Fans have their favorites, and Jalen Cone is one of yours. I want to apologize in advance for anything I might write here that is not complimentary, but it is hard to deny what we've been looking at all season, as a predictor of what will happen over the next 4 days.Johnfox said:
If Cone gets going, no one is stopping us. He is the key to the offense. Daws, Tyson, Celestine, and Kennedy will get more looks with all the attention on Cone. But man, I'm hoping that Cone will be able to do that.
Something else to note, Cone has had struggles to make a three against Stanford. We need Aimaq and Tyson to start us off strong to open up the game.
4 games to win sounds like a lot, but if this team is playing like they did before these past 3 games, no one is stopping them.
You might be right that if Cone gets going, then no one in the PAC12 can stop us in this tournament. But he did "get going" so few times this season (I count 6 or so times where he got hot) and Cal did win all of those games, except the Butler game. But for your statement to be true for this tournament, Cone will have to get it going for 4 games in a row in 4 days straight of tough competition. The first time Cone got it going 2 games in a row was with Santa Clara and Butler, but those games were 7 days apart, The other time he got it going 2 games in a row was USC and ASU, where Cal won both games, which were 4 days apart. The odds against Cone getting it going 4 days in a row, based on what I've seen are off the charts.
Let me be clear in that I love this kid. The passion, the energy, his history, his work ethic, and his leadership have all been important. I root for him now and will continue to do so. And his statistics at Cal have really dropped from his first 4 seasons in college. Is it due to some physical ailment or injury? Only he knows, or maybe even he doesn't know. It could be something minor, like maybe needing glasses. With long range shooters, even the slightest muscle injury can throw their shot off line. This isn't Joel Brown with the occasional air ball. Cone's shot is usually around the basket, so it is something else to have caused this dropoff in shooting percentage. He shot well in the ACC a few years ago, so why can't he do it now?
In any case, he would not be starting if Madsen had another option. With Askew out, only Brown is left, and he still has a little of the deer in the headlights look. So Cone is it. He is a shooting guard who isn't shooting well this year, and he is a point guard who seldom passes the ball, especially for an assist. He is not a good defender, at times not even an acceptable one. He does bring two good skills to the table: He doesn't make turnovers, and he makes his free throws. He is also pretty quick with a nose for loose balls and he gets to a lot of them.
In my opinion, Madsen has been playing Cone wrongly, all season. At 44%, Celestine is the best 3-point shooter on this team. Cone took 166 more 3-point attempts than Celestine. And Celestine can get to the basket better than Cone, so I think Madsen should give most of Cone's attempts to Celestine, and Cal would be improved. The only question I have is Celestine's mobility and durability. He doesn't create his own perimeter shot like Cone does, but if Cone and others would look to pass to more to Celestine, this could be a better team than it was.
All that being said, Cone (and Celestine) are not the keys to Cal winning more. The key is playing better defense. They have played poorly all season, and given up too many points. Play better defense, and maybe we can win games in this tournament.
SFCityBear
