Great win, great heart, good coaching, in general, to beat a strong team. But the last 4.2 seconds was a mess. I reviewed my recording to see what happened, in case anyone cares.
Cal has its starting lineup on the floor, Aimaq, Tyson, Celestine, Kennedy and Cone. They come out in what looks like a 2-3 zone, but the two outside lower defenders, Tyson and Celestine, are so high it looks like a 4-1.
As the ball is inbounded, Cal switches to a man-to-man. Sure, why not. Now I think Aimaq should not be on the floor and instead should have been replaced by Rodney Brown. But he is on the floor, inexplicably guarding his man from like 10 feet away. His dropping off exposes Cone to be picked by the WSU big.
Cone is constantly having to fight through picks because Aimaq always drops. As the season has progressed he has gotten much better at fighting through them. But it is tough, and I look forward to a day when Cal has a center who can defend more of the floor.
Back to the play, Cone fights through the pick, but Rice gets the ball dribbling towards the top of the key. Cone is a little behind him. Aimaq has moved up to be like five feet from his man who is standing outside the three point line. As Rice approaches the top of the key to shoot, Aimaq backs off towards the basket instead of helping! Maddening. The other three Bears stay attached to their men as they should. As Rice picks up his dribble Cone jumps but with sufficient distance not to foul. When Cone comes down he can't foul as Rice goes up to tie the game.
I think Cone was never in position to foul. I think if Brown was in the game Cal was likely to have been able to foul on the catch. The first mistake was having Aimaq in the game. The second was Aimaq inexplicably dropping in defense. Problems like this over and over does not look good for Madsen.
Cal has its starting lineup on the floor, Aimaq, Tyson, Celestine, Kennedy and Cone. They come out in what looks like a 2-3 zone, but the two outside lower defenders, Tyson and Celestine, are so high it looks like a 4-1.
As the ball is inbounded, Cal switches to a man-to-man. Sure, why not. Now I think Aimaq should not be on the floor and instead should have been replaced by Rodney Brown. But he is on the floor, inexplicably guarding his man from like 10 feet away. His dropping off exposes Cone to be picked by the WSU big.
Cone is constantly having to fight through picks because Aimaq always drops. As the season has progressed he has gotten much better at fighting through them. But it is tough, and I look forward to a day when Cal has a center who can defend more of the floor.
Back to the play, Cone fights through the pick, but Rice gets the ball dribbling towards the top of the key. Cone is a little behind him. Aimaq has moved up to be like five feet from his man who is standing outside the three point line. As Rice approaches the top of the key to shoot, Aimaq backs off towards the basket instead of helping! Maddening. The other three Bears stay attached to their men as they should. As Rice picks up his dribble Cone jumps but with sufficient distance not to foul. When Cone comes down he can't foul as Rice goes up to tie the game.
I think Cone was never in position to foul. I think if Brown was in the game Cal was likely to have been able to foul on the catch. The first mistake was having Aimaq in the game. The second was Aimaq inexplicably dropping in defense. Problems like this over and over does not look good for Madsen.
