Wow - that's a small spread!

Wofford is a pretty good program. They've played in the NCAA Tournament 4 times since 2010.

I was thinking that it was a large spread. We lost to UC Riverside. We did not cover that spread against Cal Poly. Wofford is better than both. Oh, and our best offensive player is Don Coleman.

Wofford Terriers from Spartanburg, South Carolina
1-1, 1st in Southern

Tomorrow, 6:00 PM on PACN
Haas Pavilion, Berkeley, California

Fletcher Magee
6'4" Junior
MIN 30.5
PTS 17.0
REB 2.0
ASS 1.0

Cameron Jackson
6'8" Junior
MIN 26.5
PTS 14.0
REB 8.0
ASS 2.0

Matthew Pegram
6'11" 250-pound Junior
MIN 27.0
PTS 10.0
REB 6.0
ASS 2.0

Nathan Hoover
6'4" Sophomore
MIN 23.5
PTS 8.5
REB 2.0
ASS 0.0

Tray Hollowell
6'2" Frosh
MIN 11.0
PTS 6.0
REB 1.5
ASS 0.5

Storm Murphy
5"11" Frosh
MIN 19.0
PTS 5.5
REB 2.0
ASS 4.0

Donovan Theme-Love
6'1" Frosh
MIN 19.0
PTS 4.5
REB 2.0
ASS 2.0

...One other guy, Derrick Brooks, is a 6'1" senior - he averaged 20 Min and scored 4 pts with 5 rebs, 3 ast's, and 5 turnovers.

...And Kevin Aluma is a 6'9" freshmen who has played 23 mins in the two games with 5 boards.

Normally we wouldn't bother doing such a "look" at a team like Wofford.
But I suppose this year we cannot take a SINGLE game for granted.
Not even Chaminade.

I posted his on the insider forum in response to a question about Wofford but figured I'd post it here as well:

* * *

I'll take a crack at Wofford since I've seen them play a couple times in recent years. Think Davidson when you think of Wofford. It's a small private school for well-to do-kids for the most part and the roster usually reflects that. Not much size at all and not an athletic team typically. But they shoot well, take a lot of threes, move the ball around a lot and are well-coached. I think they were in the top ten last season in 3-point FG% and up there in assists too. Tempo-wise, they are not a slow team and are usually in the 70s but not looking to break much.

The guy to watch out for is Fletcher Magee who was first team all conference last year and was lethal from 3 (42%) and the line (90%). If we pack in the zone like we did against Cal Poly, it could be a big problem. We'll have a clear size and athleticism advantage but they're probabky the more disciplined team and a better shooting team. Should be a tight game. We'll be better off playing like we did in the first half of the Cal Poly game by focusing the offense on King and Marcus and hopefully we do a better job closing out on shooters. I'd love to see more man than zone in this game

As for the South Carolina game, I didn't see it but I know that USC has a lot of athletes and they play a tough, physical, in your face, man defense and that's the kind of thing that poses problems for a less athletic, jump-shooting team like Wofford. .

Fletcher Magee, Storm Murphy, Donovan Theme-Love.

That's a collection of strong names right there. I think that was the news desk team from the local Jacksonville FOX affiliate a few years ago. Fletcher as anchor, Storm covering weather and Theme-Love as the man on the street with the human interest angle.

75bear said:

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Wow - that's a small spread!

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I heard that a lot at my Super Bowl parties.

bearister said:

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75bear said:

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Wow - that's a small spread!

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I heard that a lot at my Super Bowl parties.

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Invite us, we'll bring a tailgate.

75bear said:

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Wow - that's a small spread!

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I hope the Bears' improvement, especially in the first half against Cal Poly, is here to stay and something to build on.

But if not, I mean we lost to UC Riverside, whose only other game is a loss to Loyola Marymount, whose only other game was a loss to UT Arlington. It's turtles all the way down. A 5.5 spread in favor of the Bears is not that low. Could be lower really.

This is a school with a total enrollment of 1700 students. There are economics classes at Cal with more students than that. If a team from a power conference can't beat Wofford, this could be a historically bad season for Cal. I don't think Cal has been more than 3 games under .500 in the last 30 years but would have to check all the records.

OneKeg said:

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75bear said:

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Wow - that's a small spread!

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I hope the Bears' improvement, especially in the first half against Cal Poly, is here to stay and something to build on.

But if not, I mean we lost to UC Riverside, whose only other game is a loss to Loyola Marymount, whose only other game was a loss to UT Arlington. It's turtles all the way down. A 5.5 spread in favor of the Bears is not that low. Could be lower really.

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It's been said here before, but you simply can't play transitive property of basketball losses or wins.

mdbear said:

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This is a school with a total enrollment of 1700 students. There are economics classes at Cal with more students than that. If a team from a power conference can't beat Wofford, this could be a historically bad season for Cal. I don't think Cal has been more than 3 games under .500 in the last 30 years but would have to check all the records.

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It may be a tiny school but FYI Wofford preseason rankings were in the 100-150 range whereas Riverside/Cal Poly were in the 250-300 range. Wofford has made the tournament 4 times in the last 7 seasons. This is no gimmie. After our performance against the first 2 opponents, I actually expected Wofford to be favored in this game.

we could be in "deep do do". however, i think if we continue to improve we will beat them and might cover the spread. home cookin and protect the haas.

An average of the various computer ranking systems has Cal as a 7.78 point favorite. All but one have us as at least a 5 point favorite. One of Sagarin's ratings has us as a 10 point favorite. It's pretty early for the various systems to be very accurate though. Personally, I'm not sure Cal should be favored at this point. Hope I'm wrong.

Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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An average of the various computer ranking systems has Cal as a 7.78 point favorite. All but one have us as at least a 5 point favorite. One of Sagarin's ratings has us as a 10 point favorite. It's pretty early for the various systems to be very accurate though. Personally, I'm not sure Cal should be favored at this point. Hope I'm wrong.

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The problem with Sagarin (and the others) is that early in the year, much of the data depends on last year's record. In our case, it's predicting from a totally different team.

parentswerebears said:

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OneKeg said:

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75bear said:

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Wow - that's a small spread!

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I hope the Bears' improvement, especially in the first half against Cal Poly, is here to stay and something to build on.

But if not, I mean we lost to UC Riverside, whose only other game is a loss to Loyola Marymount, whose only other game was a loss to UT Arlington. It's turtles all the way down. A 5.5 spread in favor of the Bears is not that low. Could be lower really.

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It's been said here before, but you simply can't play transitive property of basketball losses or wins.

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Transitive property would be if I was saying Cal is definitely worse than those teams. But I didn't say that.

Point is, losing to or barely winning against bad teams that lose to other bad teams makes the 5.5 or 6 point spread reasonable. Which addresses what the post I was responding to was about.

Trend is good! Team seems to be playing together more.

I wonder if we can take a game in the islands against someone other than Chaminade. Wichita may be a tall order (though how awesome would that be!), but if we lose the first, then beating the Marquette/VCU loser would still be a great step.