Basketball is simple
by CBKWit on Jan 17, 2009 7:51 PM PST
in California Golden Bears Men's Basketball
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PrintCal lost by six. I counted six Stanford points in the second half alone (two pointer by Mitch Johnson, three pointer by Lawrence Hill, free throw by somebody) that were absolute gifts. All three of these shots bounced off the rim, bounced high in the air, and somehow found their way through the hoop. Take away those shots, we have a tie game.
Ok, maybe you don't buy that analysis. Maybe that's too simplistic, breaking down a two hour game into simple lucky breaks. Let's look at free throws instead - Cal made two, Stanford made nine. That's a difference of seven, and Cal lost by six.
I was very wrong about this game. I thought our forwards and their forwards would be a wash. I thought our wings and their wings would be a wash. And I thought Jerome Randle would dominate Mitch Johnson and Drew Shiller, giving the game to the bears. Instead, our forwards>>>their forwards (Jamal Boykin went for a career high 22 on 10-13 shooting to go with 7 boards; he was almost perfect aside from an ill-advised three pointer late in the second half), their wings>>>our wings (Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods = 44 points, Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher = 26 points), and while Randle finished with better numbers than Johnson (13 points and 7 assists versus 7 points and 5 assists), Randle struggled with turnovers (6), especially when attacking the lane. Johnson had a couple of nice assists late and even contributed some points on hideous looking jumpers. I think he has a future in the shot put.
via a.espncdn.com
We still love you coach!
Cal pretty much ran into the perfect storm tonight. Stanford shot 55% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. Was their offense better than Cal's? Well, Cal had 22 assists on 31 field goals, while Stanford had only 13 on 30 buckets. Sometimes teams just shoot the lights out, regardless of their shot selection or how well they run their offense. Cal was simply unfortunate to face such a team tonight.
I wouldn't say the officiating was horrible tonight (certainly not compared to the Standford/Cal games last year), but Cal was whistled for 19 fouls, while Stanford was only called for 10. Stanford shot 17 free throws, while Cal only shot 3! Some of the discrepancy is due to Cal's last minute fouls as they tried to extend the game, but not all. I felt that Cal and Stanford were equally aggressive, which should lead to an approximately even free throw and foul distribution. Monty seems to agree with me.
via a.espncdn.com
So Stanford shoots the lights out, even though Cal ran their offense more efficiently, and had 14 more free throw attempts to boot - they were still up by only four with 30 seconds left. Remember that Cal was down by 5 to UW with 30 seconds left in the second overtime, and we all know how that ended. Aside from their free throw shooting woes (9 out of 17, 52%), Stanford had the perfect confluence of good fortune, luck, and solid play...and still only led by 4, at home, with 30 seconds left. If I sound skeptical that they will experience a repeat of these favorable circumstances when they visit Berkeley in a month, that's because I am. So let's keep our heads up, as we remain in first place in the PAC-10 with 0-6 Oregon and (likely) 1-5 OSU coming to town this week. And hey, at least we beat ASU at home.
Go. Bears.
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Do not expect impartial officiating on the road
Bad refs are always going to get influenced by the home crowd. It’s the nature of basketball and everyone has to deal with it. We lost because we gave Stanford too many ways to score inside and score uncontested.
I do expect it,
and that’s one of the reasons i don’t anticipate Stanford repeating this performance at Haas. And while Stanford had some easy buckets inside, so did Cal. Sometimes teams catch all the breaks, and I feel that this game was just that simple.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
Definitely we should see an advantage at Haas. ......basketball as chess.
part of the difference was simply that this was a road game. I think we are all probably surprised, however, to see that Stanford was better than we thought. Also, we are sobered in viewing the weaknesses that our Cal squad has. Hey, EVERY team has weaknesses – I don’t mean to rip. There were problems in the way we played last weekend. But in winning, we didn’t see them.
Now, this loss gives us a sense of reality, and an outline of what to work on.
I think other teams early in the season didn’t respect Randle at all. And now they know they have to be on him. But when teams cover him hard, he forces things and gets flustered. Isaiah Thomas got in his head and Monty had to move Guttierez to the point and Randle to the 2. Tonight, Randle wasn’t getting looks, and so forced the action tonight, made bad turnovers, and was ultimately grumpy before going to the bench.
Other teams will also learn to attack us in the post. We simply don’t have the size (or fouls) to survive a good post game. I missed the Zona game, and so am curious how we got past Jordan Hill. And if Brockman could shoot a foul shot, we are dead in Seattle. You can bet your bottom dollar that Tim Floyd is going to feed Taj Gibson in the post all night. And while UCLA doesn’t have a serious post player, he will figure out other ways to exploit our weaknesses.
Basketball can be like chess. Athletic, acrobatic, exciting chess. Watch and enjoy.
what's funny is that we had the post advantage in this game
sure, hill had some buckets down low, but Boykin was a menace. We lost because two of our top three players (Theo and Christopher) were severely outplayed by Stanford’s wings. We are going to win a lot of games this year because of our wings (we already have), but I don’t anticipate losing too many more because of them.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
This game is a great example of why teams don't go undefeated in conference
…which isn’t to say that I thought there was a chance that Cal could do that, because that’s psycho. Let’s just hope that when we play the Bruins the weird bounces go our way.
agreed
hell, no one in this conference has gone undefeated in football since USC ‘05, and USC has had a talent advantage of historic proportions in recent years. We were bound to lose a game like this, and we’ll probably lose another. Hopefully we’ll win a couple of them too.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
I was thinking the same thing ....
there were at least three shots that were incredibly fortunate to have gone in for the furdians. Oh well, what can you do.
by 33SwisherSweet on Jan 17, 2009 8:29 PM PST reply actions
exactly
sometimes, no matter what you do, you’re just not going to win. Stanford did a good job defensively, but without some seriously good fortune, this game is a toss up
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
Looks like the 3 point line was a good indicator
by BearsNecessity on Jan 17, 2009 8:37 PM PST up reply actions
A lot of people got burned
We didn’t even cover +4.5
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 8:38 PM PST up reply actions
yeah, you could say that was the difference in the game
and they may have had a few more open looks than us, but not enough to explain the discrepancy.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
Kind of like our 2OT shot @ UW
Huskies just weren’t going to win when that stuff happens
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 8:37 PM PST up reply actions
Good wake-up game
Now, we shouldn’t drop one to the state of Oregon
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
They're the Saturday game
we should wait til next Friday
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 8:43 PM PST up reply actions
Jorge Gutierez
He’s really impressed this freshman season. I was watching some of Oregon earlier and thought about Garrett Sim. He’s been starting, I believe, and has had some nice scoring games if I recall. I thought – who would I rather have? Sim or Gutierez. You know, if Sim doesn’t back out of his commitment to Cal, we don’t get Gutierez. So, those two will always be connected whenever they take the court together over the next 4 yrs.
Watching Sim today I thought I’d take Gutierez b/c he appears to be more of an all around player.
But tonight, he didn’t do too much. Tentative to shoot, not all that quick, not the greatest ball handler. It’s going to be fun to watch him grow. I look forward to watching Monty teach him the point position. He seems to have the mindset of someone who Monty can mold to run the offense.
He’s definitely a freshman, I think as I see him float down the lane with nowhere to go. But I will take my chances with him. Vaya Jorge!
He’ll be much stronger than Sim, and I think he’s already way out of his league defensively. Both have played well in their freshmen years.
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 8:45 PM PST up reply actions
ESPN Commentator's Blurb About Cal-Furd
“Yeah… But Cal only goes to the FT line 3 times?! That’ FISHY!”
You tell ’em.
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
that's the pub we want
live by the pac-10 refs, die by the pac-10 refs Stanford. We’ll see you in Berkeley.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
Too bad they don't have a blog we can invade
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 9:12 PM PST up reply actions
We could just destroy the Daily Furd’s comments section. Or take over their Scout board. Kind of like annexing Belgium, but whatever.
by BearsNecessity on Jan 17, 2009 9:15 PM PST up reply actions
Being Furd "fans"
They probably wouldn’t care and would yield without resistance… Just like their women
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 9:18 PM PST up reply actions
I noticed that too… I wonder how much time he’ll get next year too, since we’ll have 5 returning senior starters
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 9:21 PM PST up reply actions
Next Year's roster
Pretty much the same as this year, but better. Here’s the depth chart:
2009 Cal Bears
1 Randle, Sr. -— Gutierrez, Soph -— Knezevich, gone?
2 Christopher, Sr -—-. Seeley, Soph
3 Robertson, Sr. —- Amoke, Soph
4 Boykin, Sr. -— Kamp, Jr. -— Bak Bak, Frosh
5 Wilkes, Sr. -- Sanders-Frison, Jr. —- T. Harrison, Soph/Jr. gone?
That last name there… Boy, we sure could have used Taylor Harrison tonight. He’s no giant killer, but he’s got size, strength, and energy. I’ll wager that if we had a healthy Harrison, we would have beat Stanford tonight! Bear in mind, 1 current scholarship player is NOT going to be with the team next year. Speculation has it being either Knezevich due to graduation or Harrison due to medical/career ending excuse. My favorite theory is that Max is going to be called back to the Chinese Olympic team. (Sorry, Max, if you are reading this… may you gain weight and make me eat my words – and prove Braun right – one day.)
I like to look at the future depth charts to see what holes from the current will be drafted. If you are Monty, you are recruiting right now to fill the holes for when those 5 Seniors graduate. At that point, the roster looks like:
2010 Cal Bears
1 Gutierrez, Jr. -- Brandon Smith, Frosh
2 Seeley, Jr. —— Allen Crabbe, Frosh (1st and only commit so far)
3 Amoke, Jr. —— open recruit
4 Kamp, Sr. -— Bak Bak, Soph -- open recruit -— open recruit AnyBig
5 Sanders-Frison, Sr. -- T. Harrison, Jr. gone? -- open recruit
Gotta get a true center in this class of 2010, For Sure! Both Kamp and Sanders-Frison will be in their last year, so you will have to replace both of them, and Monty (who likes bigs) will likely fill those two slots with 3 bigs, and see who of them develops the best. On the other hand, if he envisions Bak being an interior player for 4 years, he’ll go for another athletic scoring wing with one of those picks.
Fun puzzle pieces to try and fill out. Then you may not be able to get the talented people to fill in these slots that you’d like, so you end up either recruiting too many at one position, or drawing down the talent list to fill your holes. I say, take best available talent, then adapt your team style to fill, like this year, which lacks a dominant center.
So, you don’t think BakBak will be a starter from moment one? How intriguing!
Please disregard the above ramblings as those of a clearly delusional fan.
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Bak Bak
I have never seen Bak play, so I just put him at the end of the line for now.
I used to buy into the hype, but have seen enough of these kids come and go. They ALL sound like program saviors when they are written up about in the recruiting blogs, and especially so when they are announced at a school.
By 2010, Kamp will be the heady veteran who boxes out EVERY time, who makes the right assist EVERY time, etc. Bak Bak may come in and show flashes of brilliance, but not run the right play, not know how to play proper post position defense. These kids in college are young, and the learning curve is in effect. Experience matters. Kamp already plays heady ball. It may be hard to keep him off the floor, especially if he can develop some offensive moves and confidence in his step out jumper – the like you saw from Boykin this evening.
Don't listent to Twist
He was being sarcastic. Kamp is already a very smart, sound player, and he’s only a sophomore coming off knee surgery.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
Whomever Monty brings in, in 2010...
….it is going to be a MAJOR determinant of how his run at Cal goes. That 5 player class are going to have a 4 year run together. Will they be championship material by the time they are seniors? This is the fun challenge. Stay tuned.
slice wrists or jump out of plane without parachute?
Please disregard the above ramblings as those of a clearly delusional fan.
www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com
Head in the oven. That way I stick it to the gas company too!
by CalBandGreat on Jan 17, 2009 9:58 PM PST up reply actions
I like the way you kill yourself.
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 17, 2009 10:06 PM PST up reply actions
eh
We’re going to lose a lot of other Pac-10 games too. Which is fine. I like our team. It is really hard to win on the road in the Pac. Even going into Corvallis or Mac Court will not be gimmies in this league.
We just need to hold serve at home and get road splits.
"Even going into Corvallis or Mac Court will not be gimmie..."
Excuse me? Have you seen those two teams play lately? OSU looked like a high school team at the end of the WSU game, and OR has been getting BLOWN out! If we don’t win handily, we won’t have to wonder what LA is going to be like.
…Well, I guess you were referring to our games AT Oregon later on, but I’ll still be feeling bad if we struggle up there. Barrack’s brother-in-law seems like a great guy, and should prove to be a good recruiter, but his level of enthusiasm/intensity, as well as his X’s and O’s and game strategy, appear to be lacking in a big way.
Maybe he has something else on his mind these days…
It's the Pac 10
I’ve been watching Pac 10 hoops since the days of Todd Lichti and Don McLean – and even the super dominant teams like Sean Elliot’s Arizona, or the National Championship Bruins had trouble with the minnows of the Pac-10 away.
We’re far from a dominant team – and I’m telling you now there will be no easy games. Not even against the high school OSU team – which happened to take out USC.
Road games in the Pac are where this league is won and loss. Yeah, we’re playing well, but even with Monty’s coaching and a talented backcourt, we’re aiming for top 4 league placement, not to comepete for that #1/#2 seed.*
*If that’s what you were thinking, I admire your optimism, but frankly, we’re not that good. It was only 3 weeks ago we collectively thought the NCAAs would be a fine end to the season. I still think that way.
Expectations
Hell, before the AZ games I was thinking 8th place Pac-10 and no NIT. This year’s team added Seeley, Gutierrez, Amoke, Theo over last year’s team, which wasn’t very good. I’ve always liked Theo as a well rounded player that doesn’t press matters (limits mistakes), and Seeley and Amoke seemed to be talented guys. BUT, we lost 2 NBA caliber players in Ryan Anderson and Devon Harden. And 4 so-so guys do not equal 2 NBA draftees.
So ‘no’, I have not, and am not aiming for a top tier finish.
Before tonight, I figured:
Win all 4 vs. OR/OSU
Split with Stanford
Split with UW at home
Lose all 4 to LA
Lose next 2 to AZ and ASU
That would give us 21 wins, a 10-8 Pac record. I would be VERY happy with that! There are sure to be surprises along the way.
Come on, Leon. You weren’t even BORN when Lichti was dunking at Mt. Diablo High.
Don McLean is a bit annoying, no?
I don't think the LA teams are anywhere near that dominant... USC will provide matchup problems though
Before the conference season, I thought we’d go 9-9. Now, I expect 11-7…3-1 vs Oregon, 1-1 Furd, 3-1 vs Wash, 2-2 vs Arizona, 2-2 vs. LA
You ain't got it like Marshawn got it
by Thoroughbred on Jan 18, 2009 9:24 AM PST up reply actions
Why I'm not all that upset
Okay, no matter what or when or under which circumstances, losing to the Furd sucks.
But, has everyone forgotten that this is a Cal team we all expected to finish in the bottom half of the conference, with maybe 16 wins?
I hate to be “that guy” but let’s not start getting all bruinsNation over here, with wild expectations and a sense of entitlement based on little more than petulance and some weird inferiority complex.
Yes, we had a chance to win this game and it burns that we didn’t. Yes, we got the short end of the officiating stick. Yes, losing to those poncy Furd fans is like a hemmerhoid flare. But watching these Bears is so much fun because they compete from start to finish and play with total heart. If anyone is Sanchez, it’s our hoops team.
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
On the Bright Side
UCLA lost, so we’re still first in the Pac-10 since we hold the tiebreaker over Washington and we’re a half-game better than UCLA. UCLA play at Washington State and at Washington before hosting Cal, and we have Oregon State and Oregon at home before UCLA on the 29th.
The Ultimate Opportunist
by Rated-R Superstar on Jan 18, 2009 9:31 AM PST reply actions
no.
Loves both the ambiance and the decor.
by Spazzy Mcgee on Jan 18, 2009 12:51 PM PST up reply actions
Miracles
Stanfurd’s shooting was like Angels in the Outfield, basketball style. I mean, come on — I’m awesome, but I can’t coach against God! Oh, and we turned the ball over approximately 115 friggin’ times (give or take 100). Bad combination. Bud don’t worry, I’m still awesome. mm
No, it's not a toupee, it's just always gray on the sides and dark on the top.
by Mike Montgomery on Jan 18, 2009 2:23 PM PST reply actions
Can you please win when you come down to UCLA.
by CaliforniaCMB on Jan 19, 2009 9:26 AM PST up reply actions
Pretty much agree with all the comments
We were obviously not going to go undefeated, and I’d be shocked if we were any better than 11-7 (10-8/9-9 seem more likely, but let’s be optimistic). That means we’re probably going to lose at least 6 more games in conference, 1 in the Pac-10 tourney, and 1 in the NCAAs if we make it. It’s always disappointing to lose to Stanford, and it’s too bad that we didn’t take advantage of a “good” match-up (aka, a game against a team with an equally thin front court). I want to win every game, but it’s not going to happen.
That said, last night’s game was a pretty easy loss to take. For one, I had a lot of beer. But beyond that Stanford simply shot the lights out, even when well defended. Sure, we had our faults, but so did they. Just take away the 6 points on lucky rim bounces and we have a tie game. Sometimes you’re just hot, and Stanford was last night.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
Another time that the ball just went Stanfords way. We have an easy fast break layup by Christopher, but as he goes up, he loses his grip on the ball and it bounces out of bounds. That was an easy 2 there was just wasted for no real apparent reason. Unfortunate.
Please disregard the above ramblings as those of a clearly delusional fan.
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Golden Bears Football Schedule
| Fresno St. | Sat 09/03 | W 36 - 21 |
@
Colorado
|
Sat 09/10 | W 36 - 33 |
| Presbyterian | Sat 09/17 | W 63 - 12 |
|
@
Washington
|
Sat 09/24 | L 23 - 31 |
|
@
Oregon
|
Thu 10/06 | L 15 - 43 |
|
USC
|
Thu 10/13 | L 9 - 30 |
|
Utah
|
Sat 10/22 | W 34 - 10 |
|
@
UCLA
|
Sat 10/29 | L 14 - 31 |
|
Washington St.
|
Sat 11/05 | W 30 - 7 |
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Oregon St.
|
Sat 11/12 | W 23 - 6 |
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@
Stanford
|
Sat 11/19 | L 28 - 31 |
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@
Arizona St.
|
Fri 11/25 | W 47 - 38 |
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@
Texas
|
Wed 12/28 | L 10 - 21 |
Pacific-12 Conference Standings
(updated 1.2.2012 at 11:12 PM PST)
| North | Conf | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
|
Oregon Ducks
|
8 | 1 | 12 | 2 |
|
Stanford Cardinal
|
8 | 1 | 11 | 2 |
|
Washington Huskies
|
5 | 4 | 7 | 6 |
|
California Golden Bears
|
4 | 5 | 7 | 6 |
|
Oregon St. Beavers
|
3 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
|
Washington St. Cougars
|
2 | 7 | 4 | 8 |
| South | Conf | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
|
USC Trojans
|
7 | 2 | 10 | 2 |
|
UCLA Bruins
|
5 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
|
Utah Utes
|
4 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
|
Arizona St. Sun Devils
|
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|
Arizona Wildcats
|
2 | 7 | 4 | 8 |
|
Colorado Buffaloes
|
2 | 7 | 3 | 10 |
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