The program has seen success throughout the years, culminating in a national championship in 1959 under coach Pete Newell, and the team has reached the final four two other times, in 1946 and 1960.

The team plays its home games at Haas Pavilion, which was long known as Harmon Gym before being heavily renovated with money donated in part by the owners of Levi Strauss & Co.[2] The arena was originally known as Men's Gymnasium and then later Harmon Gymnasium until the late 1990s when it went through renovations which displaced the team for two seasons.

The 1920s was the dominant decade for Cal basketball, as the Bears won 6 conference titles under coaches E.H. Wright and Nibs Price.

The next quarter-century was mostly a dreary one for the program, despite having players such as Butch Hays (1981–1984) and Kevin Johnson (1983–1987) who both set school records for assists.

Cal achieved much better success in the 1990s, qualifying for the NCAA tournament five times with future NBA players Jason Kidd (the Golden Bears all-time assists leader) and Lamond Murray, as well as future perennial All-Pro NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez in the early and mid 1990s and Sean Lampley and Shareef Abdur-Rahim in the late 1990s.

Assistant Todd Bozeman finished out the season, and was named permanent head coach after leading the Bears to an upset of two-time defending champion Duke in the NCAA Tournament.

Bozeman himself was pushed out two months before the 1996–97 season after it emerged that he'd funneled $30,000 over two years to the parents of star recruit Jelani Gardner so they could make the drive to see their son play.

Inheriting a team expected to be barely competitive in the Pac-10, Braun led the Bears to a second-place finish and took them all the way to the Sweet 16.

[4] In his first year the Bears finished tied for third in the Pac-10 and made it to the NCAA tournament, where they were eliminated in the first round to the Maryland Terrapins.

In thrilling fashion, senior guard Justin Cobbs hits the game-winning jumper with 0.9 on the clock for a 60–58 victory.

On April 13, 2015, 5-star power forward Ivan Rabb of Bishop O'Dowd High School announced he would attend Cal.

While the team had a solid regular season, earning a #4 seed in the NCAA tournament, they were upset in the first round by Hawaii.