So maybe I'll complain a little.
The 23 point halftime lead got cut quickly to 15, then bounced back up to 22. After that, the Fox strategy seem to be to burn clock, and not work to get good shots. From then on, the Cal offense was basically not fun to watch. Sure, it was fun when we got lucky enough for the pass to go through the legs of the Stanford defender, leading to the Lars slam, and fun when the crazy Shepherd baseline pass goes in, but holy cow. Watching Fox signaling for the team to just run clock when it is still in the third quarter of the game, and we don't really get more quality opportunities to score, drove me a little nuts.
I was wondering what the announcers were saying. In watching the DVR, Don MacLean was pretty restrained. He said at the start of the second half that Cal needed to keep doing what was done in the first half, and try to create quality shots, and not try to run the clock down. There was over 12 minutes left when MacLean is saying it is too early to start running the clock down all the way, you won't get quality shots that way. Don't do crazy things, take care of the ball, but try to create good opportunities to score before the clock runs all the way down, or you don't get quality shots. Pretty much right after he said that, it was clear Fox was calling for them to run the clock all the way down. MacLean never really criticized Fox for not doing what he said Fox should do, but since Stanford couldn't take advantage, it didn't matter.
It remained enjoyable watching the defense play, and even if Fox is putting handcuffs on the offense, the team gives effort, pretty much every game. A big difference in the game, in the first half Stanford goes almost 9 minutes without scoring, and Cal scores 21. In the second half, Cal goes almost 8 minutes without scoring, and Stanford scores 7. In watching the DVR recording, it annoyed me that Ted Robinson kept saying Cal only had 10 points in the half when we only had 7 with over 13 minutes gone. It felt like Shepherd's 3 to end the drought (and give us 10 points in the half) pretty much clinched the game, we probably didn't need to score again, just run the clock down every possession and Stanford will never score enough to win. Every defensive stop after that felt like we were stepping on Stanford's throat even if we didn't score. But man, it is hard to watch a game like that where the winning team stops so early trying to get quality shots.
You can argue that the Fox second half strategy was good because it worked, Cal held on to the lead and won. It was a strategy that counted on Stanford not getting too hot from the outside and not starting to hit contested shots (and Stanford missed their share of fairly uncontested shots in the game). It was not guaranteed to work, however. I would rather have seen us continue what we did in the first half, where the strategy is to create quality shots while not being careless.
You'd think that Shepherd cooled off a lot, scoring 19 in the first half and only 9 in the second, but he still scored half the team's points in the second, after scoring just over half in the first, the offense just wasn't designed to create quality looks for ANYBODY in the second half.
Anyway, I loved the first half. I loved that we held on to the lead and never let it drop below 14. I loved the defense. I loved the effort. I loved that most of the held balls were generated by Cal's intensity. But I did not enjoy the brand of offensive basketball we played in the second half.
