calumnus said:

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HearstMining said:

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stu said:

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drizzlybear said:

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Very frustrating. Cal had the rebounding and the quality looks to win this game. Shooting was atrocious. Too bad. Not like we were going to win the next one, but would've been nice to get this first one.

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Some nights, like tonight, good shots don't fall. Other nights, like in Eugene, they do.

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They had quality looks because the WSU zone defense had holes all over it. Maybe the shooting was atrocious, but it was all too typical for this season's Cal team. By all accounts, a team of great guys, but not enough of them are good basketball players.
EDIT: I just read eastcoastcal's comments and he made much the same point but I think stated it more precisely.

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There is a reason Kyle Smith and WSU have won the last 5 matchups against Mark Fox and Cal, home, away and neutral court. There is a reason WSU's defense is #35 in the country in Ken Pom despite their zone seemingly "having holes all over it."

Kyle Smith is a far better coach and he and his staff do their research and now know us very well. It is "nerd ball" in action. They know where on the court each of our players shoots well from and take that away. The shots we took are generally the shots they gave us, the ones they wanted us to take.
I'm sure we lose to them every time we face them next year too.

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My comment was really directed at, "some nights . . . shots don't fall" which implied Cal lost due to some randomness in the universe. You're right - WSU going to a zone was smart but any zone has weaknesses and Cal couldn't take advantage of those. The zone had the top 3 defenders aggressively covering the periphery and the backline defenders stayed low. The holes were in the 8-15 ft area, frequently in the key. Unfortunately, Cal has two good mid-range shooters, Shephard and Kelly and of course Kelly was out and Shephard generally stayed outside. I remember Grant missed a couple of pretty open shots there and didn't Alajiki receive a pass and took (and made) essentially a set shot from the free throw line? Yep, Kyle Smith does a good job. Cal should consider hiring his USF successor, Golden, but will probably delay until he's snapped up by somebody else.

RedlessWardrobe said:

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eastcoastcal said:

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Quote:

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Quote:

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drizzlybear said:
Very frustrating. Cal had the rebounding and the quality looks to win this game. Shooting was atrocious. Too bad. Not like we were going to win the next one, but would've been nice to get this first one.

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Some nights, like tonight, good shots don't fall. Other nights, like in Eugene, they do.

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If you don't mind me saying, while I appreciate the more positive outlook, some of the shots coming out of our guys hands tonight looked downright atrocious. I've seen high school JV shooters who looked better than Grant tonight. The reality is the team sorely lacks shooters & scorers, and a better team would've turned the immense rebounding advantage we had tonight into buckets. (To be clear, I understand you weren't saying anything against this, I just think the "our shots just weren't falling tonight" trope doesn't really apply when it's clear that our team does not possess the ability to shoot effectively or make free throws haha)

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My take. I agree, the Bears' shooting from the outside was bad, and I mean bad even by our team's standards. Many, many good looks, I don't think we were "jacking up shots", most of them were clean looks, but man every guy on our team looked like they caught "shooters' disease". I watched Cal play all year, and while we all know that despite their glaring weaknesses, in most occasions they hit a definitive higher percentage of these 3 point attempts than they did last night. Maybe it was the infamous "large arena background", don't really know, but it really sucked.

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The normal in the pac 12 tourney. We also had a collapse when jorge played.

Stanford 80, Arizona 84. Stanford got 8 free throws, Arizona got 19. I didn't see the game - any opinions on the officiating?

HearstMining said:

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calumnus said:

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HearstMining said:

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stu said:

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drizzlybear said:

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Very frustrating. Cal had the rebounding and the quality looks to win this game. Shooting was atrocious. Too bad. Not like we were going to win the next one, but would've been nice to get this first one.

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Some nights, like tonight, good shots don't fall. Other nights, like in Eugene, they do.

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They had quality looks because the WSU zone defense had holes all over it. Maybe the shooting was atrocious, but it was all too typical for this season's Cal team. By all accounts, a team of great guys, but not enough of them are good basketball players.
EDIT: I just read eastcoastcal's comments and he made much the same point but I think stated it more precisely.

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There is a reason Kyle Smith and WSU have won the last 5 matchups against Mark Fox and Cal, home, away and neutral court. There is a reason WSU's defense is #35 in the country in Ken Pom despite their zone seemingly "having holes all over it."

Kyle Smith is a far better coach and he and his staff do their research and now know us very well. It is "nerd ball" in action. They know where on the court each of our players shoots well from and take that away. The shots we took are generally the shots they gave us, the ones they wanted us to take.
I'm sure we lose to them every time we face them next year too.

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My comment was really directed at, "some nights . . . shots don't fall" which implied Cal lost due to some randomness in the universe. You're right - WSU going to a zone was smart but any zone has weaknesses and Cal couldn't take advantage of those. The zone had the top 3 defenders aggressively covering the periphery and the backline defenders stayed low. The holes were in the 8-15 ft area, frequently in the key. Unfortunately, Cal has two good mid-range shooters, Shephard and Kelly and of course Kelly was out and Shephard generally stayed outside. I remember Grant missed a couple of pretty open shots there and didn't Alajiki receive a pass and took (and made) essentially a set shot from the free throw line? Yep, Kyle Smith does a good job. Cal should consider hiring his USF successor, Golden, but will probably delay until he's snapped up by somebody else.

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According to Ken Pom, 24-9 USF is the #21 team. The #48 offense and the #17 defense. They are #88 in tempo but have been #245 in luck. It will be fun to watch them in the NCAA Tournament. I'm sure Golden gets snatched up by a bigger program soon. Glad it won't be Stanford.