Johnfox said:

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It's both a coaching and talent issue. Jovan Blacksher is not going to win you games. Mark Madsen's defense is not going to win you games. Basketball is a team sport and you need a stout rotation 1-5 plus stellar coaching.

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Yep. They're shooting 60%

the thing cal is doing different on defense is blitzing

so far it's successful in the sense the bigs have recovered in time to defend the post, but we aren't quite good enough at it yet

still I thought we'd do this from the beginning of the season

another game that would be a whole lot different if we just hit our FTs

when we speed them up they turn it over or rush their shots

^ pen, the bears are not a losing program because of offensive sets or shooting skills, they lose because this program other than mady (who will be outta eligibility after this season) does not play DEFENSE

the basketball iq commentary on this board is off the charts kinda like the attendance at haas pavillion (with no FREE tixs for all students) these days

carry on, maybe if the bears can get another shooter next season the bears will be in the ncca tournament or something!!

Furd had a 17 point lead on us like SMU did. We closed on Furd only to lose in closing 2 minutes. This game is on a similar track but not sure SMU will choke like Furd did (before un-choking).

Antman, I mean Harris is back in

Rytis with four fouls

Shocky1 said:

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^ pen, the bears are not a losing program because of offensive sets or shooting skills, they lose because this program other than mady (who will be outta eligibility after this season) does not play DEFENSE

the basketball iq commentary on this board is off the charts kinda like the attendance at haas pavillion (with no FREE tixs for all students) these days

carry on, maybe if the bears can get another shooter next season the bears will be in the ncca tournament or something!!

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totally agree the defense is atrocious. Leaving 3 pt shooters wide open. scrambling to cover when they swing cross court.

I am simply replying to the point some made that Cal have few good shooters. I think they are decent shooters just that the offensive sets do not give them good opportunities.

Tucker gave good extended minutes ..... no Blacksher.

WOW!! Great job getting even tonight!! Now, finish the job!!

GO BEARS!!

Refs now calling it like they want SMU to win. Shameful.

We are having problems against their zone

It's over. Our guys gave it a good effort to get to 66-66, but we just couldn't keep up the momentum.

Tie the game then we go several possessions where we turn the ball over or take really bad shots. Now down 7. Not good. Tucker gave us some really good minutes tonight.

I usually don't complain about the refs, but… they've missed like 5 calls in the last 5 min, most going against the Bears. Everything, no-fouls when there should be, touch fouls when there shouldn't be, out of bounds call misses. Ought to be sanctioned.

Would be nice if we had Ola Joseph in the corner against 1-3-1

This comeback, tie it up, then fall short routine is getting old.

barsad said:

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This comeback, tie it up, then fall short routine is getting old.

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Can't go down 17 and come back every game. Maybe Madsen shouldn't play Blacksher so much to start the game? It's self inflicted by dumb coaching.

Bear8995 said:

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Tie the game then we go several possessions where we turn the ball over or take really bad shots. Now down 7. Not good. Tucker gave us some really good minutes tonight.

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this has very little to do with the outcome, r u aware that smu is shooting 55.6% on field goals on the road??

Golden One said:

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Refs now calling it like they want SMU to win. Shameful.

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the refs have zero to do with this game's outcome, the cal non existent defense allowing smu to shoot 55.3% on 3 pointers is embarazzing

calbearinamaze said:

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Tucker gave good extended minutes ..... no Blacksher.

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wut r u watching??...wut metric wuz "good"??

neither 1 disrupts enfield's pg from igniting the offense for open looks

other than mady this team plays DEFENSE like a summertime aau team

barsad said:

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Um… what is the deal with just fumbling passes and losing dribbles in open court? The turnovers have killed us all season.

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barsad, this team is not losing again this season because of turnovers

whose the worst DEFENSE in the acc??

Shocky1 said:

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other than mady this team plays DEFENSE like a summertime aau team

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and makes a lot of passes like a summertime aau team. Unfortunately, our women's hoop team has the same affliction

one of shocky's clients is a nba organization, many of u would be shocked to know that in reading internal nba scouting reports that more than half of the evaluations are DEFENSE centric...the bears names that are thrown about here as having nba potential are all defensively deficient by power 4 standards much less than the nba

let's try to explain this another way:

the bears free throw DEFENSE (basically a smu player shooting a wide open 15 footer with nobody guarding him) tonite wuz 65% (13 of 20)

the bears field goal DEFENSE (basically 5 guys playing sorry azz d) tonite wuz 55.6% (30 of 54)

so basically the delta between the bears not guarding any of the ponies on a 15 footer & 5 bears guarding the mustangs wuz 9.4%, got it??

DEFENSE wins basketball games on a basketball court with a basketball#

Shocky1 said:

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other than mady this team plays DEFENSE like a summertime aau team

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Rytis plays good defense

Shocky1 said:

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Golden One said:

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Refs now calling it like they want SMU to win. Shameful.

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the refs have zero to do with this game's outcome, the cal non existent defense allowing smu to shoot 55.3% on 3 pointers is embarazzing

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You're right about the SMU shooting percentage, but you're wrong about the refs. They were OK until the last 5-6 minutes of the game, then they threw it to SMU.

HoopDreams said:

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Shocky1 said:

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other than mady this team plays DEFENSE like a summertime aau team

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Rytis plays good defense

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agreed he plays d with intensity (unlike most of the current playing rotation other than sissoko) but he often doesn't keep the pony in front of him & overplays passing lanes which results in easy buckets as he lacks closing footspeed

^^ golden one, that's just delusional homerisim, nobody objectively watching the game would come to the conclusion that the refs had anything to do with the outcome

Depends on situation. In today's game we had to gamble because we were down big and running out of time.

The player who I think over helps is Blacksher

Also at this level many players can beat their defender off the dribble at least half the time (in our case we don't have any + perimeter defenders… Rytis and DJ come closest) but even + defenders like Kennedy and Brown got beat off the dribble

Shocky1 said:

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HoopDreams said:

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Shocky1 said:

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other than mady this team plays DEFENSE like a summertime aau team

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Rytis plays good defense

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agreed he plays d with intensity (unlike most of the current playing rotation other than sissoko) but he often doesn't keep the defender in front of him & overplays passing lanes which results in easy buckets as he lacks closing footspeed

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Bear8995 said:

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barsad said:

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This comeback, tie it up, then fall short routine is getting old.

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Can't go down 17 and come back every game. Maybe Madsen shouldn't play Blacksher so much to start the game? It's self inflicted by dumb coaching.

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We passed "maybe" on this issue a long time ago.

RedlessWardrobe said:

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Bear8995 said:

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barsad said:

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This comeback, tie it up, then fall short routine is getting old.

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Can't go down 17 and come back every game. Maybe Madsen shouldn't play Blacksher so much to start the game? It's self inflicted by dumb coaching.

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We passed "maybe" on this issue a long time ago.

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At least his minutes are shrinking down from low 30s to 15 last night.

I am thinking a good PG would fix a lot of our woes.

https://calbears.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/smu/boxscore/36855

^ 100% disagree, better play at the 1 won't change any outcomes for a program that plays summertime aau DEFENSE

this team is closer to the wyking/fox years than a nit team for 2026

Shocky1 said:

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^ 100% disagree, better play at the 1 won't change any outcomes for a program that plays summertime aau DEFENSE

this team is closer to the wyking/fox years than a nit team for 2026

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A few threes wins close games we've lost even with our bad defense and that begins with PG play. Not NIT difference but better than last year's team, which we should be. This team's roster from like 1-10 should be way better than last year's team. Even the game where we were hot on offense v. GT, Blacksher goes 0-6 from the field and still manages to kill us some way. One made basket from him wins us that game. Our lack of efficiency in the half court at times is just as bad as the D.

Yeah. What I am unclear about (since we don't run it to compare) is how we are so awful at defending the high ball screen action. Literally other teams score at leat 10 points off that every time I watch the bears. Last night it was AS turn to get abused. One of the last smu buckets was a replay of all season. High ball screen. AS goes over the top and penetrating player now has him on his hip. Screen rolling so big goes with him. Dribble in amd 5 foot floater for 2.

What I wonder is kf it is rotation help. Screened player could hedge their and maybe that is it. Whatever it is I am sick of watching us get abused.