When California announced the Tyrone Wallace injury news on Tuesday evening, an already convoluted picture in the Pac-12 became even murkier.
Wallace, who averaged 15.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.6 assists on the year, suffered a broken bone in his right (non-shooting) wrist and is expected to miss four to six weeks of action. Sam Singer is expected to fill the starting role, but there’s no way for him to be expected to fill the hole left by Wallace’s injury.
“You lose a key guy like Tyrone, not an easy thing to transition. He is a tremendous leader- a presence from a guy who is battle tested.”
— Cal Men’s Basketball (@CalMensBBall) January 19, 2016
With adversity comes opportunity, so you have to be ready when it presents itself. –@CuonzoMartin
— Cal Men’s Basketball (@CalMensBBall) January 19, 2016
The Golden Bears (12-6, 2-3) sit in eighth place among the Pac-12 standings, tied with Utah, Oregon State, and UCLA. Most concerning, though, is that the Bears will be facing some of their toughest match-ups of the season in that stretch.
Up this week, the Bears host Arizona State and Arizona in Berkeley. Next week, they travel to Utah and Colorado, before seeing Stanford, Oregon State, and Oregon once again at home. Outside of ASU, all of those teams currently sit ahead of Cal in the conference standings.
A stretch of time that looked like a prime stretch for them to make a bit of a run in the conference, with five of seven games at home, now looks like a gauntlet they may not be ready to weather. Freshmen Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb will certainly need to step up their efforts, but junior Jordan Mathews might shoulder the most of the production needs for the Bears.
