Cal begins life without Tyrone Wallace

During the 2012-13 season, Cuonzo Martin’s second as Tennessee’s head coach, All-SEC forward Jeronne Maymon redshirted with a left knee injury.

The Volunteers weathered a rough start to conference play, winning eight of their final nine regular-season games to reach the NIT.

Cal’s NCAA Tournament hopes will boil down to its ability to adapt quickly.

On Tuesday, the Bears announced that All-Pac-12 point guard Tyrone Wallace would miss 4-6 weeks with a broken bone in his right hand.

Junior guard Sam Singer, who will replace Wallace in the starting lineup, is tasked with helping shepherd the Bears through this stretch of Pac-12 play.

In all seven games their best player is certain to miss under the provided timeline, the Bears currently have a worse RPI than the opponent.

A roster stockpiled with future pros left Old Blues to discuss the 2016 Final Four, not just the program’s first March Madness berth in three years.

In losses at Oregon, Oregon State and Stanford, it totaled 49 turnovers, 74 fouls and 26 missed foul shots.

With seven weeks until the Pac-12 tournament, Cal is far from guaranteed to make the field of 68.

“The good thing about that league is every game presents an opportunity to get a decent victory,” said Patrick Stevens, the Washington Post bracketologist who included seven Pac-12 teams in his his mock-up published Wednesday.