Can't really put a good spin on this. 0-2 isn't good, especially the way we played at the end. But the last 13 minutes were at least promising. Kind of like Cal's last trip East...35 minutes of horror with a moral victory at the end, if you believe in those things.
Quick thoughts.
- Zone defense, help defense. The Bears should practice attacking the former and utilizing the latter. They started to get a feel for it at the end (attack the middle with a slasher, kick it to the cutter, put a man at the high post).
- Randle had another fine game (played way better with only 3 turnovers), but is playing way way too much for my liking. Considering Nikola's performance (more on that later), we need Brandon Smith to develop big in the next few months or he's going to burn out in March.
- I'm starting to think if Theo was present, we go 1-1, with a 30-40% chance at 2-0. We definitely wouldn't have fallen behind this badly, and he could've switched off to Turner when Jorge struggled with the fouls.
- Sanders-Frison still lost on the inside.
- Amoke struggled early, but really picked it up late. Lots of nice cuts on the baseline, feeding off of Randle's passes or picking up boards. 11 points, 14 rebounds, promising sign as the season goes on.
- Boykin put up another alright performance. We're never going to get great games from him (he'll give something and take something), but if we're cancelling out on the inside, then we'll be okay.
- Outside of Theo, our slashers don't really have finishing moves. Jorge threw up some ugly shots, Amoke only could go baseline, and Seeley...meh. How else do Syracuse and Ohio State in zones pile up the blocks? Pass up on bad shots and pass out of the double teams.
- Really disappointing from Christopher. It was better than yesterday, but I expected a little better than 5-14.
- Like yesterday, pretty bad officiating. This time we had a general gripe, at the end it cost Cal a chance to punctuate the comeback. Still, being down 20 something, it's hard to complain about refs costing us this game (maybe a chance to win, but the win itself?)
- Jorge picking up his 4th and 5th fouls on ticky-tacks forced Golden Bears to see Michael Cera into an ignominous starring role as a white dude who can't play defense on anyone. The entire Evan Turner highlight reel is just him owning Nikola. Pretty much doooooooom.
Anyway, Cal will get to rest up the next few games before getting prepared for their trip to Lawrence. Hopefully we'll be at full strength for that one.