Cal Misses Layups, Washington Strokes Threes; The Winning Combination.

I know who you are!! You were with the taller guy (you, about 5’9, 3-day scruff, white Cal hat, front and center with the Chris Hansen signs). I was right student section with the black Kappa Sigma sweatshirt (you walked right by me on your way to the student gate).

Gah. On to the game. UW had a lot of success in the secondary break. That’s not the primary break, with finishers at the rim, but the secondary break, with either a delayed three (hello Justin Holliday!) or a late screen/roll action between Isaiah and a screener. We had a lot of trouble defending the screen/roll today (thanks captain obvious!). Thomas was a pro today at (a) splitting the double and penetrating and kicking himself (b) Dribbling high off the s/r and finding a roller in the middle of the key © making the early pass when the big defender jumped out early and letting UW play 4 on 3. Tough game when the PG is handling our defense like this.

On offense, we ran our sets like normal, but UW’s athleticism hampered our efforts a lot. Even a simple overplay on a wing entry forces Crabbe to catch the ball 4 feet behind the 3pt line instead of at the line, which really neutralizes his triple threat. Brandon NEEDS NEEDS NEEDS to do a better job sticking with the primary strong-side action before giving up on it. At least 3-4 times he would give up on the play before Gut or Crabbe would curl open for a jumper. Very frustrating to watch. Also, our wings needs to keep their dribble alive. Crabbe, Smith, Murray, and Carter all took that terrible one dribble + look to entry when there’s no passing line either to the post or to the top of the key. It disrupts our action when the wings are holding up the play. MSF and Harper did a good job in the low block but an OK job in the high post. I like MSF’s triple threat to a jumper, but Harper forced a lot of those drives where he ends up reverse pivoting 3 times to an awkward right hand jump hook.

On defense, we struggled with the screen and roll. Our primary rotations (the screener’s defender) were usually on point but it’s the secondary defenders that killed us. Whether it was the weak side post rolling into the lane for easy post position or Holliday squaring up for three, our defenders have to anticipate where the PG is going to go with the ball and be ready to jump to those guys. As I predicted before, we struggled with their athleticism around the room, most w/ Bryan-Amaning.

This was a real tough game for our Bears, especially with the Huskies coming off a loss at the ’Furd. Hopefully we can bounce back. I still love the fight in our team. Go Bears!