Playing against a team with only one home loss all year, no Solomon, a hostile crowd, and losing only on a last second shot. No moral victory for sure, but how many expected Cal to get blown out tonight? Bird coming up big, Cobbs solid, Kravish doing his best against their bigs. The difference? They had big bodies underneath, we didn't. Could have gone our way. No doubt some on here will complain and carp, but not me. A great effort tonight, and hopefully something to build on for next year.

So many people argued nothing to gain by playing in the nit. Gotta say, after missing the tourney, I felt that too. But how nice is it that bird got some of his swagger back...that's nice headed into the offseason

Inspector Tut;842297225 said:

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So many people argued nothing to gain by playing in the nit. Gotta say, after missing the tourney, I felt that too. But how nice is it that bird got some of his swagger back...that's nice headed into the offseason

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It is, no doubt. Also, I know the boys wanted to keep hooping it up until they took the ball away.

Bears stayed together and fought hard
They did everything they could do playing short handed, and succeeded in every category except rebounding and defending their big

with Solo that would have been a lot different
kinda summarized the season...just couldn't quite get over the hump

NIT was a positive
Bird showed his talent and fire

I liked the way the kids played and fought in the NIT. It certainly ended better than the regular season . And Bird and the other youngsters looked visibly shaken by the loss. That's the spirit we need. Now lets gets some bigs during the November signing period. The future looks bright !!

HoopDreams;842297228 said:

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Bears stayed together and fought hard
They did everything they could do playing short handed, and succeeded in every category except rebounding and defending their big

with Solo that would have been a lot different
kinda summarized the season...just couldn't quite get over the hump

NIT was a positive
Bird showed his talent and fire

---

Yeah, Bird showed some emotion there at the end, fighting back tears. If he had played anywhere close to his capability offensively, there's no way we would have missed the Tournament. Of course, that was in large part due to the injury. This team just had some bad luck, as the recent Solo absence showed.

Great effort by the guys. Proud of the seniors for all they gave to the program. It's just too bad Solo couldn't have been on the court to cap off his career here.

If the last two games are a preview of what to expect next year, I'm really looking forward to it. Might have a better team then some think in 2014/15.

Couple of things.

If Jabari doesn't get hurt, and we play like that all year w/ Solo, we are still in the NCAA.....Silver lining? If Jabari played like that all year, he would be GONE.

Absolutely agree! I was proud of our guys tonight. They put up one helluva fight in spite of being outmanned under the basket without Soloman. This game was a heck of a lot closer than I expected, under the circumstances. Bird was awesome, and Cobbs was great, as usual. Kravish also had a good game. I hope Bird starts off next season the way he ended this one; he could be very special next season. Go Bears!

A strong effort, game basically turned on Wallace accidentally falling down on the last defensive play. Bad luck, but I agree that the effort is nothing to be ashamed of.

If only we could have had THIS Jabari Bird all season!

Bird. More please.

Thanks to the squad for ending with such effort and energy -- a great game in a hostile environment against a very good team.

Entertaining game...if Bird got his mojo back - well worth it!

Go Bears.

I'm very proud of our boys!!

Final play defense had
Cobbs
Wallace
Kreklow
Behrens
Kravish

Bird was on the bench in favor of Behrens for size and Kreklows intelligent experience. I don't know that anyone played that last set incorrectly. The kid just made a good shot off a well drawn up play. Logic held that they would have gone inside to the big boy, who was not stopped all night. That left the outside open.

Cobbs magic almost struck again, twice in one game, matter of fact. I have a man crush on him. He will be severely missed!

I have a feeling that I'm not gonna like how Solomon got his concussion

We were capable of being a good team, and the team was close to being good, but was not consistent enough to be a good team this year.

Throw in a little home cooking and SMU and Wallace falling down, without those ingredients, we win, Handily.

concordtom;842297268 said:

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I'm very proud of our boys!!

Final play defense had
Cobbs
Wallace
Kreklow
Behrens
Kravish

Bird was on the bench in favor of Behrens for size and Kreklows intelligent experience. I don't know that anyone played that last set incorrectly. The kid just made a good shot off a well drawn up play. Logic held that they would have gone inside to the big boy, who was not stopped all night. That left the outside open.

Cobbs magic almost struck again, twice in one game, matter of fact. I have a man crush on him. He will be severely missed!

---

I think that was the exact same play and spot that ASU hit their 3 to beat us too.

different scenario. we were ahead by three. ASU needed a three to tie us ....
.the the ASU shooter.....ran from the middle of the key and cut to his left just before the foul line around a screen...a moving screen at that..by their big center....
we knew the play was coming and Monty diagramed a defense during the timeout before the shot.
Solomon was supposed to switch and take the shooter . Solomon did not switch...our other defender did his best to get around screen and closed out as best he could. 3 point shot tied the game and sent it into OT.

The team played great on a hostile court. They came so close to winning. I am glad they were able to play a few more games. I had very good seats for the NIT games at Cal. I wish the best for the graduating seniors and am looking forward to next year.

Go Bears!

EchoOfSilence;842297277 said:

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I have a feeling that I'm not gonna like how Solomon got his concussion

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I had the exact same thought.

Morning thought, and I thought it as soon as it happened:
The ballgame was when they didn't call a foul on smu when they knocked Kravish down causing him to fumble wallace's brick out of bounds. We get the call at home.

Monty's recruiting of bigs bit us in the booty. Behrens did okay in the second half, but we needed much more of that sooner. Turns out, to reply to a thread of a couple months ago, he was not our answer for a 3rd big. He barely played vs Arky, if at all. Maybe he should have got minutes when we were up 20.

R.Hobbs;842297299 said:

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different scenario. we were ahead by three. ASU needed a three to tie us ....
.the the ASU shooter.....ran from the middle of the key and cut to his left just before the foul line around a screen...a moving screen at that..by their big center....
we knew the play was coming and Monty diagramed a defense during the timeout before the shot.
Solomon was supposed to switch and take the shooter . Solomon did not switch...our other defender did his best to get around screen and closed out as best he could. 3 point shot tied the game and sent it into OT.

---

How about the play last night where Matthews was guarding ball at top left of zone, he went middle, picked dribble and Matthews backed away, thing Wallace had him. But Wallace had a high post in middle of zone. Dude stuck a 3.

Matthews didn't see many minutes.

They killed our zone. Brown > Anderson.

concordtom;842297313 said:

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How about the play last night where Matthews was guarding ball at top left of zone, he went middle, picked dribble and Matthews backed away, thing Wallace had him. But Wallace had a high post in middle of zone. Dude stuck a 3.

Matthews didn't see many minutes.

They killed our zone. Brown > Anderson.

---

They make Frosh mistakes in the Zone. Bet you a dollar that they hardly EVER play much of it in HS or especially in AAU. So you have guys do "dumb" things that are easy to see when the camera is 50 feet up and easy to miss stuff when it is occurring in your peripheral vision. Hopefully they take this and it encourages them to work hard (both on and off the court) to prepare for a sucessful next year. Just 8 months to go till 11/27 ;-)

concordtom;842297310 said:

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Morning thought, and I thought it as soon as it happened:
The ballgame was when they didn't call a foul on smu when they knocked Kravish down causing him to fumble wallace's brick out of bounds. We get the call at home.

Monty's recruiting of bigs bit us in the booty. Behrens did okay in the second half, but we needed much more of that sooner. Turns out, to reply to a thread of a couple months ago, he was not our answer for a 3rd big. He barely played vs Arky, if at all. Maybe he should have got minutes when we were up 20.

---

Marcus Lee
Grant Verhoeven
Landen Lucas

We came in 2nd for each of these players. If we had just one of any of them, we'd be so much better off. None of them are currently contributing much at the programs they are with but would have been the 3rd big that we lacked the entire season. Behrens simply isn't a PAC-12 level guy from what I've seen thus far. It's no wonder that we were up against Seattle U and Eastern Washington for him. All we needed from a third big was defense, rebounding, and finishing scoring opportunities at the rim, and no one after Solo and DK could do it.

tsubamoto2001;842297321 said:

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Marcus Lee
Grant Verhoeven
Landen Lucas

We came in 2nd for each of these players. If we had just one of any of them, we'd be so much better off. None of them are currently contributing much at the programs they are with but would have been the 3rd big that we lacked the entire season. Behrens simply isn't a PAC-12 level guy from what I've seen thus far. It's no wonder that we were up against Seattle U and Eastern Washington for him. All we needed from a third big was defense, rebounding, and finishing scoring opportunities at the rim, and no one after Solo and DK could do it.

---

Well lets hope the monster class changes which shockster believes in change this trend.

TO be fair, though, I thought we played much better in the zone - and I think it wasn't necessarily on the defensive end....rather it allowed the guys to force some turnovers - 7 steals last night and many of them "out top" so we could run off them - which allowed our wings to do what they currently do pretty well - score in space and on the move. It would have been interesting to see us play more 2-3 earlier this year and learn how to rebound better out of it - 17 O boards was truly the killer.

tsubamoto2001;842297321 said:

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Marcus Lee
Grant Verhoeven
Landen Lucas

---

Karnowski too, right?

JerseyBear;842297292 said:

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Throw in a little home cooking and SMU and Wallace falling down, without those ingredients, we win, Handily.

---

On the final play by SMU, it looked like we went man and then Wallace and Cobbs were taken out on obvious moving screens (football blocks really) to free up their shooters. Refs swallowed their whistles not wanting to decide the game on an offensive foul away from the ball....smart play by the Hall of Fame coach and only coach to win an NCAA and NBA championship.

socaltownie;842297336 said:

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Well lets hope the monster class changes which shockster believes in change this trend.

TO be fair, though, I thought we played much better in the zone - and I think it wasn't necessarily on the defensive end....rather it allowed the guys to force some turnovers - 7 steals last night and many of them "out top" so we could run off them - which allowed our wings to do what they currently do pretty well - score in space and on the move. It would have been interesting to see us play more 2-3 earlier this year and learn how to rebound better out of it - 17 O boards was truly the killer.

---

I don't want to see the small ball thing too much next season. Kreklow is too small and not physical enough for that.

concordtom;842297268 said:

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I'm very proud of our boys!!

Final play defense had
Cobbs
Wallace
Kreklow
Behrens
Kravish

Bird was on the bench in favor of Behrens for size and Kreklows intelligent experience. I don't know that anyone played that last set incorrectly. The kid just made a good shot off a well drawn up play. Logic held that they would have gone inside to the big boy, who was not stopped all night. That left the outside open.

Cobbs magic almost struck again, twice in one game, matter of fact. I have a man crush on him. He will be severely missed!

---

Wasn't just logic. Brown said he expected the play to go inside to the post but the kid just took a shot and made it. On a play they hadn't run in a game all year. Tough loss.

socaltownie;842297336 said:

---

Well lets hope the monster class changes which shockster believes in change this trend.

TO be fair, though, I thought we played much better in the zone - and I think it wasn't necessarily on the defensive end....rather it allowed the guys to force some turnovers - 7 steals last night and many of them "out top" so we could run off them - which allowed our wings to do what they currently do pretty well - score in space and on the move. It would have been interesting to see us play more 2-3 earlier this year and learn how to rebound better out of it - 17 O boards was truly the killer.

---

With Solomon instead of Kreklow/Behrens down low we would rebound much better, even in the 3-2.

I have thought all along that this group of players was really well suited to zone. Moreover, I thought we proved it last year in our end of the season run that came when we switched to zone. The idea that freshmen cannot learn zone is preposterous. They played well in it the few times we went to it this year with only a few days of preparation. Furtermore, I have seen 8 year olds play good zone. Freshman football players have to learn MUCH more complicated plays and schemes. Shoot, freshman basketball players have to learn much more complicated plays on offense than the responsibilities (which are pretty obvious and intuitive) in a zone entail.

I do think/hope that these past two games should/will be the model for how we play next year.

BC Calfan;842297337 said:

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Karnowski too, right?

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Yeah. But he's starting for the Zags. The other guys are being wasted at their current programs.

You may be right but we may have little choice. Rooks still is in project mode (assuming his foot heals well), Moute not even at that level and Diallo is just a hope at this point. Can Behrens ever be more than just an emergency filler?

concordtom;842297310 said:

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Morning thought, and I thought it as soon as it happened:
The ballgame was when they didn't call a foul on smu when they knocked Kravish down causing him to fumble wallace's brick out of bounds. We get the call at home.

Monty's recruiting of bigs bit us in the booty. Behrens did okay in the second half, but we needed much more of that sooner. Turns out, to reply to a thread of a couple months ago, he was not our answer for a 3rd big. He barely played vs Arky, if at all. Maybe he should have got minutes when we were up 20.

---

He is not skinny, arriving out of shape or somewhat a stiff (looking at some of our recent bigs). He is athletic, muscular., and tall. How quickly he adopts to the college game is the question. I like the talent that is left to surround Kravish and Diallo (and I think Rooks for some minutes), though it will be interesting to see who the point guard is next season.

Candidly, I would like to see Monty get another athletic big.

The consensus seems to be that all we need are two D1 level bigs, one D1 level point and one tall D1 level 3, who can shoot lights out, away from being very good.

I agree.

OK Monty, we figured it out for you, now just follow through for once.

:p