Sometimes Taylor Rochestie scores 33 points. Accept it and move on.

This should, like, replace E Pluribus Unum on our money or something…

You summed up what I saw too

It seems to me that those pesky Beavers just have our numbers this year. Call it luck, kismet, karma, or the Obama magic rolling over Berkeley, but it just seems that way.

It’s tough losing games like this, and in the end, all you can really do is just shake your head and wonder if you need a priest for an exorcism, or to burn some sage.

Of course, now the fun starts … hosting the LA schools and then a dreadful roadie into the desert. Time to suck it up and get to work.

OSU’s defense is really tactically interesting to watch. By extending all those players into traps at the extended elbow (wing), it would seem there should be tons of available space to exploit. And at times teams do beat them by penetrating under and hitting the opposite wing cutting baseline (a la Christopher for the dunk).

However, all too often, teams are lulled into making the easy pass back and forth across the top (see Cal’s first game), which accomplishes nothing. Or, when they DO penetrate to the free throw line, they panic into a turnover or bad shot as they are surrounded by 5 players (witness other OSU games).

To your point, I think the reason why Cal shot such a low percentage tonight is because the defense doesn’t give them the normal looks that a player expects. Possessions are slowed down, the entire shot clock is used, and Cal looked tentative in its shot selection, like, “should I be shooting now or not?” As I mentioned earlier, Theo looked tentative, passing up at least 2 open 3’s that have his name all over them.

Monty did a better job in preparing the team for this. We did a better job initiating the O this game = more penetration = more cross court passes = less back and forth across the top passes that waste time and risk turnovers. However, by virtue of the fact that Randle sat and Guttierez played, he didn’t get his message thru, he didn’t prepare Randle for the task at hand. Randle still doesn’t know how to break that D. The announcer’s comment that Guttierez has better size to break that D…I don’t buy for a second. Yes, size always helps, but Randle can do better. Back to the classroom. And, oh, in the race for Pac-10 coach of the year? Robinson just knocked Monty out of the running.

For the record, I previously ridiculed OSU’s offense as that of a “high school team”. That was a long time ago (uncreative and sorry execution down stretch vs. WSU). I’m still not a big fan of their O, but they’ve gotten better. I (mostly) retract my prior criticism.

You are correct, Paul, that a few falling shots would have made the difference. I’m suggesting that OSU is designed to lull teams to sleep, out of their groove, and the result is poor shot selection, uncertainty, lack of fluidity, and ultimately MISSES. If you can’t get into your comfortable state, it’s like stepping off the bench and being asked to immediately hit your first shot. I don’t understand why we can’t get a better groove going against OSU. That’s why I say they are interesting to watch.

We were running away with this game after Jorge took over the point in the first half (and made somebeautiful passes). We were up by 11, in the midst of a 21-4 run, when Jorge turned the ball over on a 3 to 1 odd man rush. We got the ball back, but on the next possession he turned it over again. OSU scored the last 4 points of the half to close the deficit to 7. I remember thinking at the time, I hope this failure to run out to a 15 point lead does not wind up being the turning point of the game. We did score 5 quick points to open the second half, but aside from this little spurt, it was all downhill after Jorge turned the ball over at the end of the 1st half.

I will also second PaulThomas’ point about quality shot selection. I felt we were getting the looks we wanted (namely wide open threes) and simply couldn’t hit them at a normal clip, much less the high percentage we usually hit. Theo egregiously passed up a wide open three from the left corner in the first half, but by and large I felt like we were getting and taking high quality shots. Some days they simply do not go down (despite, in many cases, the ball being halfway down the cylinder), and yesterday was clearly one of those days.

On the other hand, I felt like we were defending OSU fairly well. Haynes in particular hit some ridiculously difficult shots, especially at the end of the second half. He is hitting fall-away jumpers with a hand in his face, and Theo and Christopher are missing wide open threes – not much you can do about it.

Stat of the game – OSU forward Daniel Deane raised his season three point shooting to a whopping 29.8% (he was at 27.7% before) after hitting 2 of 3 yesterday. Randle, Christopher, and Robertson were a combined 3 of 16.

As good of a three point shooting team as Cal is, they don’t actually attempt a lot of them. When they are forced to shoot a lot of threes, their percentage goes down. Is that perception reality? And, is the reason Cal’s percentage is so high a matter of talent or merely shot selection?