Something is wrong here

Yes, the offense.

<Sigh>

Wazzu shoots 2 of 18 from 3 in that game. In ours..8 of 19 (and guess what - it wasn't because of bad defense). Indeed, big dude (Franks) was 3 of 5 against the Bears.....didn't try one against the Utes.

Add in that Utah shoots the ball BETTER than us....

socaltownie;842796568 said:

---

<Sigh>

Wazzu shoots 2 of 18 from 3 in that game. In ours..8 of 19 (and guess what - it wasn't because of bad defense). Indeed, big dude (Franks) was 3 of 5 against the Bears.....didn't try one against the Utes.

Add in that Utah shoots the ball BETTER than us....

---

Utah's offense is far better than Cal's right now.

At Pullman btw.

I actually started the other thread "is it coaching" because of how close WSU played us. The cougs have been really bad not just this year but the past few years. Utah is NOT super talented...

4th place is between Cal, Utah and USC
I don't like our chances AT Utah

Maybe not super talented but big and this is another coach K who can coach.

We were always going to win ugly early on. Conzo's teams have never rounded into offensive form until the end of the season.

Why are our expectations not aligned with that?

socaltownie;842796568 said:

---

<Sigh>

Wazzu shoots 2 of 18 from 3 in that game. In ours..8 of 19 (and guess what - it wasn't because of bad defense). Indeed, big dude (Franks) was 3 of 5 against the Bears.....didn't try one against the Utes.

Add in that Utah shoots the ball BETTER than us....

---

This. A lot of it (not all but a lot) can be explained by shooting variance. Its not like you can argue that Cal doesn't have a good defense.

The other part is that you can't compare Cal to other teams. Some teams have the ability to wipe other teams out. We simply aren't built that way. We aren't going to win big, but we also aren't going to lose big (even against the very top tier teams). IT is what it is. But it doesn't mean that something is broke.

I love this team. Warts and all. Period.

socaltownie;842796568 said:

---

....Wazzu shoots 2 of 18 from 3 in that game. In ours..8 of 19 (and guess what - it wasn't because of bad defense). .....

---

This. Coug's shot uncharacteristically well at Haas that day.

And according to Pomeroy's numbers, Cal is 9th in the nation in defensive efficiency. Utah is 57th (which is still pretty good.)

ducky23;842796761 said:

---

This. A lot of it (not all but a lot) can be explained by shooting variance. Its not like you can argue that Cal doesn't have a good defense.

The other part is that you can't compare Cal to other teams. Some teams have the ability to wipe other teams out. We simply aren't built that way. We aren't going to win big, but we also aren't going to lose big (even against the very top tier teams). IT is what it is. But it doesn't mean that something is broke.

---

Exactly. Our D should keep us in almost every game. (Which is why the 1st half of game at Pauley was really disappointing.) But we're not going to win many blowouts, cuz our offensive efficiency is so poor (#164 according to Pomeroy).

Which is better: going say 13-5 with most of the wins being by single digits and the losses being single digits as well, or going 10-8 with several 30+ point wins (and a few big losses as well)?

Put another way: would you rather be Cal at 4-2 with a last second win over WSU or Stanfurd at 2-4 with a 30 point win...?

UrsaMajor;842796845 said:

---

Which is better: going say 13-5 with most of the wins being by single digits and the losses being single digits as well, or going 10-8 with several 30+ point wins (and a few big losses as well)?

Put another way: would you rather be Cal at 4-2 with a last second win over WSU or Stanfurd at 2-4 with a 30 point win...?

---

that sums it up nicely.

This argument that certain teams just play close games due to style doesn't hold much weight with me. The one thing you can point to is that we play at a very slow pace combined with our inefficiency offensively makes for close, low-scoring games against inferior teams. But then Virginia, the slowest team in the country in tempo, has multiple wins by double-digits.

Point blank, you want to play well. The comparison of us and Furd is a bit misleading as Furd didn't play with Reid Travis on their LA trip. Doesn't mean they would have won a game down there like we barely did. Furd was in the process of blowing out UW before Reid Travis went down due to injury, and we played 2 close games against the same teams. One interesting note on Furd is that they are first in tempo in conference games.

A better comparison is Utah. They have the same record as us and are likely our competitor for that 4th seed in the PAC-12 Tournament. So far in conference, their Efficiency stats are better. About 9 point better per 100 possessions on offense and 4 points per 100 possessions on D. Against the better teams in conference we may be able to compete down to the wire due to defense and pace, but to win those games our offense has to come through down the stretch.

I don't care about margin of victory, because I don't think the tournament committee cares a whole lot about it either. Because basketball has so many more games than football, I don't think style points for blowouts have much weight. What matters are wins and losses, and thankfully, so far we have had no bad losses, and one fairly decent win U$C. Tonight is a chance to improve our resume. Lets do it.