Cal 95, Detroit 61: Golden Bears Play Possum, Still Maul Titans

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.