Cal-UCLA Postgame Thread, Plus Five Questions to Ponder

Serious question: why is Markhuri starting? Seems like we play a lot better with Amoke/Boykin.

I. Fucking. Knew it.

Anyone grading this above an F obviously didn’t watch Cal lose this cripple fight. Considering how shit-all horrible Ucla is this year, what does that say about us? And no, I don’t buy the injury argument. That’s a lame excuse.

Absolutely disgraceful. Easily the worst fucking loss and most embarrassing performance of the Monty era,

1. Nobody.
2. Nothing.
3. Everything.
4. Everyone.
5. Losing.

What the hell happened in the second half. Cal played really bad displaying poor defense. Big loss and let’s hope we can recover from this and get a move on the season. UCLA is not the same caliber as the Bears. They beat themselves and need to get going mentally.

And man…if one of Jerome’s THREE in-and-outs had rolled…

The team needs to bounce back in a big way against USC on Saturday. Sure, Jorge would likely have been the difference maker had he played in today’s game but that’s really not an acceptable excuse.

UCLA definitely played really well in the 2nd half (except for free throw shooting), but our defense was rather porous (and people are not in position for rebounds). When the offense is not going, the defense energy still need to remain high.

Finally, on that last Boykin basket, it’s not clear to me that Smith was passing to Boykin and not Randle. Even knowing the result of Boykin’s shot, I would probably still prefer Randle shooting an open 3 instead.

I’m out, guys. But just gotta deliver it to the Bruins right back in Westwood. Let’s get over it by Saturday…and GO BEARS

1) Who was the player of the game? Why?

I’m going with Amoke and Theo, who both kept us in the game offensively. Amoke made a few questionable plays, but I think that’s mostly youth. He’s clearly active and I think he has a great future. Theo’s just freaking smart and calm. Low grades for everybody else, though.

2) What most impressed me about the Bears was their _______________.

Cal didn’t really do anything great today, but I thought their passing from the perimeter to the key was pretty good.

3) What the Bears need to most improve on is their __________________.

3 point shooting? That doesn’t seem right. I’ll say closing out on 3 point shooters.

4) Who was the most impressive player on the other team?

Roll, although credit to Nelson for toughness inside, especially for a freshman

5) How do you see Cal matching up against USC?

I haven’t seen UCLA play much. Please just win the effin’ game. That’s all I ask. Home sweeps cannot happen to Pac-10 winning teams.

The part that really stings is that Roll, he of the douchetastic fauxhawk, made the shot.

How about Howland. His game plan took the groove out of the Bears and they were out of rhythm and missed shots. Normally, we get running and make easy layups in transition. That puts our groove on. We lost the groove thru his defensive game plan, then missed shots, and thus lost the game.

I would like to also nominate Rollonubears for the quote of the night, which I shall repeat right now. Rollon gets the blogger of the night award:

“I hate UCLA more than anything else in this world. I hate them more than Stanford. I hate them more than USC. The only reason I would apply there would be if there was an interview so I could be a complete asshole to the interviewer.”

Today’s loss… an aberration. You can look forward to crushing our beleaguered bunch on Saturday.

Bruins kept on running that shit over and over, set screens that our smaller guys just kept running into. Wide open shots, wide open 3s for Roll and Drago over and over.

There’s a lot more to this loss, but if Cal had been able to guard the 3 point stripe better, they would’ve won. Because UCLA cannot shoot their GODDAMNED FREE THROWS HOW THE HELL DID WE LOSE TO A TEAM THAT SHOT 58% FROM THE LINE MOTHERFUCKER.

it was my fault. In the total of 35 seconds I listened to the game on the radio, UCLA took 3 shots, and made 3 3’s. I turned it off.

I turned it back on for another 5 seconds, and they popped another 3. I turned it off again.

First off, the crowd. I’d say Haas was about 3/4 full, which is pretty impressive for a Wednesday during Winter Break. That said, there was a very solid fUCLA contingent and the Cal fans who were there (besides the student section, which was okay) didn’t seem loud or energetic at ALL until they showed a few signs of life toward the end of the game. There were a couple of “Go Bears!” cheers in the first half that were absolutely pathetic and embarrassing. I guess maybe everyone was expecting to cruise to another easy win.

Secondly, the team. I think they were expecting to cruise to another easy win also, but they had a bad shooting night so if they were going to win they needed to work for it a bit, and they weren’t willing to work for it. They were up by like 12 late in the 1st half, but they essentially stopped playing defense and started looking at the clock the last few minutes of the half. If UCLA had gotten their last shot off half a second earlier, they would’ve been down by only 6 instead of 8 at the half.

Look, I’ll accept that a bad shooting night can happen to any team every now and then, even at home. I also think the free throw disparity was slightly unfair (though also due in part to the fact that we didn’t take the ball inside often enough and UCLA did) but I think this loss is really indicative of our worst flaws as a team: 1) Our willingness to too often settle for bad jumpshots; 2) Taking too many plays off on defense; and 3) Not having enough of a killer instinct, and thus letting teams back into the game.

I think that by the end of the game, our kids did show some heart to battle back and almost win, but it’s really inexcusable that we were even in that position.

I also want to know why we didn’t A) pound the ball inside more with Max and Markhuri – all UCLA had inside was Nelson, and that didn’t stop them from going inside and drawing fouls, and with their terrible free throw shooting they needed every foul shot they got. B) Why was Boykin taking a looong 3 from almost half-court was our best option at the end of overtime? Couldn’t we, for example, have put Max and Markhuri near the basket, randle and christopher at the 3 point line, and see if we couldn’t get a layup or something?

1) Who was the player of the game? Why?

Michael Roll – made a bunch of open 3’s that he got because Amoke wouldn’t close out on him, and generally didn’t do anything stupid. Also, he made the winning shot.

2) What most impressed me about the Bears was their tenacity late in the game, I guess. Too little, too late, though. I was also impressed with the fact that they, unlike fUCLA, weren’t particularly prone to making stupid mistakes. On the other hand, fUCLA made up for their stupid mistakes with effort, and the Bears’ lackluster effort negated their superior fundamentals.

3) What the Bears need to most improve on is their killer instinct. When they’re up big, they need to close the door on the other team.

4) Who was the most impressive player on the other team? Like I said, Roll. Here, since I gave “player of the game” to fUCLA, I’ll say that the most impressive player on our team was Theo. Didn’t have his 3-point game on tonight, but his clutch free-throws kept us in. Also, I’ll mention that I haven’t seen a full game of quality play from Patrick Christopher in a while.

5) How do you see Cal matching up against USC? I don’t know. We ought to win, though.