Cal Grinds It Out Against Oregon, Now 5-4 In The Pac-10

by Avinash Kunnath on Jan 29, 2011 5:38 PM PST in California Golden Bears Men's Basketball

Well, that was a tough watch, but the California Golden Bears managed to use an early run against the Oregon Ducks to abet them to an 85-77 victory. It moves Cal to 5-4 in the Pac-10 and (for the moment) puts them right above the middle of the fray in the conference.

Let's be frank. From an aesthetic standpoint, this game sucked. There were 49 fouls called and 20 free throws missed, leading me to believe that Pac-10 refs were betting the over before this one. There were 33 assists and 27 turnovers combined by both the Golden Bears and the Ducks. Sloppy play and struggles dealing with opposing zone defenses really made this a tough watch.

But it wasn't just the officiating. Our team was a little off. Brandon Smith got a beautiful steal and dribbled it off his foot as he went up for the layup. Allen Crabbe had five turnovers as he struggled coping with the zone defense, although he was nails from outside. Jorge Gutierrez hit no shots from the outside...and then nailed the biggest shot of the game and made the biggest pass. Cal shot 62% in the first half and cratered to 35% in the second. With Harper Kamp struggling with fouls and Markhuri Sanders-Frison getting double-teamed at will, the Bears managed to hold off the scoring of Malcolm Armstead and Joevan Catron in the second half by shooting 23 free throws and making almost all of them down the stretch. Oh, those Bears.

But it's good to know after this sweep of the Oregon schools that Cal can win pretty and they can win ugly. They're going to have to do a lot of the latter the rest of the season if they want to make a run at the tourney.

This is the postgame thread; recap coming tomorrow morning.

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First!

Listened to the first half of the game and watched the last third. We had plenty of opportunities to pull away but failed to do so. We came so strong and that lead coupled with the recent success might have lulled our bears into a sense of complacency. I’ll say that Oregon was attacking our zone really well, swinging the ball around, setting screens and setting up some easy looks for themselves. Overall it seems like an instance that our team can hold on to about why you just can’t let up on the gas pedal when you have a team on the ropes. The second half of the Pac10 sched seems a lot easier with the exception of the Washington trip. We’ll see how it plays out. Go Bears!

What did i tell you...didn't I say they would win? Yeah that's right I did didn't ? Wait.. what? They LOST?!?!?

by greenbean on Jan 29, 2011 5:59 PM PST reply actions

I can't even be mad about our missed 3s and FTs

because of the GODDAMN REFS! It didn’t even favor one team or the other, there were just constant bullshit ref calls every few minutes! At over a foul a minute, half of which had players standing around, looking at each other because they had no idea what had been called, these refs were absolutely horrendous.

Dear Pit Crew,
If my ears aren't ringing, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

by Brass-billed on Jan 29, 2011 6:32 PM PST reply actions

you know it got bad when they blew a whistle inadvertently

by omnizzle on Jan 29, 2011 6:34 PM PST up reply actions

it got bad when ATQ posters

were incredulously joking: “what, no foul called? But that guy was within 5 feet of that other guy! IT’S A MIRACLE!!”

These sarcastic snipes then turned into ellipses of woeful disbelief as a foul actually was called. This happened 2 or 3 times before we just started throwing televisions out windows.

Dear Pit Crew,
If my ears aren't ringing, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

by Brass-billed on Jan 30, 2011 6:42 PM PST up reply actions

All I have to say is:

Brandon Smith = Michael Dyer = clutch plays that downed the Ducks.

by STANtastic on Jan 29, 2011 7:55 PM PST reply actions

C.J. Anderson

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit but since there is no football related thread close by, just wanted to say that C.J. Anderson from Laney committed to Cal today….He is not a speed burner like Best, but more a power guy like beast mode with incredible balance…. there is a video out there somewhere…welcome aboard C.J.

http://bearinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40141

by Cal_Fan2 on Jan 29, 2011 8:02 PM PST reply actions

Sounds interesting

Goodluck to C.J!

by ATO Golden Bear on Jan 29, 2011 8:13 PM PST up reply actions

Here’s a vid of him until Avi and crew put up an article about him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqhbOQ8fNQk

by Cal_Fan2 on Jan 29, 2011 8:18 PM PST reply actions

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Golden Bears Football Schedule

Fresno St.	Sat 09/03	W 36 - 21
@ Colorado The Ralphie Report	Sat 09/10	W 36 - 33
Presbyterian	Sat 09/17	W 63 - 12
@ Washington UW Dawg Pound	Sat 09/24	L 23 - 31
@ Oregon Addicted To Quack	Thu 10/06	L 15 - 43
USC Conquest Chronicles	Thu 10/13	L 9 - 30
Utah Block U	Sat 10/22	W 34 - 10
@ UCLA Bruins Nation	Sat 10/29	L 14 - 31
Washington St. CougCenter	Sat 11/05	W 30 - 7
Oregon St. Building The Dam	Sat 11/12	W 23 - 6
@ Stanford Rule Of Tree	Sat 11/19	L 28 - 31
@ Arizona St. House Of Sparky	Fri 11/25	W 47 - 38
@ Texas Burnt Orange Nation	Wed 12/28	L 10 - 21