sluggo said:

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Games are won at practice. That is, practice is where basketball fundamentals are refined. Cal's players have such atrocious fundamentals, I have never seen anything like it at Cal or from any of their opponents ever. There is discussion after games as to what went wrong, but it really misses the point. Case in point: No one can feed the post. Askew can sort of, but for everyone else, it is like they have literally never done it before. That includes the fourth year point guard.

LT was being triple teamed at times. Cal never ran a lob play behind him or a cutter from the weak side once LT had the ball. It was like watching a pickup game on offense. Cal also never tried playing small, which might have helped them guard the three point line.

Recasner, fingers on the chalkboard, mentioned that Fox told him he was really short at guard. I hate the excuses. I also say not really, unless he was talking about failed guard recruiting. Celestine was a loss. But Clayton shot in the 30s against small time competition, and Hyder might have taken some of Roberson's minutes, but it is all kind of the same which player you play who does not belong in the Pac12.

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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Games are won at practice. That is, practice is where basketball fundamentals are refined. Cal's players have such atrocious fundamentals, I have never seen anything like it at Cal or from any of their opponents ever. There is discussion after games as to what went wrong, but it really misses the point. Case in point: No one can feed the post. Askew can sort of, but for everyone else, it is like they have literally never done it before. That includes the fourth year point guard.

LT was being triple teamed at times. Cal never ran a lob play behind him or a cutter from the weak side once LT had the ball. It was like watching a pickup game on offense. Cal also never tried playing small, which might have helped them guard the three point line.

Recasner, fingers on the chalkboard, mentioned that Fox told him he was really short at guard. I hate the excuses. I also say not really, unless he was talking about failed guard recruiting. Celestine was a loss. But Clayton shot in the 30s against small time competition, and Hyder might have taken some of Roberson's minutes, but it is all kind of the same which player you play who does not belong in the Pac12.

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Normally trying to "match up" defensively with inferior teams is foolish, just play your best players and let them worry about matching up with you. However, the sad fact is Southern, UC Davis, UC San Diego are not inferior teams. To any unbiased observer they are more talented and better coached.

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sluggo said:

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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Games are won at practice. That is, practice is where basketball fundamentals are refined. Cal's players have such atrocious fundamentals, I have never seen anything like it at Cal or from any of their opponents ever. There is discussion after games as to what went wrong, but it really misses the point. Case in point: No one can feed the post. Askew can sort of, but for everyone else, it is like they have literally never done it before. That includes the fourth year point guard.

LT was being triple teamed at times. Cal never ran a lob play behind him or a cutter from the weak side once LT had the ball. It was like watching a pickup game on offense. Cal also never tried playing small, which might have helped them guard the three point line.

Recasner, fingers on the chalkboard, mentioned that Fox told him he was really short at guard. I hate the excuses. I also say not really, unless he was talking about failed guard recruiting. Celestine was a loss. But Clayton shot in the 30s against small time competition, and Hyder might have taken some of Roberson's minutes, but it is all kind of the same which player you play who does not belong in the Pac12.

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Normally trying to "match up" defensively with inferior teams is foolish, just play your best players and let them worry about matching up with you. However, the sad fact is Southern, UC Davis, UC San Diego are not inferior teams. To any unbiased observer they are more talented and better coached.

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I think they are different. Better shooters, more comfortable with the ball, but much smaller and not great passers. They had a plan. Much better coach. Switch coaches and my money is on Cal.

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stu said:

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We made 9 of 24 threes, 37.5%, which is not bad. Southern made 12 of 23, which is great. I think Fox was right about the latter, you can't give up threes like that and expect to win.

For the season our decent 3-point shooters are:
.429 Brown
.357 Kuany
.348 Askew
.333 Alajiki

Kinda weird that list includes 2 point guards and 2 forwards but no shooting guards. That's definitely on Fox.

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stu said:

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We made 9 of 24 threes, 37.5%, which is not bad. Southern made 12 of 23, which is great. I think Fox was right about the latter, you can't give up threes like that and expect to win.

For the season our decent 3-point shooters are:
.429 Brown
.357 Kuany
.348 Askew
.333 Alajiki

Kinda weird that list includes 2 point guards and 2 forwards but no shooting guards. That's definitely on Fox.

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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Games are won at practice. That is, practice is where basketball fundamentals are refined. Cal's players have such atrocious fundamentals, I have never seen anything like it at Cal or from any of their opponents ever. There is discussion after games as to what went wrong, but it really misses the point. Case in point: No one can feed the post. Askew can sort of, but for everyone else, it is like they have literally never done it before. That includes the fourth year point guard.

LT was being triple teamed at times. Cal never ran a lob play behind him or a cutter from the weak side once LT had the ball. It was like watching a pickup game on offense. Cal also never tried playing small, which might have helped them guard the three point line.

Recasner, fingers on the chalkboard, mentioned that Fox told him he was really short at guard. I hate the excuses. I also say not really, unless he was talking about failed guard recruiting. Celestine was a loss. But Clayton shot in the 30s against small time competition, and Hyder might have taken some of Roberson's minutes, but it is all kind of the same which player you play who does not belong in the Pac12.

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Normally trying to "match up" defensively with inferior teams is foolish, just play your best players and let them worry about matching up with you. However, the sad fact is Southern, UC Davis, UC San Diego are not inferior teams. To any unbiased observer they are more talented and better coached.

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I think they are different. Better shooters, more comfortable with the ball, but much smaller and not great passers. They had a plan. Much better coach. Switch coaches and my money is on Cal.

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How long has the three point line been around? You need shooters. Our weakness is at guard. We have 6(?) guards that are poor 3 point shooters? And commit turnovers? And are poor 3 point defenders? If we match up, I think we lose.

Against a small team we could maybe go big, play zone with 4 out defending the line and 1 in defending the basket. Then on offense just dominate inside and on the glass?

Fox created this roster and it's lack of obvious options. I almost want him to have to play out the rest of the season but it would not be fair to the players.

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sluggo said:

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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Games are won at practice. That is, practice is where basketball fundamentals are refined. Cal's players have such atrocious fundamentals, I have never seen anything like it at Cal or from any of their opponents ever. There is discussion after games as to what went wrong, but it really misses the point. Case in point: No one can feed the post. Askew can sort of, but for everyone else, it is like they have literally never done it before. That includes the fourth year point guard.

LT was being triple teamed at times. Cal never ran a lob play behind him or a cutter from the weak side once LT had the ball. It was like watching a pickup game on offense. Cal also never tried playing small, which might have helped them guard the three point line.

Recasner, fingers on the chalkboard, mentioned that Fox told him he was really short at guard. I hate the excuses. I also say not really, unless he was talking about failed guard recruiting. Celestine was a loss. But Clayton shot in the 30s against small time competition, and Hyder might have taken some of Roberson's minutes, but it is all kind of the same which player you play who does not belong in the Pac12.

---

Normally trying to "match up" defensively with inferior teams is foolish, just play your best players and let them worry about matching up with you. However, the sad fact is Southern, UC Davis, UC San Diego are not inferior teams. To any unbiased observer they are more talented and better coached.

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I think they are different. Better shooters, more comfortable with the ball, but much smaller and not great passers. They had a plan. Much better coach. Switch coaches and my money is on Cal.

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How long has the three point line been around? You need shooters. Our weakness is at guard. We have 6(?) guards that are poor 3 point shooters? And commit turnovers? And are poor 3 point defenders? If we match up, I think we lose.

Against a small team we could maybe go big, play zone with 4 out defending the line and 1 in defending the basket. Then on offense just dominate inside and on the glass?

Fox created this roster and it's lack of obvious options. I almost want him to have to play out the rest of the season but it would not be fair to the players.

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Well Cal did lose. So it is possible that another strategy might have worked better. Playing small allows a defense to extend more easily. (I know you know that). Since the defense was not working, it would have been another option.

Your second paragraph is what Cal did, more or less. But they fed the post and just watched, and then made a lot of turnovers. The zone did not work.

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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calumnus said:

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sluggo said:

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Games are won at practice. That is, practice is where basketball fundamentals are refined. Cal's players have such atrocious fundamentals, I have never seen anything like it at Cal or from any of their opponents ever. There is discussion after games as to what went wrong, but it really misses the point. Case in point: No one can feed the post. Askew can sort of, but for everyone else, it is like they have literally never done it before. That includes the fourth year point guard.

LT was being triple teamed at times. Cal never ran a lob play behind him or a cutter from the weak side once LT had the ball. It was like watching a pickup game on offense. Cal also never tried playing small, which might have helped them guard the three point line.

Recasner, fingers on the chalkboard, mentioned that Fox told him he was really short at guard. I hate the excuses. I also say not really, unless he was talking about failed guard recruiting. Celestine was a loss. But Clayton shot in the 30s against small time competition, and Hyder might have taken some of Roberson's minutes, but it is all kind of the same which player you play who does not belong in the Pac12.

---

Normally trying to "match up" defensively with inferior teams is foolish, just play your best players and let them worry about matching up with you. However, the sad fact is Southern, UC Davis, UC San Diego are not inferior teams. To any unbiased observer they are more talented and better coached.

---

I think they are different. Better shooters, more comfortable with the ball, but much smaller and not great passers. They had a plan. Much better coach. Switch coaches and my money is on Cal.

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How long has the three point line been around? You need shooters. Our weakness is at guard. We have 6(?) guards that are poor 3 point shooters? And commit turnovers? And are poor 3 point defenders? If we match up, I think we lose.

Against a small team we could maybe go big, play zone with 4 out defending the line and 1 in defending the basket. Then on offense just dominate inside and on the glass?

Fox created this roster and it's lack of obvious options. I almost want him to have to play out the rest of the season but it would not be fair to the players.

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sluggo said:

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Games are won at practice. That is, practice is where basketball fundamentals are refined. Cal's players have such atrocious fundamentals, I have never seen anything like it at Cal or from any of their opponents ever. There is discussion after games as to what went wrong, but it really misses the point. Case in point: No one can feed the post. Askew can sort of, but for everyone else, it is like they have literally never done it before. That includes the fourth year point guard.

LT was being triple teamed at times. Cal never ran a lob play behind him or a cutter from the weak side once LT had the ball. It was like watching a pickup game on offense. Cal also never tried playing small, which might have helped them guard the three point line.

Recasner, fingernails on the chalkboard, mentioned that Fox told him he was really short at guard. I hate the excuses. I also say not really, unless he was talking about failed guard recruiting. Celestine was a loss. But Clayton shot in the 30s against small time competition, and Hyder might have taken some of Roberson's minutes, but it is all kind of the same which player you play who does not belong in the Pac12.

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stu said:

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It's really hard to win without enough guards. That's on the coach because too many of our guards came in with either no shooting skills or a history of injuries.

At least we still have 2 guards who can handle the ball, those plus 2 forwards who can hit a decent percentage of open threes, and enough guys who can play defense. I think with more inspired coaching these players could do better.

Two years ago our women's team lost 3 guards for the season and was reduced to 1 soph PG, 1 frosh PG who was not ready to play in college, and 2 walk-on wings. In January another wing came in straight from high school after graduating early. We shot .348 from the field, .211 on threes, and averaged 9 assists to 21 turnovers. More turnovers than field goals.


BTW our coach got that fixed. Our women's roster now includes 8 scholarship guards (1 injured). We're shooting .472 from the field, .382 on threes, and averaging 18 assists to 13 turnovers.

Gotta have guards. Plenty of guards. Guards who can shoot. Guards who can pass. Guards who can handle the ball. A team playing 5 guards will beat the **** out of a team playing no guards.

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RedlessWardrobe said:

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Honestly, I have been watching Cal basketball since 1967 and I have never seen a worse half court offense. More times than not Askew ends up dribbling the ball for the first 15 seconds. The spacing is terrible. The only set "play" they run is Lars setting a screen at the high post. It is painful to watch.

Also, if your team is lacking in talent the very least you can do is coach them up in "basketball savvy" but even that is painfully missing. Have you ever noticed how many times Cal will commit a foul on defense with less than 7 seconds left on the shot clock? Our players appear to have no awareness that the shot clock even exists.

And how about time and score? It appeared that Coach Fox didn't consider to start fouling last night until there was only 22 seconds left. He had 3 one and ones to take advantage of. How about using those fouls a little earlier and picking up the offensive pace in order to even the game by the final tick? It doesn't take a genius mathematician to figure out that at the 2 minute mark last night the Bears were finished, even though they were making a minor run. Its all so painful to watch.

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Big C said:

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RedlessWardrobe said:

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Honestly, I have been watching Cal basketball since 1967 and I have never seen a worse half court offense. More times than not Askew ends up dribbling the ball for the first 15 seconds. The spacing is terrible. The only set "play" they run is Lars setting a screen at the high post. It is painful to watch.

Also, if your team is lacking in talent the very least you can do is coach them up in "basketball savvy" but even that is painfully missing. Have you ever noticed how many times Cal will commit a foul on defense with less than 7 seconds left on the shot clock? Our players appear to have no awareness that the shot clock even exists.

And how about time and score? It appeared that Coach Fox didn't consider to start fouling last night until there was only 22 seconds left. He had 3 one and ones to take advantage of. How about using those fouls a little earlier and picking up the offensive pace in order to even the game by the final tick? It doesn't take a genius mathematician to figure out that at the 2 minute mark last night the Bears were finished, even though they were making a minor run. Its all so painful to watch.

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That one just killed me: Southern took the ball out with about a minute left. We were behind by six points, so still in the game, and we just let them run the shot clock almost all the way down. Unbelievable.

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