What were the biggest concerns you had about Cal's victory over Coppin State?
Ruey Yen: What is the Cal rotation this year and how deep is it? The bigs outside of David Kravish and Richard Solomon were basically none-existent. While it is plausible that Kameron Rooks and Roger Moute a Bidias can eventually figure out the college game and becomes solid contributor for 10-15 minutes per game, they showed that they still have awhile to go. Other than those 4 guys, every body else that played was basically a guard. With good outside shooting, the Bears could thrive playing a lot of 4 guard lineups, but there would obviously be games this year where more interior presence is required.
Vlad Belo: It was just the first game of the season, so I try not to get too enthusiastic or too concerned about anything. But if I had to point to something, I'd say the free throw shooting. Fifty percent from the FT line is unacceptable. I hope it was an aberration.
atomsareenough: My primary concern remains the lack of post depth. Barring catastrophic injury to our starters (knock on wood), Kameron Rooks has a long way to go this season before he sees even a second of meaningful time in any important games. Even with his impressive weight loss, he's slow and out of shape. Doesn't look like a D-1 athlete yet, despite his frame. He seems extremely tentative and uncertain out there on the floor. Watching him out there makes you feel bad for the kid, as he just looks out of his depth. I'm sure, with the help of Monty and the coaching staff, that he will get markedly better over the course of the season, but the learning curve for him seems pretty steep at the moment. Roger Moute a Bidias at least has good athleticism and instincts, but he also showed that he's got a lot to learn. We're going to see a lot of 4-guard looks this year, and we'll see if that can work for us.
The free throw shooting might be somewhat concerning, but that was mostly on Solomon having poor concentration from the line and a clearly nervous Kameron Rooks going 0-for-3 as well. I think most of our guys, especially the guards, are good shooters and I expect we'll be a decent free throw shooting team over the course of the year.
One other thing was lack of defensive intensity. We were able to clamp down at times, but the consistent effort wasn't there. We didn't close out on shooters very well, at ALL. Maybe that was lack of respect for Coppin State, but they made us pay. We're going to need to pick up the effort level by the time conference play begins.
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- Cal men's basketball: What are the positives from Coppin State?
- This week in the Pac-12: Basketball season!
- Cal Olympic Sports Roundup: Time to start focusing on the post-season
- Hardy Nickerson out for the season with foot injury
- Silver Linings Playbook: Can Cal find anything encouraging about the USC debacle?