In no particular order...

- We had 2.5 offensive players. Rabb and Moore (who are great)...Mullins is the other half. Everyone else out there has as a good a chance at hitting the lottery as they do at having a good offensive night. They just chuck it up towards the rim/backboard and hope it goes in. It's hard for me to believe we can't find some more polished offensive players. Special season my ass.

- Golden1 Center is the best stadium I have ever been in. The video scoreboard is amazing. Great job Ranadive! This stadium is changing Sacramento for the better. My only complaint is the constant dance cam during intermissions...a couple times during the night, cool...but 20+ times????

- The refs were a joke...half of the whistles should have never been blown. They make watching a game horrible. I would have rather watched a pickup game...they were that bad. Like I said, the video scoreboard is amazing...they would have the replay queued up seconds after it happened, and there you would see that a guy wasn't even touched and a foul was called. I have no idea what these refs were thinking. Way to ruin the entertainment factor guys. Honestly, they should all be fired. I could do a better job out there and I don't know half the rules...

- Food was just ok...cost way too much, but someone has to pay for that awesome new stadium. Unfortunately the Sierra Nevada tap room was closed, half the reason I wanted to go!

- UC Davis vs Sac St. was an entertaining game...I enjoyed that more than the Cal game since they weren't calling as many BS fouls. And at least UCD took down the State school.

- San Diego St fans start making this noise that sounds like a bunch of Crows...must be some Aztec war cry they had back in the day, but no idea.

- Cal band did the National Anthem. Was great. Give me a band to do the anthem over a singer and day of the week.

- Traffic in and out of downtown area wasn't bad at all...hope Cal comes back and plays again at the Golden1. Won't be next year...they were already advertising Stanford vs Kansas, Dec. 21st 2017.

I agree on the officiating. It was abysmal. Not biased, just absurd. The refs even screwed up on who they called the foul on, sending Rabb to the bench prematurely by calling one on him that wasn't. At least they reversed it later. But guys had no chance to get a rhythm and both teams had to sit good players too long because of it. That crew shouldn't even do high school games, much less D-1.

On offense, one thing that drove me crazy was the complete absence of options for Rabb when he was doubled. No cutters from the top or weakside, no spacing for shooters outside, no ball reversal after he kicked out. He described himself as a bit "disinterested" early on, by which I think he really meant passive, but it wasn't all his fault. We never made them pay for the doubles. And there was a total lack of poise by anyone not named Rabb, Moore or Mullins.

That said, lousy defense was a big problem. Aztecs had one outside shooter. We could have forced them into an outside game with a zone or more disciplined man defense and instead gave up countless drives to the hoop. Some of this is unfamiliarity and chemistry, but it seems like more zone early was called for.

Just another ugly game with SDSU. Hopefully it's a learning tool and hopefully we get Bird back, because that third scorer will be crucial.

Arena was fantastic. Really nicely done. One exception, food was horrible. The video boards were falsely advertising decent looking food. Product was much different.

Drove from SF to Sacramento and sat in rush hour traffic to see a pretty bad team performance. It was a let down. Also, SDSU fans traveled well. Kudos to them. SDSU shot lights out from the perimeter and it was tough for Cal to catch up once behind. Rabb still looks injured, frankly, and seemed to limp later in the game. May be worth sitting him for a few more games.

On the whole, glad I went. Go Bears.

HappyBear;842766079 said:

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In no particular order...

- We had 2.5 offensive players. Rabb and Moore (who are great)...Mullins is the other half. Everyone else out there has as a good a chance at hitting the lottery as they do at having a good offensive night. They just chuck it up towards the rim/backboard and hope it goes in. It's hard for me to believe we can't find some more polished offensive players. Special season my ass.

- Golden1 Center is the best stadium I have ever been in. The video scoreboard is amazing. Great job Ranadive! This stadium is changing Sacramento for the better. My only complaint is the constant dance cam during intermissions...a couple times during the night, cool...but 20+ times????

- The refs were a joke...half of the whistles should have never been blown. They make watching a game horrible. I would have rather watched a pickup game...they were that bad. Like I said, the video scoreboard is amazing...they would have the replay queued up seconds after it happened, and there you would see that a guy wasn't even touched and a foul was called. I have no idea what these refs were thinking. Way to ruin the entertainment factor guys. Honestly, they should all be fired. I could do a better job out there and I don't know half the rules...

- Food was just ok...cost way too much, but someone has to pay for that awesome new stadium. Unfortunately the Sierra Nevada tap room was closed, half the reason I wanted to go!

- UC Davis vs Sac St. was an entertaining game...I enjoyed that more than the Cal game since they weren't calling as many BS fouls. And at least UCD took down the State school.

- San Diego St fans start making this noise that sounds like a bunch of Crows...must be some Aztec war cry they had back in the day, but no idea.

- Cal band did the National Anthem. Was great. Give me a band to do the anthem over a singer and day of the week.

- Traffic in and out of downtown area wasn't bad at all...hope Cal comes back and plays again at the Golden1. Won't be next year...they were already advertising Stanford vs Kansas, Dec. 21st 2017.

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Great comments in this thread. Not sure what I can add...


I was sitting with a gent who worked for the Kings. Said the big screen is the largest in an indoor arena and that it was 4K (only 4K screen of that size in existence). It was pretty incredible. Said that big screen apparatus cost $30 million. Yes, he said it was a bummer that the bar on the top floor was closed.

Toured the hotel under construction across the plaza - it is going to be awesome (particularly the pool deck), also very expensive. The F&B retail also to be built out is going to be pretty special. There is a BBQ spot (K& 7th) that is opening shortly - that I heard is great. Can't recall name but started in Livermore and is also in Walnut Creek.

El Rey, which just opened near arena, seemed like a good spot/sports bar and Kenny Smith is an owner.

Dusty Baker was in VIP area before the game.

Charlie Moore really stood out - different team when he is in there.

Yes, we don't seem to have any answer to the Rabb double team and don't seem to be able to rotate the ball to open man. Felt like we were being outcoached out of the gate.

Domingo and Coleman (mostly) were driving to the basket and just throwing the ball up to avoid getting blocked. Pretty bad. Our body language and relative aggression led me to believe we were a bit intimidated.

Agree with comments that with Mullins seemed like we had 2.5 players on the floor.

Go Bears.

"..We had 2.5 offensive players. " Ominous. Even if Bird gets healthy, do we have enough consistent firepower?

59bear;842766160 said:

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"..We had 2.5 offensive players. " Ominous. Even if Bird gets healthy, do we have enough consistent firepower?

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The main unit of Rabb, Rooks, Bird, Mullins and Charlie, I believe will score enough to beat most teams we face. SDSU is very athletic and a bad match up for us. Mullins was over-matched, and Bird wasn't there. Coleman is athletic and looks the part, had a nice three ball to end the half, but looks like he's going 10x faster than needs to be going. I can see him contributing once he settles down.

Now if we struggle with teams like Wyoming and Princeton, then get schooled by Seton Hall, that would show us that we are in big trouble.

Think you're selling Mullins short. I'd say Coleman and Domingo looked more over-matched...Coleman (and Domngo less so) was driving to basket and throwing up garbage that had not chance of going in...Mullins had better body control going to the basket imo...

The main player who looked overmatched, unfortunately, was Sam Singer. Missed 3's, missed FTs, missed layups, bad passes/turnovers...just a brutal game for Singer that led to Cuonzo benching him in the second half. The effort is there for Sam but, quite frankly, he is what he is at this point in his Cal career...

seattlebear02;842766231 said:

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The main player who looked overmatched, unfortunately, was Sam Singer. Missed 3's, missed FTs, missed layups, bad passes/turnovers...just a brutal game for Singer that led to Cuonzo benching him in the second half. The effort is there for Sam but, quite frankly, he is what he is at this point in his Cal career...

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Well we have an entire season in front of us, and Sam has to get his stuff together. He won that game for us at UW with a last second shot (or did he tie it). He will have many more good moments for us. Confidence has always been an issue with him.

Very nice arena. I saw Paul McCartney there in October.

I agree with bluesaxe above. That 1st half was just awful. They played like they were hungover. Driving to the basket and just chucking the ball up was driving me crazy. It looked like middle school kids out there. Domingo and Coleman shouldn't even be shooting, but, if I recall correctly, it wasn't just those two chucking the ball up. Abysmal offense. Singer had a bad game (lazy passes, and barely hitting the rim on a wide open three that would have been a big momentum changer). Our bigs can't even handle the ball. And Rooks missing an easy layup. Dunk it for god's sake! gghaaaaa!!

Looks like anointing Mullins as clearly better than Matthews was premature.

KoreAmBear;842766237 said:

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Well we have an entire season in front of us, and Sam has to get his stuff together. He won that game for us at UW with a last second shot (or did he tie it). He will have many more good moments for us. Confidence has always been an issue with him.

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I sure hope you are right about Sam. I thought that this was possibly his worst game in his 3+ years as a Bear.

I fully agree that confidence is an issue. Right now it looks to be as much or more of an issue than it was when he first played as a frosh.

He is short arming almost every shot he takes.

I feel for him, but right now he is hurting the team.

SonomaBear;842766239 said:

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Looks like anointing Mullins as clearly better than Matthews was premature.

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Yup. He is smaller/skinnier than I expected, and while you can tell he has skills (that no look pass to Coleman for his trey to end the half was nice), he was over-matched athletically by SDSU (he blew a couple of layups trying to go too quick to avoid blocks). We'll see some athletic teams in the Pac-12 like Oregon, Arizona, UCLA, $C and CU, so he'll have to adjust to the speed. I don't think he had to deal with this kind of thing v. Yale, or Cornell or Brown.

KoreAmBear;842766258 said:

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Yup. He is smaller/skinnier than I expected, and while you can tell he has skills (that no look pass to Coleman for his trey to end the half was nice), he was over-matched athletically by SDSU (he blew a couple of layups trying to go too quick to avoid blocks). We'll see some athletic teams in the Pac-12 like Oregon, Arizona, UCLA, $C and CU, so he'll have to adjust to the speed. I don't think he had to deal with this kind of thing v. Yale, or Cornell or Brown.

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Well, from what I have read, he played and excelled against some out of the Ivy League competition against respected, first class D-1 schools. Who knows? Maybe the pain in the neck that he suffered made him less of a pain to SDSU.

The first half was simply abysmal. I mean even Rabb had what- 3 air balls? We played much better the second half with Moore in but every time we got close they killed us with another 3. I think turnovers ultimately cost us this game as I believe we had 16 to their 5? I don't like the lineup with Singer, RMB, and Domingo on the floor at the same time. If Rabb is going to pass it out of the double team, which of those three do you want taking the open outside shot?

Regarding your 1st point - +1. Its alarming to me that some of these guys don't have "go to" moves after being in the program multi years. Seems like they are waiting for shots where they are WAY open....like uncontested layups. Not going to happen often.

SmellinRoses;842766144 said:

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Toured the hotel under construction across the plaza - it is going to be awesome (particularly the pool deck), also very expensive. The F&B retail also to be built out is going to be pretty special. There is a BBQ spot (K& 7th) that is opening shortly - that I heard is great. Can't recall name but started in Livermore and is also in Walnut Creek.


Go Bears.

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The BBQ place must be Sauced.

The refs were making the game unwatchable early on!!! Foul on every possession, no flow...ugly.

Spent $28 for two cokes,a hot dog and a slice of pizza. Hot dog was $10 and no better than Haas.

I'm not sure Rooks can dunk. I remember one game where he side-rimmed the ball trying. Not trying to put him down, just acknowledging his physical limitations.

philbert;842766325 said:

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The BBQ place must be Sauced.

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Yeah Sauced is a chain (more high priced) and we've got one in Petaluma too.. I prefer KC, Tex or my own BBQ truthfully..

I wouldn't let Ivan off so easily. He was horrible in the first half, and disinterested or not, he was not doing a good job of passing out of doubles. He also took some horrible shots that really only the best NBA players should take (e.g. from 15 feet with a very long defender in his face). He did play much better in the second half when he took none of those dumb shots.

59bear;842766389 said:

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I'm not sure Rooks can dunk. I remember one game where he side-rimmed the ball trying. Not trying to put him down, just acknowledging his physical limitations.

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I think he may have dunked twice last year but he looked leaner then. The one dunk I remember was in transition, so he had a running start. Rooks is a slow jumper and it's hard for him to dunk with a defender near him.

Is Okoroh (listed as being 1 inch taller) also dunk-challenged? I kinda remember him dunking last year but I might be thinking of someone else. If so, how many teams ever have had 2 players over 7 feet who couldn't or wouldn't dunk? If I could dunk, I would be looking for opportunities just to impress the babes. :p

59bear;842766389 said:

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I'm not sure Rooks can dunk. I remember one game where he side-rimmed the ball trying. Not trying to put him down, just acknowledging his physical limitations.

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Watching Rooks in warm-ups this year he is dunking quite easily with one and both hands.

Cal is now 0 and 4 against SDSU over the past 6 or so years... . 2016 game pretty much mirrors the other 3... athletic, fast, frantic D of SDSU takes Cal O out of sync.... at some point during game and able to take W each time. (all Cal home games at that?)

Ivan's 1st minutes of season in H1, so, seen his rust and need to adjust to speed of the game SDSU brings.

Jabari DNP did not help.. but he had one of his worst games last year against SDSU, so, will not use that as reason for L.

We continue to see the Sac area HS prep to SDSU with Pope and Allen (both in SL)...

Better to have SDSU as team's 1st loss instead of UCI.

I tip my cap to the SDSU program.

Now just need to get ready for Wy.

:gobears:

Hot dogs are better in Memorial Stadium at half the price!

tenplay;842766587 said:

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Is Okoroh (listed as being 1 inch taller) also dunk-challenged? I kinda remember him dunking last year but I might be thinking of someone else. If so, how many teams ever have had 2 players over 7 feet who couldn't or wouldn't dunk? If I could dunk, I would be looking for opportunities just to impress the babes. :p

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Okoroh is listed as being taller, but if you see them standing together, Rooks is obviously the taller individual. They can both dunk easily.

I agree, about the babes, so here's a theory: They both already HAVE babes, who have told them NOT to dunk to impress OTHER babes!

oskidunker;842766337 said:

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Spent $28 for two cokes,a hot dog and a slice of pizza. Hot dog was $10 and no better than Haas.

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Costco would be probably $4. Pretty good big screens, too.

bluesaxe;842766083 said:

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I agree on the officiating. It was abysmal. Not biased, just absurd. The refs even screwed up on who they called the foul on, sending Rabb to the bench prematurely by calling one on him that wasn't. At least they reversed it later. But guys had no chance to get a rhythm and both teams had to sit good players too long because of it. That crew shouldn't even do high school games, much less D-1.

On offense, one thing that drove me crazy was the complete absence of options for Rabb when he was doubled. No cutters from the top or weakside, no spacing for shooters outside, no ball reversal after he kicked out. He described himself as a bit "disinterested" early on, by which I think he really meant passive, but it wasn't all his fault. We never made them pay for the doubles. And there was a total lack of poise by anyone not named Rabb, Moore or Mullins.

That said, lousy defense was a big problem. Aztecs had one outside shooter. We could have forced them into an outside game with a zone or more disciplined man defense and instead gave up countless drives to the hoop. Some of this is unfamiliarity and chemistry, but it seems like more zone early was called for.

Just another ugly game with SDSU. Hopefully it's a learning tool and hopefully we get Bird back, because that third scorer will be crucial.

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As to the cutting, that is something we don't do very often, if at all. In fact we haven't done much or any cutting to the basket since Montgomery, as far as I can remember. Maybe it takes too much energy.