When Mark Madsen was unveiled as Cal men’s basketball’s head coach last April, he took advantage of his first impression to the Cal community to declare that he was formally elevating the program’s standards. Madsen delivered his speech at Haas Pavilion, an arena that had just borne witness — albeit with some of the nation’s sparsest crowds — to a 3-29 season, the worst by winning percentage in program history. The previous campaign had included the worst ever start by a major conference team, 0-12, and a dead-last finish among all NCAA Division I teams in points per game. “To begin, recruiting: I want to put up a chain-link fence around the state of California and keep the best California players at Cal,” Madsen said in the introductory presser. This generated a few laughs from the crowd. But, thoughtfully and showing no signs of hyperbole, he continued to detail his vision for the program. On the court, his team would play fast, exciting basketball, and off the court, Cal would...