Cal 95, Detroit 61: Golden Bears Play Possum, Still Maul Titans
by Avinash on Nov 11, 2009 10:42 PM PST
in California Golden Bears Basketball
19 comments
Nervous about Syracuse already?
The Bears played out of sync for a lot of the first half. Cal was taking tough shots, and like the Murray State game was living off of free throws and hustle. Good stuff to see the Bears playing tough on the boards, but you'd kind of prefer to see that type of effort in conference play rather than against a fairly mediocre squad like Detroit.
After Randle carried the offense in the first half though, Christopher and Robertson took them home, scoring 26 of the first 30 second half points, including the last 22 points in that stretch. Bears got solid hustle and rebounding from Boykin, Amoke, Zhang (yes, Max looked really good tonight!) and Sanders-Frison, and Cal blew the door open in a game that probably looks closer than the final
However, at least the slow start can be partially explained to a lot of strange lineups and rotations, with Montgomery liberally subbing in 10 players in. So it can help explain why the Bears offense looked discordant. Once Monty said "screw this, we're going with our five best guys", Cal busted it open and never looked back.
Cal fans might have to prepare for a few more of these close calls though, especially against conference foes. TedfordIsGod put it best:
We rely a lot on shooting. That makes it kinda difficult to blow people out. Its not like we are going to go out and hit 90% of our jump shots. Teams that run more can blow teams out because they get tons of layups/dunks. That isn’t who we are. We aren’t playing well, but not exactly crappy either.
And Ohio Bear had this to say about how the quality of our opponents might help us in the long run.
On Monday, Cal played what was clearly the toughest opponent (Murray State) among the other Coaches v. Cancer hosts (i.e., UNC, Ohio State, and Syracuse). I don’t know whom Ohio State plays tomorrow night, but this could be true again: Detroit looks way better than Robert Morris and NC Central, whom Syracuse and UNC beat soundly tonight, respectively.
Not a complaint, just an observation. If anything, assuming we can hang on for the win tonight, the tougher competition will help us, hopefully, in the RPI.
Time to get ready for New York! Hopefully Cal's eight/nine man rotation will be enough to duel with the Orangemen in what amounts to a road game for us. Vote for your Golden Player of the Game!
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Damn, lots of votes for someone else. I thought those were the top 3, guess I missed someone.
Email: bearsnecessities@gmail.com
You missed BAK BAK
STAY THIRSTY, MY FRIENDS
by Thoroughbred on Nov 11, 2009 10:54 PM PST up reply actions
Ohio Bear is right
One of the ways to “beat” the RPI, or at least develop an RPI that the commentators will think is excessively high, is to beat up on good low-major teams that will rack up 20-25 wins against terrible competition. Sacramento State and Murray State might both look like autowins, but Sacramento State is a horrible black hole of suck for RPI purposes, and Murray State is actually likely to improve your RPI.
Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore
Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar
It's just one of those things, one of those things
-- Al Stewart, "Accident on 3rd St."
In memory of Nick Adenhart and all victims of drunk driving
Summer really helped Max
He didn’t look gangly and he knew how to utilize his wingspan. I liked how he played.
I'd like to smell the Roses before I die.
He’s a LOT more mobile, aggressive and athletic than I thought he would be. He’s got a LONG way to go, but, for the first time, I have the inkling of a suspicion that he might get there before he leaves Cal.
Still the loving, adoptive father of Hector Sanchez. And who doesn't love switch-hitting catchers with power and patience?
The SFGate game story takes the idea of the Fly-like Sanders-Frison/Zhang hybrid (suggested in the comments Monday) and runs with it.
As a Cal (undergrad) alum and Syracuse (grad school) alum, I am REALLY looking forward to the game next week. And though I’ll be rooting for ’Cuse in all their other games this year, naturally I want the Bears to kick their Orange asses next Thursday, and again if they happen to meet up in the NCAA tourney.
by atomsareenough on Nov 12, 2009 10:46 AM PST reply actions
Sloppy plays need to stop
There were way too many careless turnovers (and many by key guys such as Randle) for the Bears in the first two games. That would need to stop for us to have good shot of beating better teams.
Though it’s comforting to know that with our solid FT shooting, we can be a very good frontrunning team.
by LEastCoastBears on Nov 12, 2009 1:35 PM PST reply actions
I don’t remember a whole lot of turnovers in last night’s game that I would classify as “careless.” We ended up with 10 for the game, which isn’t an unreasonable amount. If you are referring to Randle getting stripped at half-court, that is just something that happens every once in a while.
And I agree on the foul shooting, I predict we will win at least 5 games this season purely by shooting a higher % than our opponents at the foul line. 30-for-35 last night is pretty ridiculous.
by Tedfordisgod on Nov 12, 2009 2:15 PM PST up reply actions
pretty sure you can still blueshirt after one game
STAY THIRSTY, MY FRIENDS
by Thoroughbred on Nov 12, 2009 2:20 PM PST up reply actions
Confession Time
Sick baby, sick wife, so I ended up taping the game and watching today. Watched the 1st half before work while riding the exercise bike, 2nd half at lunch.
More or less stream of consc thoughts:
Damn. It’s cold. It’s dark. It’s early. This old-man riding the bike deal is bulls!!!.
Let’s go, Bears!
Interesting match up of 6’10 Holman vs. MSF. Yeah, yeah his knee is sore. Dude’s got anger issues, he won’t feel a thing.
I like that MSF held his ground a forced 2 misses in a row from Holman while scoring over him on the other end.
Uhhh….Shot selection. Anyone heard of it?
Let’s see…Their guy Simon hits back to back to back shots…and there isn’t a Cal player within 10 feet of him so he has time to dribble in, recite the Gettysburg address, and stick another jumper. I’ve seen this style of defense before…GREGORYYYYYYY!!!
Monty can’t like that our guys keep picking up their dribble in bad spots.
I’m glad we can shoot FT’s. Somehow, we’re building a lead.
Randle is still struggling with pressure D and making some sloppy passes. But, he’s doing a better job of making them pay for pressuring him close.
Boykin reverted back his spaz mode from last year – rushing his shots around the post and two travels already.
Hmmm, Nikola sighting before Seeley. Seeley is hurt or in the doghouse. Wow. What’s Serbian for “shoots like a Scud missile?” Nikola is taking his senior year so seriously, he’s wearing a monster breathe-right strip to improve his stamina. Or he got popped in the snoz.
Eesh…Not a great way to close the half. Too many turnovers for a senior-filled team. I’m sure Monty will be all smiles and backrubs at halftime.
Eesh…Not a great way to open the half.
Hey, MSF has four fouls and sits with 14 min to go in the 2nd half. It’s part of a long, proud tradition for new Cal big men to collect fouls at a jaw-dropping rate. Welcome to Cal. 3 of his 4 fouls were pretty bad reaches, but can’t fault his effort.
Monty’s experiment with running a set, disciplined offense looks like it’s been bumped in favor of a more free-flowing attack. And it’s working. The guys look much more confident and comfortable.
Well, we can shoot and they can’t and the lead is 20.
They’ve done a little damage inside with MSF out, but not too bad. It’s amazing how MSF is about the same size as Boykin, but seems harder to shoot over. Plus, he pushes their guys out just a little farther.
Max sighting! He actually doesn’t look half-bad. Against legit D1 big guys (transfers from Indiana, in fact), he’s holding his own. I like that he’s not getting pushed all over the place.
Amoke is the bball equivalent of Jeremy Ross. Strong. Physical. Athletic. Suspect hands. His game so far? Nice spin, blown layup. Nice reverse, blown layup. Nice drive, blown layup. Gotta slow down, bud.
Hmmm…Forced three that’s blocked followed by a foul…Followed by a selfish drive/turnover where he ignored a wide-open guy under the basket. Any bets Randle gets yanked…wait for it…yep, there goes Smith to the scorer’s table. Randle and PC are both in “gotta get mine” mode with this monster lead. Not conducive to good team basketball.
Smith already has better handles and decision-making than Nikola, Jorge, or Seeley. It’s not like the bar is high or anything, but I feel better with Smith at the backup PG spot than anyone else.
Max is continuing to impress. The two Indiana transfers aren’t lousy big guys. Max has a better touch around the basket than I thought.
Okay, Seeley must be hurt or he’s sharing space in the Darian Hagan doghouse. Monty’s putting in everyone.
I can see why people are intrigued by Bak Bak. He’s got some guard moves for a bigger guy. Still needs to pound some Crisco, though.
Well, we did what we were supposed to do and ended up winning big.
I’m encouraged by:
- MSF shows a decent scoring touch in the low post
- Amoke and Max are showing improvement
- Smith looks steady enough to be the backup point
- Better team commitment to defense
I’m worried by:
- Everything. Trick question. I’m a Cal fan- ha!
- We don’t have a shot-blocker, so we to be consistent in our effort on D.
- We’re still vulnerable to teams with a capable big man. MSF shows promise, but when he wasn’t in there, we got scored on several times in the post and on offense boards.
- Ragged ball movement on offense in half-court sets. Too many turnovers of the unforced variety. Maybe it’s a round-peg vs. square-hole deal, but Randle and Co. still don’t look really comfortable running Monty’s set offense.
Overall: Give Monty credit for adapting to make use of what he’s got. Right now, we’re best as a running, free-wheeling perimeter attack. It probably drives him a little nuts. We’re in trouble if our jumpshooters go cold. I like the halftime adjustments. After posting 8(?) turnovers in the 1st half, we didn’t have the same issues in the 2nd. We also clamped down on their hot shooter, Simon. (15 in the 1st, finished with 17)
It’ll be interesting vs. Syracuse. On the one hand, we have enough shooters to hurt a zone. However, we’ll need disciplined ball movement to get ourselves good shots. I’m glad we have a whole week to work on it.
by Kodiak on Nov 12, 2009 2:21 PM PST reply actions 3 recs
PAC-10 Blog
Hey G. Bears fans,
Last year I ran an Arizona Wildcats blog (sportscapsule.wordpress.com), but found it too time consuming to be that detailed on a singular team by myself. So this year I’m expanding to the entire PAC-10, but not doing as in-depth of coverage.
But I also know that I won’t have time to do the blog justice on my own, so I’m looking for fans of individual teams to contribute one or two articles per week of their choosing. If you’re interested drop me a message here or on my blog. http://thepac10.wordpress.com
Thanks,
Nate
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