barsad said:

---

Blacksher's gotta go… bust of the season and a non-factor tonight even with a lot of floor time. I'm sure he's a nice guy and a lot of experience, but it's too late in the season for a hopeful project.

---

Blacksher's had some decent games for us this season.


Back from the Haas... Much-needed win! I especially loved Sissoko's block sequence and JOJ had an awesome dunk in traffic.

barsad said:

---

That 32% shooting number for Va is Cal's best defensive effort all year. Should we believe in the D again or is Va that bad of an offense?

---

Very relevant question. V Tech's offense better than VA, so we won't have to wait long to find out.

….and Jerod Haase is starting to grow on me a bit each day he is further removed from Furd.

RedlessWardrobe said:

---

barsad said:

---

That 32% shooting number for Va is Cal's best defensive effort all year. Should we believe in the D again or is Va that bad of an offense?

---

Very relevant question. V Tech's offense better than VA, so we won't have to wait long to find out.

---

Saturday will be interesting. I thought UVA was pretty bad offensively. For example, UVA's bigs were not really threats offensively which allowed our bigs to play a one man zone. So we didn't get killed by the high pick and roll like we usually do.

DJ was in Healy's jersey all night. Fun to watch him play such physical D. Sissoko played great D.

Still don't like our offense for the most part. We might run a quick hitter but when that doesn't work, we revert to hero ball. Frustrating to watch 4 guys just standing around calling for the ball. That is so easy to defend. There was a point in the game where we had 6 assists and UVA had 7 and we were ahead by 13. That says a lot. I think MM and Justin A and Theo were trying to hype a bit by saying the ball movement was much better this game. It was but only for very short periods. Andrei is a black hole. Really wish he would stop running towards the ball all of the time. Funny thing is, the first set of the second half, he sets a screen for Blacksher and gets an easy layup. Hopefully he will learn that he will get more open by setting screens than by constantly running towards the ball.

Let's face it. The talent we have is the talent we have. With all due respect, the "hero ball" reference has become a modern day cliche. Today's college basketball has evolved. At some point, every college team resorts to hero ball in the half court offense. For teams with moderate offensive ability likes ours, it's gonna pop up late in the shot clock once in a while.

I agree there's always room for improvement. Off ball screens are always worth exploring, but usually they can only be as effective as the talent you have to execute them.

Again, the real issue with this team is defense. Looked better last night. MM said he made some "adjustments." But to barsad's point, were we really better or is Virginia's offense just bad? We'll find out Saturday.

Virginia Tech was without their starting PG*** against Furd. He has a foot issue and will "probably" be out against CAL. In the meantime, Rodney Brown is playing more PG.


***they were not so good with him.

A big win over a solid ACC team

Lots of heros but gotta shout out to DJ Campbell and Sissoko

Cal finally did a good intro for JKS and finally for two alums (Randle and Thurman)!

unfortunately no students, cheer/dance teams, rally committee members (except 1 who did a great job) and only a small alumni band

Bear8995 said:

---

RedlessWardrobe said:

---

barsad said:

---

That 32% shooting number for Va is Cal's best defensive effort all year. Should we believe in the D again or is Va that bad of an offense?

---

Very relevant question. V Tech's offense better than VA, so we won't have to wait long to find out.

---

Saturday will be interesting. I thought UVA was pretty bad offensively. For example, UVA's bigs were not really threats offensively which allowed our bigs to play a one man zone. So we didn't get killed by the high pick and roll like we usually do.

DJ was in Healy's jersey all night. Fun to watch him play such physical D. Sissoko played great D.

Still don't like our offense for the most part. We might run a quick hitter but when that doesn't work, we revert to hero ball. Frustrating to watch 4 guys just standing around calling for the ball. That is so easy to defend. There was a point in the game where we had 6 assists and UVA had 7 and we were ahead by 13. That says a lot. I think MM and Justin A and Theo were trying to hype a bit by saying the ball movement was much better this game. It was but only for very short periods. Andrei is a black hole. Really wish he would stop running towards the ball all of the time. Funny thing is, the first set of the second half, he sets a screen for Blacksher and gets an easy layup. Hopefully he will learn that he will get more open by setting screens than by constantly running towards the ball.

---

I was able to catch the game last night and I remember thinking this might be the most selfish Cal team I've ever watched. Is Andrei just told to score and not even bother with assists? He hardly looks for teammates even early in the shot clock. Good to get the win, but they were helped by Virginia having a pretty poor shooting night. Looks like they shot 33% versus their season average of 43% and they had more than a few open looks. Take the win, but doubt this would be the outcome if the game was at Virginia.

bearister said:

---

---

Bearister on the case.

SFCityBear said:

---

bearister said:

---

---

Bearister on the case.

---

Currently the last place team in the ACC by assists. Selfish.

HKBear97! said:

---

SFCityBear said:

---

bearister said:

---

---

Bearister on the case.

---

Currently the last place team in the ACC by assists. Selfish.

---

They each feel like the team would be best-served by them taking the shots. It's all about the team. Always.

Some times these posts amaze me. I played some basketball in high school and JC, so I know a little bit. Do you really think it comes down to a coach saying to a player, "don't pass the ball when you drive to the hoop." Newsflash - it doesn't work that way.

When a game starts, what is the ultimate goal for the coach and the team? Is it to:

1) Win the game?
or
2) To reach a certain quota of baskets made via assists?

I think it's number 1. If this team features a lot of players that drive to the basket, does it occur to people here that the final assist total might have something to do with how the opponent chooses to defend us?

Give me a win with ZERO assists every time. Assists are important, when they are necessary. Not every game is the same.

RedlessWardrobe said:

---

Some times these posts amaze me. I played some basketball in high school and JC, so I know a little bit. Do you really think it comes down to a coach saying to a player, "don't pass the ball when you drive to the hoop." Newsflash - it doesn't work that way.

When a game starts, what is the ultimate goal for the coach and the team? Is it to:

1) Win the game?
or
2) To reach a certain quota of baskets made via assists?

I think it's number 1. If this team features a lot of players that drive to the basket, does it occur to people here that the final assist total might have something to do with how the opponent chooses to defend us?

Give me a win with ZERO assists every time. Assists are important, when they are necessary. Not every game is the same.

---

agree, there are also many times where even a designed play does not include a pass for an assist

for example, they have a big dribble right at the top of the key, stop, hands the ball off to Andrej, while setting a ball screen ... Andrej drives, or drives and takes a jump shot, or if neither is available tries an up and under or passes out

Kinda amazing, but it works so many times even though opponents know it's coming and have specific defensive strategies to stop it ... for example Virginia bottled him up in the first half, but Andrej and the coaches adjusted in the second half and he went off

Andreq also shoots a record number of free throws, which is amazing considering we've had aggressive players like Jaylen Brown

Sophomore Andrej Stojakovic shooting more FTs than any @CalMBBall player in 19 years:https://t.co/pfUVEnK2Wa

— Jeff Faraudo (@JeffFaraudo) January 10, 2025

We need more than 6 assists per game to win consistently, with 10 assists being our minimal goal

Harky4 said:

---

We need more than 6 assists per game to win consistently, with 10 assists being our minimal goal

---

Not necessarily. There is no "magic" assist number. To win consistently we have to score more points than our opponent.

Harky4 said:

---

We need more than 6 assists per game to win consistently, with 10 assists being our minimal goal

---

10 assists today, no victory. Assist stats can be misleading. 32.4% shooting, chicken or egg? If you're not shooting well , maybe it's the real reason assists are low.

Biggest problem today, we defend the ball screen as bad as any team I've seen in a long time.

RedlessWardrobe said:

---

Some times these posts amaze me. I played some basketball in high school and JC, so I know a little bit. Do you really think it comes down to a coach saying to a player, "don't pass the ball when you drive to the hoop." Newsflash - it doesn't work that way.

When a game starts, what is the ultimate goal for the coach and the team? Is it to:

1) Win the game?
or
2) To reach a certain quota of baskets made via assists?

I think it's number 1. If this team features a lot of players that drive to the basket, does it occur to people here that the final assist total might have something to do with how the opponent chooses to defend us?

Give me a win with ZERO assists every time. Assists are important, when they are necessary. Not every game is the same.

---

No one is saying the coach is setting a certain number of assists or passes each game - this isn't Coach Dale in Hoosiers. And obviously the goal is to win the game, but that's accomplished through good defense and an offense that seeks to create the best/easiest shot possible each time down the court. Sometimes that means Andrei taking it upon himself to score, but more often it involves getting your teammates involved which usually results in assists. I've not seen a lot of offensive decisions that look like getting someone in the best position to score - more often it looks like individuals taking it upon themselves. That's why I said it seems like Andrei is being told to just worry about scoring.

I bet many of us here play/played various levels of organized ball. However, having played or not doesn't preclude someone from accurately critiquing what a team is doing well and doing poorly.

HKBear97! said:

---

RedlessWardrobe said:

---

Some times these posts amaze me. I played some basketball in high school and JC, so I know a little bit. Do you really think it comes down to a coach saying to a player, "don't pass the ball when you drive to the hoop." Newsflash - it doesn't work that way.

When a game starts, what is the ultimate goal for the coach and the team? Is it to:

1) Win the game?
or
2) To reach a certain quota of baskets made via assists?

I think it's number 1. If this team features a lot of players that drive to the basket, does it occur to people here that the final assist total might have something to do with how the opponent chooses to defend us?

Give me a win with ZERO assists every time. Assists are important, when they are necessary. Not every game is the same.

---

No one is saying the coach is setting a certain number of assists or passes each game - this isn't Coach Dale in Hoosiers. And obviously the goal is to win the game, but that's accomplished through good defense and an offense that seeks to create the best/easiest shot possible each time down the court. Sometimes that means Andrei taking it upon himself to score, but more often it involves getting your teammates involved which usually results in assists. I've not seen a lot of offensive decisions that look like getting someone in the best position to score - more often it looks like individuals taking it upon themselves. That's why I said it seems like Andrei is being told to just worry about scoring.

I bet many of us here play/played various levels of organized ball. However, having played or not doesn't preclude someone from accurately critiquing what a team is doing well and doing poorly.

---

Honestly, I didn't mean to imply that.
And we can toss around theories on our offense forever. One thing we can all agree on, our ability to defend ball screens on the defensive end is attoricious.