MarylandBear said:

---

So I was at the game in Cameron and thought I'd offer up my observations, fwiw. I'll readily admit I haven't been following Cal bball (and really, college bball overall) much in the past couple of years. Some of what I'll offer up I'm sure has already been hashed out but here it is:

- Cameron is a great place to watch a game, the overall experience lives up to the hype. The atmosphere was loud and electric even despite this game not being a big deal to them. I would recommended making an effort to see a game here if you're ever in the area.

- As loud and energetic as the Cameron crowd was - the old Harmon Gym back in the day, especially games against UCLA or Furd, was a much louder and more raucous environment.

- I was a little disappointed to see such a minimal turnout by Cal fans, I had figured that 1) there must be a fair amount of alums in the Triangle area, with all the research and academic centers around, and 2) the first ACC game vs Duke would've drawn more Cal people. That being said I did exchange a few "Go Bears" with fellow alums.

- I do like the Bears' uniforms. Can't go wrong with navy blue, block CALIFORNIA, and old school-style shorts.

- One thing I noticed before the game was how more disciplined and focused (appearing) Duke approached their warmups and prep; while the Bears seemed just lazily shooting around, the Devils were organized and purposeful. Another thing was that nearly all the Duke players had great shooting technique whereas most of the Bears - even our shooters - did not look anywhere as smooth.

- This bled over into the game - even acknowledging the huge talent disparity, Duke was always determined, poised, and organized on both offense and defense, no matter the game situation. I couldn't even figure out what the Bears were trying to do on offense, and even when it seemed like they were running something, their execution was horrible. I did appreciated their intensity and effort defensively, esp. Petraitis guarding Flagg, but even with the effort there seemed to be poor communication on switches and the like.

- Stojakovic is a nice player, but he'd be a lot more effective if Cal ran plays to get him free. I'm not sure he has the quickness or agility to be the iso/hero ball guy he ends up being on most plays. I noticed he also catches the ball standing straight up and down, definitely not in a ready position to drive or shoot. Likewise with Wilkinson, he has real one on one skills but he would be so much more effective if the Bears made an effort to free him up.

- While Duke certainly had a huge height advantage, I thought Cal's backcourt had a quickness advantage, but the Bears didn't even try to leverage it. Duke was playing really aggressive man to man, lots of hand and hip checking, but I thought our guards were very passive in responding. They only tried to get into the lane as a last resort, and even when they got past their man the other players were just standing around and not in a position to take advantage when the Duke defense rotated over, leaving the guards with no options other than to throw up wild shots. TBH while I am admittedly a very casual fan these days, I was disappointed in our scattered and unorganized play.

Anyways, apologies for the long and rambling post but I did want to put my observations out there for whomever was interested.

---

bearister said:

---

Nice post! Thank you.

Kyle Smith is a favorite of mine. I met him when he and Bennett first rolled into Moraga in 2001 when my son was 10 and we went to a Father's Day Weekend Hoop Camp. I was so impressed with him.
Anyway, I am interested in seeing what out of the box thinking he does on the way to Furd's undoubted clownstomping..

---