stu said:According to the current ESPN standings Cal has played 15 PAC-12 games, as many as any team in the conference, and 26 total games, more than any other team in the conference. Last season we played 20 conference games and 29 total games. COVID-19 may have impacted our practice time as much as or more than other teams but I have no way of knowing that. AFAIK Fox seems to have managed it wellRedlessWardrobe said:
... Maybe I'm being foolishly sheepish because it seemed like the COVID thing MAY have affected Cal more than other teams ...
Due to COVID-19 our women's team played only 17 total games last season and missed a lot of practice, the latter crucial with 6 freshies. So far 4 games have been postponed this season. I can't say whether the difference between our men and women is due to management or luck.
The covid problem for Cal men's basketball wasn't games missed, it was a missed off-season. It was particularly hard (maybe not uniquely hard, but particularly hard) for Cal for three reasons: (1) Cal had an unusually raw roster that needed, more than anything, time playing actual basketball together as much as possible (as opposed to individual shooting on portable hoops on tennis courts); (2) Cal had disproportionate number of foreign players who couldn't get into the country to join the team for ANY workouts/conditioning/nutrition with the program; and (3) COB/UCB covid rules were generally more restrictive than most other jurisdictions.
Those factors combined to hamper Cal's off-season preparation more so than most teams, and off-season preparation is what that roster needed more than anything.