Cal Lets One Get Away vs. Tulane; Mark Madsen Talks on Fardaws Aimaq Incident

The Cal basketball team let one get away Wednesday night at the SoCal Challenge, squandering an 11-point second-half lead in an 84-81 loss to Tulane, the Bears’ third straight defeat by three points.

But the talk afterward was all about what Cal senior Fardaws Aimaq endured two nights earlier when a fan during the UTEP game taunted him, even allegedly calling him a terrorist.

Aimaq responded with a 23-point, 14-rebound performance against the Green Wave in the tournament’s consolation game, and first-year coach Mark Madsen went to bat for him again afterward.

“Fardaws was outstanding. That situation, we stand with Fardaws,” Madsen said. "That should never, ever be said to anyone in a competition setting or any other setting.”

Teammate Jalen Cone also expressed his support.

“The things that were said to him shouldn’t be said to anyone,” he said. “Just being support for him during that time and keeping him focused. He had a great game tonight with 23 and 14.

“That just shows who he is, how he can bounce back from adversity. He’s been doing it his whole life.”

Madsen, who released a statement earlier in the evening, reiterated that he had a conversation with Aimaq about his decision to go into the grandstands to verbally confront the fan who was taunting him.

“I also obviously spoke to Fardaws because from personal experience in the NBA, typically good things do not happen when a player goes into the stands to confront a situation,” Madsen said. “So I spoke to him about that, but the main message was I’m sorry you had to experience that. I’m sorry that happened.”

Madsen said he was unaware of the incident during Monday’s game or afterward and didn’t learn about it until Wednesday. At that point, he said he and the Cal athletic administration asked tournament officials to investigate the matter and bar the fan from attending games.

Cal (2-4) wasted an otherwise strong offensive performance by committing 20 more turnovers, which Tulane (4-1) turned into 24 points. The Bears had 21 turnovers in Monday's loss to UTEP.

The Bears shot 46 percent from the field, made 10 3-pointers and won the rebounding battle 37-25. They led for 34 minutes of the game, not surrendering the lead until the 5:19 mark of the second half.

But the Bears were horrendous defensively in the second half, allowing Tulane to 55 second-half points on 69-percent shooting (20-for-29) over the final 20 minutes.

“They attacked us one-on-one,” Madsen said. “Our one-on-one defense must improve for us to get where we want to go.”

Cone said the defensive problems were entirely on the players.

“We weren’t good at all. Coach is going to take the blame and say it’s his fault. We didn’t do a good job,” Cone said. “We’ve got to do better. Me being the captain, I’ve got to challenge guys to step up to the plate and be better, including myself.”

Besides Aimaq, the Bears got 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists from Jaylon Tyson, his fellow Texas Tech transfer. Cone, the Northern Arizona transfer, shot just 6 for 16 but scored 18.

Cal played again without three injured players — Devin Askew, Jalen Celestine and Keonte Kennedy — they expect to be starters or significant rotation pieces. Madsen said the Bears “hope to have them back in a reasonable time frame.”

In the meantime, the Bears need to figure out how to close out games and win tight ones. “We’re going to start winning these close games,” Madsen said,

The Bears play a third game this week in San Juan Capistrano on Saturday when they take on San Diego State (4-1) at 4 p.m.

“San Diego State’s a physical team. They played in the national championship game (last year),” Madsen said. “I can tell you this, we’re going to come out fighting.”