Jalen looked a little frustrated today. His time will come. 2K causes problems on D because of his length. That alone is helpful (esp against less athletic teams). I hope Makale is OK but hopefully Hyder takes this opportunity to step up as needed. We need to take care of business v. Pacific then head down to the Farm and bring back a W. Happy Holidays everyone. Go Bears!HoopDreams said:
Dartmouth beat Georgetown and took Stanford to OT earlier this week
But Cal handled them pretty well. After a slow start (where we left 4 points off the board due to 3 FT misses) it looked like we would defend them well. It was only coach k's son who scored on us.
A few other observations...
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
Sam is a scrappy player who can contribute. We've seen flashes from him, but he's done it more than a couple times now, so I don't think they were flukes.
We need more from Celestine, but Dartmouth scouted him well
2K still oozes potential, but maybe it won't come together for him till next year.
KoreAmBear said:
If so, nice job.
I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
I was thinking the same thing about Lars.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
This team has struggled to adopt and execute well on their half court offense. It's working OK now, but it has been slower coming than any Cal team I can recall. Generally, its a 4-1 vs 3-2 as you suggest. While I would love to see both Lars & Andre together - just not very confident that this could occur without lots of mistakes.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
I had hoped that Lars would develop faster, so that Kelly could play more of a power forward. Lars seems be playing at a level now where he is, if not a real plus for the offense, at least a player who provides enough good plays to counter his mistakes. Unfortunately, with Thorpe still in recovery mode, there is no one else on the roster who has the size to back up Kelly, and no other big who plays with his back to the basket. Kelly is our best player, and he needs to be out on the floor for as many minutes as possible. The problem is that Kelly, even if his stamina has improved, he still can not play at full go for the full 40 minutes. He needs rest now and then. So if we play Kelly and Lars together, I don't think Lars has the stamina himself to play more than 15 minutes a game. Kelly needs 5-10 minutes of rest. The only player left with the height to play inside and back up Kelly would be Kuany, who is still inexperienced and less skilled. Anticevich is a big who is ineffective with his back to the basket, he's a face-up player, a perimeter player, who does not drive and finish well, even though he is learning to play better near the basket, I don't see him backing up Kelly or Lars. When Thorpe comes back, he could back up Kelly for a few minutes maybe, to give Andre some rest. Until then, I see Lars still playing most of his minutes behind Kelly, and not on the floor at the same time with Kelly in a double post offense, as much as I'd like to see it.BeachedBear said:This team has struggled to adopt and execute well on their half court offense. It's working OK now, but it has been slower coming than any Cal team I can recall. Generally, its a 4-1 vs 3-2 as you suggest. While I would love to see both Lars & Andre together - just not very confident that this could occur without lots of mistakes.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
We HAVE seen some high low post with Grant & Andre that works nicely. I think Andre is an effective passer to take that role and work with Lars.
BC Calfan said:
There's some great points on this thread. Especially the point about how well we are rebounding. That's fantastic to see and kind of goes under the radar. Even our good tourney teams in the past had difficulty rebounding.
More unsung improvements:
-Defending the 3. Way less wide open 3 happening this season. It's rare the opposition gets an unchallenged jumper. Closing out well.
-We are getting better at delivering the ball into the post for Kelly. Grant, Shep & Celestine are good at this.
-More screens on offense.
-Free Throws: Dartmouth and Joel not great, but against Santa Clara we were perfect, and other recent games have been very good. I no longer fear us going to the charity stripe.
And the most surprising improvement:
-Is it me or are the Pac-12 refs...more competent?? Feel like they have improved, less ticky-tack fouls, allowing flow for the game and just less boneheaded calls.
California BLOB | Double Tight Bump pic.twitter.com/02e3q2bnkQ
— Coach Rio (@MarioCelebre) December 20, 2021
Wow, if Lars doesn't have enough stamina to play more than 15 minutes per game then something is really wrong with our conditioning techniques. Just saying...SFCityBear said:I had hoped that Lars would develop faster, so that Kelly could play more of a power forward. Lars seems be playing at a level now where he is, if not a real plus for the offense, at least a player who provides enough good plays to counter his mistakes. Unfortunately, with Thorpe still in recovery mode, there is no one else on the roster who has the size to back up Kelly, and no other big who plays with his back to the basket. Kelly is our best player, and he needs to be out on the floor for as many minutes as possible. The problem is that Kelly, even if his stamina has improved, he still can not play at full go for the full 40 minutes. He needs rest now and then. So if we play Kelly and Lars together, I don't think Lars has the stamina himself to play more than 15 minutes a game. Kelly needs 5-10 minutes of rest. The only player left with the height to play inside and back up Kelly would be Kuany, who is still inexperienced and less skilled. Anticevich is a big who is ineffective with his back to the basket, he's a face-up player, a perimeter player, who does not drive and finish well, even though he is learning to play better near the basket, I don't see him backing up Kelly or Lars. When Thorpe comes back, he could back up Kelly for a few minutes maybe, to give Andre some rest. Until then, I see Lars still playing most of his minutes behind Kelly, and not on the floor at the same time with Kelly in a double post offense, as much as I'd like to see it.BeachedBear said:This team has struggled to adopt and execute well on their half court offense. It's working OK now, but it has been slower coming than any Cal team I can recall. Generally, its a 4-1 vs 3-2 as you suggest. While I would love to see both Lars & Andre together - just not very confident that this could occur without lots of mistakes.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
We HAVE seen some high low post with Grant & Andre that works nicely. I think Andre is an effective passer to take that role and work with Lars.
Good points. As the saying goes, "You can't coach height", so the appeal of Lars and Kelly together is understandable. But both of them on court has been tried intermittently over the last couple of years and has not worked well. Plus, a front-line of Lars, Kelly, and Anticevich is pretty slow. I'd like to see Alajiki playing more inside - not as a post player but receiving the ball as a cutter. Fox's offense has guys running through the key but never getting the ball until they're back outside - why not make the occasional pass when the player is in the key and has an 8-12 ft shot? Alajiki could be that guy, or Celestine, for that matter.SFCityBear said:I had hoped that Lars would develop faster, so that Kelly could play more of a power forward. Lars seems be playing at a level now where he is, if not a real plus for the offense, at least a player who provides enough good plays to counter his mistakes. Unfortunately, with Thorpe still in recovery mode, there is no one else on the roster who has the size to back up Kelly, and no other big who plays with his back to the basket. Kelly is our best player, and he needs to be out on the floor for as many minutes as possible. The problem is that Kelly, even if his stamina has improved, he still can not play at full go for the full 40 minutes. He needs rest now and then. So if we play Kelly and Lars together, I don't think Lars has the stamina himself to play more than 15 minutes a game. Kelly needs 5-10 minutes of rest. The only player left with the height to play inside and back up Kelly would be Kuany, who is still inexperienced and less skilled. Anticevich is a big who is ineffective with his back to the basket, he's a face-up player, a perimeter player, who does not drive and finish well, even though he is learning to play better near the basket, I don't see him backing up Kelly or Lars. When Thorpe comes back, he could back up Kelly for a few minutes maybe, to give Andre some rest. Until then, I see Lars still playing most of his minutes behind Kelly, and not on the floor at the same time with Kelly in a double post offense, as much as I'd like to see it.BeachedBear said:This team has struggled to adopt and execute well on their half court offense. It's working OK now, but it has been slower coming than any Cal team I can recall. Generally, its a 4-1 vs 3-2 as you suggest. While I would love to see both Lars & Andre together - just not very confident that this could occur without lots of mistakes.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
We HAVE seen some high low post with Grant & Andre that works nicely. I think Andre is an effective passer to take that role and work with Lars.
Good point. I may have used the wrong word with Lars. For whatever reason, it has been the coach's decision to play Lars for few minutes in games. It could be matchups, or it could be wanting to leave Kelly in as many minutes as possible, or it could be Lars was pulled for performance issues or it could be stamina. In any case, Lars played only 5 minutes against Dartmouth, and did not play at all in the 2nd half, even though Kelly was on the bench for a few minutes of the 2nd half, so someone else was backing up Kelly. The most minutes Lars has played in a game was 16 minutes vs Florida, and 13 against Idaho St. The least minutes was 4 vs Oregon St, and 5 vs UCSD and vs Dartmouth. He averages 9.5 minutes. He averaged just over 13.5 minutes per game in his first two seasons, so I would wonder if Fox is planning to use him less this year, or if maybe he is hiding what Lars can do in the pre-conference season, so he can unveil him as a secret weapon once we get more into the conference schedule. Clearly, his skills and play have improved.RedlessWardrobe said:Wow, if Lars doesn't have enough stamina to play more than 15 minutes per game then something is really wrong with our conditioning techniques. Just saying...SFCityBear said:I had hoped that Lars would develop faster, so that Kelly could play more of a power forward. Lars seems be playing at a level now where he is, if not a real plus for the offense, at least a player who provides enough good plays to counter his mistakes. Unfortunately, with Thorpe still in recovery mode, there is no one else on the roster who has the size to back up Kelly, and no other big who plays with his back to the basket. Kelly is our best player, and he needs to be out on the floor for as many minutes as possible. The problem is that Kelly, even if his stamina has improved, he still can not play at full go for the full 40 minutes. He needs rest now and then. So if we play Kelly and Lars together, I don't think Lars has the stamina himself to play more than 15 minutes a game. Kelly needs 5-10 minutes of rest. The only player left with the height to play inside and back up Kelly would be Kuany, who is still inexperienced and less skilled. Anticevich is a big who is ineffective with his back to the basket, he's a face-up player, a perimeter player, who does not drive and finish well, even though he is learning to play better near the basket, I don't see him backing up Kelly or Lars. When Thorpe comes back, he could back up Kelly for a few minutes maybe, to give Andre some rest. Until then, I see Lars still playing most of his minutes behind Kelly, and not on the floor at the same time with Kelly in a double post offense, as much as I'd like to see it.BeachedBear said:This team has struggled to adopt and execute well on their half court offense. It's working OK now, but it has been slower coming than any Cal team I can recall. Generally, its a 4-1 vs 3-2 as you suggest. While I would love to see both Lars & Andre together - just not very confident that this could occur without lots of mistakes.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
We HAVE seen some high low post with Grant & Andre that works nicely. I think Andre is an effective passer to take that role and work with Lars.
I don't think we can use the very few minutes over the last two years that Andre and Lars have played together at the same time to gauge how they might play together this year. Neither one is the same player of even last season. Clearly, both players are much improved over last season. Kelly will have made a huge improvement from last season, if he can carry his performance in these early games through the PAC12 season. Thiemann was a raw, soft, and unskilled player, but after 2+ seasons, looks also to have made a huger improvement over last season. Defenders won't be able to leave him unguarded, because is a threat to score if they do. There is no reason that they can not be taught to make some plays by working together.HearstMining said:Good points. As the saying goes, "You can't coach height", so the appeal of Lars and Kelly together is understandable. But both of them on court has been tried intermittently over the last couple of years and has not worked well. Plus, a front-line of Lars, Kelly, and Anticevich is pretty slow. I'd like to see Alajiki playing more inside - not as a post player but receiving the ball as a cutter. Fox's offense has guys running through the key but never getting the ball until they're back outside - why not make the occasional pass when the player is in the key and has an 8-12 ft shot? Alajiki could be that guy, or Celestine, for that matter.SFCityBear said:I had hoped that Lars would develop faster, so that Kelly could play more of a power forward. Lars seems be playing at a level now where he is, if not a real plus for the offense, at least a player who provides enough good plays to counter his mistakes. Unfortunately, with Thorpe still in recovery mode, there is no one else on the roster who has the size to back up Kelly, and no other big who plays with his back to the basket. Kelly is our best player, and he needs to be out on the floor for as many minutes as possible. The problem is that Kelly, even if his stamina has improved, he still can not play at full go for the full 40 minutes. He needs rest now and then. So if we play Kelly and Lars together, I don't think Lars has the stamina himself to play more than 15 minutes a game. Kelly needs 5-10 minutes of rest. The only player left with the height to play inside and back up Kelly would be Kuany, who is still inexperienced and less skilled. Anticevich is a big who is ineffective with his back to the basket, he's a face-up player, a perimeter player, who does not drive and finish well, even though he is learning to play better near the basket, I don't see him backing up Kelly or Lars. When Thorpe comes back, he could back up Kelly for a few minutes maybe, to give Andre some rest. Until then, I see Lars still playing most of his minutes behind Kelly, and not on the floor at the same time with Kelly in a double post offense, as much as I'd like to see it.BeachedBear said:This team has struggled to adopt and execute well on their half court offense. It's working OK now, but it has been slower coming than any Cal team I can recall. Generally, its a 4-1 vs 3-2 as you suggest. While I would love to see both Lars & Andre together - just not very confident that this could occur without lots of mistakes.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
We HAVE seen some high low post with Grant & Andre that works nicely. I think Andre is an effective passer to take that role and work with Lars.
SFCityBear said:Good point. I may have used the wrong word with Lars. For whatever reason, it has been the coach's decision to play Lars for few minutes in games. It could be matchups, or it could be wanting to leave Kelly in as many minutes as possible, or it could be Lars was pulled for performance issues or it could be stamina. In any case, Lars played only 5 minutes against Dartmouth, and did not play at all in the 2nd half, even though Kelly was on the bench for a few minutes of the 2nd half, so someone else was backing up Kelly. The most minutes Lars has played in a game was 16 minutes vs Florida, and 13 against Idaho St. The least minutes was 4 vs Oregon St, and 5 vs UCSD and vs Dartmouth. He averages 9.5 minutes. He averaged just over 13.5 minutes per game in his first two seasons, so I would wonder if Fox is planning to use him less this year, or if maybe he is hiding what Lars can do in the pre-conference season, so he can unveil him as a secret weapon once we get more into the conference schedule. Clearly, his skills and play have improved.RedlessWardrobe said:Wow, if Lars doesn't have enough stamina to play more than 15 minutes per game then something is really wrong with our conditioning techniques. Just saying...SFCityBear said:I had hoped that Lars would develop faster, so that Kelly could play more of a power forward. Lars seems be playing at a level now where he is, if not a real plus for the offense, at least a player who provides enough good plays to counter his mistakes. Unfortunately, with Thorpe still in recovery mode, there is no one else on the roster who has the size to back up Kelly, and no other big who plays with his back to the basket. Kelly is our best player, and he needs to be out on the floor for as many minutes as possible. The problem is that Kelly, even if his stamina has improved, he still can not play at full go for the full 40 minutes. He needs rest now and then. So if we play Kelly and Lars together, I don't think Lars has the stamina himself to play more than 15 minutes a game. Kelly needs 5-10 minutes of rest. The only player left with the height to play inside and back up Kelly would be Kuany, who is still inexperienced and less skilled. Anticevich is a big who is ineffective with his back to the basket, he's a face-up player, a perimeter player, who does not drive and finish well, even though he is learning to play better near the basket, I don't see him backing up Kelly or Lars. When Thorpe comes back, he could back up Kelly for a few minutes maybe, to give Andre some rest. Until then, I see Lars still playing most of his minutes behind Kelly, and not on the floor at the same time with Kelly in a double post offense, as much as I'd like to see it.BeachedBear said:This team has struggled to adopt and execute well on their half court offense. It's working OK now, but it has been slower coming than any Cal team I can recall. Generally, its a 4-1 vs 3-2 as you suggest. While I would love to see both Lars & Andre together - just not very confident that this could occur without lots of mistakes.RedlessWardrobe said:Obviously I don't know the deal with Makale. But just speculating, if yesterday was a minor setback I would think Fox will try to get by Pacific without him, thus a 2 week rest before playing Furd.Bear8995 said:I've been critical of Grant so I also have to give him praise. 15 boards is very, very solid. I beleive one of the biggest diffreences between this year and last is our rebounding. We are almost always on the plus side now, and by decent margins. Last year.HoopDreams said:
Coach wants Grant to be more aggressive by putting the ball on the floor more. But he often loses the ball with contact. Good for him to work on that before the Pac12 as it makes Grant more of a triple threat and not as easy to defend.
That said, I worry when Grant gets into "crossover his guy" mode. 1-2 dribbles to clear space for his jumper? Sure. But when the defender is in front of him and he tries to outquick him, it tends to end in a turnover.
Very solid game from the team. I'm excited to watch how we do in conference play. It depends on whether we can win those games that could go either way and there seem to be a lot of them on the schedule. If we can steal 1-2 where we aren't supposed to win, that would be something.
I'd like to see us get the ball to Kelly on every possession. That doesn't mean he shoots it each possession but just about every team is doubling him now which forces the defense to scramble a bit when he passes it back out.
I hope Foreman is OK. Seems like he will be less than 100% the whole season.
And again with Grant, my feeling is it less about the "crossover" and more about where he is on the court. If the set results in him possessing on the natural "weak side" it is more beneficial for him to use the dribble as opposed to navigating through traffic.
Another thought, with a physical team like Furd coming up I'm guessing at some point Fox may use Andre and Lars at the same time, something that we haven't seen much of. Any comments on this?
We HAVE seen some high low post with Grant & Andre that works nicely. I think Andre is an effective passer to take that role and work with Lars.
helltopay1 said:
you can't teach height. You can't teach talent. You can't teach recruiting. Dartmouth???And, Cal only won by 6 points at Haas???Seriously????
