Sam moves into the starting line up ... soph jump!

Year ✌️ on deck!@SamAlajiki x #InvestAndAttack pic.twitter.com/D77YyyuKTP

— Cal Basketball (@CalMBBall) June 29, 2022

I'm guessing:

1) After the OOC games opponents had better scouting information.

2) Conference opponents were better than OOC opponents.

3) Kelly's absence allowed opponents to pay more attention to our other players.

He was 9th on the team in minutes (12.5) and starts (4).

However, he led the team in 3pt % (.500) and was 4th in the advanced metrics.

His big game was January 27 on the road against UCLA at Pauley. It was his second start (of 4) and first against a PAC-12 opponent. In 24 minutes played he lead Cal in scoring with 11 points on 4 of 6 (.667) shooting, 3 of 5 (.600) from Three. Plus 3 rebounds an assist and a steal. His box plus/minus was +9.1 which is really good in a game we lost 81-57.

We lost Kelly after game 21, Alajiki played well in the next 3 games.

Through our first 25 games Alajiki was 20 of 33 (.606) from Three. The 25th game was against Colorado on February 17. He played 14 minutes coming off the bench scoring 6 points shooting .500 and 2 of 3 (.667) from 3 with 2 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

The next game against Utah he played only 6 minutes off the bench, missed his only shot and had a steal, 2 TOS and a PF. Fox chewed him out and benched him. He appears to have gone into a funk for the next/last 4 games (playing only 10 minutes in the big win over Stanford) missing all 6 of his 3 pt shots and making a single 2 pt shot against ASU and again against WSU in the PAC-12 Tourney.

That Utah game late in the season really seemed to be the turning point. Seemed to break his spirit a bit. I think there was a similar situation with Bradley.

A couple of thoughts:
1. Sam's release on his 3pt shot is slow, so he needs to be really open to get it off and/or he has to learn to make it with a hand in his face. Cal's offense doesn't provide many of those opportunities.
2. He needs to learn how to rebound from the wing position. With his athleticism, he should pull down at least 5 per game.
3. Sam is athletic and focused enough to be a very good defender with additional coaching.

One of those clips showed a beautiful pass from Celestine, BTW. We're really going to miss him this upcoming season.

HearstMining said:

---

A couple of thoughts:
1. Sam's release on his 3pt shot is slow, so he needs to be really open to get it off and/or he has to learn to make it with a hand in his face. Cal's offense doesn't provide many of those opportunities.
2. He needs to learn how to rebound from the wing position. With his athleticism, he should pull down at least 5 per game.
3. Sam is athletic and focused enough to be a very good defender with additional coaching.

One of those clips showed a beautiful pass from Celestine, BTW. We're really going to miss him this upcoming season.

---

The player he reminds me of is Theo, who was money on wide open threes from the shoulder, but needs to be on an offense that gets him the ball with on open three.