Report: Cal hiring Utah Valley's Mark Madsen as next head coach

A day after losing in the NIT semifinals, Mark Madsen has accepted a deal with Cal to become the Golden Bears next men’s basketball coach, according to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman. Utah Valley went 28-9 this season under Madsen.

Had Stanford not kept Jerod Haase for another year Madsen, an alum, would’ve gone there, according to Goodman. Instead, after Cal struck out trying to hire Randy Bennett from St. Mary’s, they pounced on their opportunity to get Madsen on board.

The deal had been agreed to in principle for days, Goodman added, and it could come to fruition once Utah Valley fell to UAB in the NIT semifinals on Tuesday night.

Madsen played for Stanford from 1996-2000 and lead the Cardinal to a Final Four in 1998 and is Top 10 all-time in rebounds and blocks for the program. Twice he earned an all-conference selection. And in the 2000 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers selected Madsen with the 29th pick.

Following a three-year stint with the Lakers, Madsen finished his career by spending six seasons playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

From playing, Madsen quickly got into coaching, first as a D-League assistant. He did a stint as an assistant at Stanford, then as a head coach for a D-League squad before being elevated to a role as a Lakers assistant. In 2019, he was hired by Utah Valley.

Madsen assembled a 70-51 record in four seasons at Utah Valley, going from 11-19 in Year 1 to 28-9 by Year 4. In the last two seasons, he’s led the Wolverines to a 48-21 combined record. The 28-9 mark this season is also the most wins in program history. Under Madsen, Utah Valley won the Western Athletic Conference regular season title twice.

Cal was in the market for a new head coach after firing Mark Fox on Feb. 9.

Fox finished 38-87 as California head coach, good for a 30.4% winning percentage, and had just two seasons of 10 wins or more while never finishing .500 or better. Before moving west, Fox was an SEC mainstay as the Georgia head coach, where he led five winning seasons.

Since Cuonzo Martin left Cal after the 2016-17 season, it’s been a difficult run for the Cal program. The best season during the six seasons since was the 14-18 campaign in the first year under Fox. In 2022-23, Cal went 3-29. Now it turns to a Bay Area basketball legend in Madsen to turn the program around.