and did not play in the Bears' first round match against Louisville.Amoke suspended for rules violation, Associated Press, March 17, 2010
Rankings
*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings.^Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll.
References
External links CalBears.com