Cal-Wazzu Postgame Thread: Bears Outscrape Cougars, Stay In First

1) Favorite moment of the game was Randle’s dagger three to give Cal their first lead in the 2nd half, 58-57.

2) One word each, describe how each of these guys played tonight.

a) Jerome Randle – Bomber
b) Patrick Christopher – awoke
c) Theo Robertson – subtle
d) Jamal Boykin – consistent
e) Markhuri Sanders-Frison – eh
f) Jorge Gutierrez – bonito
g) the bench – who?

3) We still need to improve our defensive rotation. WSU got a ton of open shots in the first half and drained them. When we took them away (and Thompson cooled down) the comeback was on.

4) If I was coaching the Bears, I’d hope like hell we don’t have an off-night shooting the ball.

5) From your vantage point in the stands in Haas/couch in your living room, rate the level of excitement from the Cal fans. Well, the ones that showed up were pretty solid. Cal should always come back in games – the crowd seems to get more involved that way.

1) Favorite moment of the game was Randle’s layup at the end I believe it was the only shot he made that wasn’t a three and when he made it he made sure his shot was not going to be blocked. .

2) One word each, describe how each of these guys played tonight.

a) Jerome Randle: Solid
b) Patrick Christopher: Poor first half, excellent second half.
c) Theo Robertson: Blah for most, outstanding rebound late in the game.
d) Jamal Boykin Excellent co-MVP of game
e) Markhuri Sanders-Frison: Incomplete I feel like the Bears could have used him in the paint.
f) Jorge Gutierrez: Co-MVP with Boykin
g) the bench: Nonexistent again but not many minutes, they did provide a tiny spark in the first half but soon faded.

3) We still need to improve our consistency for the full game on both sides of the ball.

4) If I was coaching the Bears, I’d get it into Christopher’s head he doesn’t have to rely on jumpers he can attack the rim and be effective as well as shown by the second half tonight. For Theo same thing.

5) From your vantage point in the stands in Haas/couch in your living room, rate the level of excitement from the Cal fans. I think that it was definitely exciting to see a lead of only 1 balloon to 16 by the end of the game.

http://www.kfrc.com/

ASU beat Oregon 61-51.
Arizona vs. OSU just tipped off.

Just got back from the game. Very exciting game. CBKWit, Ragnarok, and others may be in jail right now after they assaulted the refs in the parking lot. They certainly looked like they were going to do it during halftime. I thought Monty was gonna join in, too. He looked apoplectic.

Cal really had trouble with reboards at points in this game, so that is one area to look at. After a point when Cal was shooting free throws the other 4 Cal players would stand at halfcourt to quickly get back on D. They were pretty much giving up the potential for a reboard, if the second shot was missed. Interesting strategy.

I felt that Klay Thompson looked so effortless out there. He has a really silky smooth shot. Reminded me of the time I saw Adam Morrison play against St. Mary’s. Morrison just seemed to be able to score from anywhere on the Court. Today, Thompson scored like 18 points before Cal did, I think! He was just a machine.

I felt that PC had a really good game out there. He looked exhausted by the end. What was funny was that there was a child who had fallen asleep in his father’s lap courtside. At one point, he came over and tapped the kid and went “Wake up!” I missed this, but PaleoDan pointed it out to me. I thought it was funny.

Dick Midgley was at the game!

Man, Klay Thompson is good. I hope he gets drafted sooner rather than later. Nobody on our team could guard him in the first half — not Christopher, not Theo, not Knezevic, nobody. Christopher finally stepped up in the second half and wore himself out keeping Thompson from doing much more damage, but it was almost too little, too late.

Some big shots by Randle, who passed Joe Shipp on the school’s all-time scoring list. I believe he’s in third now, behind Sean Lampley and Lamond Murray. He had something like three or four layup attempts blocked, though.

The people who showed up were great (at least once they got riled up in the first half), but there were still far too many empty seats today. Where were you people??

How bad is the Pacific-10? Right now it’s a one-bid league, and the team that looks like the best of the sorry lot — California — might not play enough defense to even win a game in the NCAAs. The Golden Bears won, but were lit up at home by Washington State’s Klay Thompson for 28 points and the Cougars shot 51 percent from the field, but couldn’t hold a second-half lead (again).

Beavers up ten in the second half at Arizona, 33-23. I am not looking forward to playing Oregon State.

Looking more and more like it’s coming down to Cal-Arizona.

OSU is up next and they’re always tough on us. They’re tough on guards in general with exhibit A being tonite’s performance against the ‘Cats. Fogg and Wise combined to go 2 for 16. Seeing as how we are a guard oriented team that takes a lot of perimeter shots so they are and will always cause us trouble. Well at least until we get some new players next year but next Thursday will be tough. They press and push and overplay which really frustrates guys like Jerome Randle who don’t do well when crowded.