Anyone have video of Marcus's fourth foul? I would be curious to see it again.

As bad as his fifth foul was -- and it was truly horrendous, not just the action itself but when it occurred -- I get the frustration. Can't do what he did, ever, but I get it.

The fourth foul might actually have been a bigger problem. Marcus came back into the game with 14:20 to go, Cal down 10. He had three fouls. Knows he can't pick up another. He gets a defensive rebound, Justice hits a shot on the other end, down 43-35. Turnover Oregon. McNeill then misses a three. As I recall, after McNeill's long miss, the Oregon player (Pritchard?) beat Marcus near the free throw line. Marcus, playing with three fouls, stuck out his leg and tripped him. Inexplicable.

Marcus back to the bench with 12:33 go to. Played two minutes. Now has four fouls. Cal down 8. Welle comes in, gets a quick tip-in, down 43-37.

We proceeded to play the next 4-5 minutes largely with a collection of Hamilton, Welle and three freshmen. As noted in the game thread, that group played hard, and pretty well. Kept Cal in the game.

Marcus comes back in with 6:22 to go, Cal down 51-44 (Justice had just completed a three-point play). Picks up the terrible fifth about 30 seconds later. Welle back in. Game pretty much over at that point.

Would be interested in seeing a clip of that fourth foul to see if there is any way to explain it.

Thanks.

bearister said:

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I am bait and switching you here, Eric, since I know you would check back with this topic. I can't help you with your request, but I would like your take on Grant Anticevich being jettisoned to Siberia. As someone pointed out, we don't have an All Star Team on our hands here so I don't get it. Your thoughts?

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Marcus and Kingsley were in foul trouble last night, staff played Cole Welle and Roman Davis ten minutes apiece. So question would be, should we have seen Grant for some of those 20 minutes? Based on what I saw at practice here in LA last week and overall game performance, makes sense they played who they did.

Cole and Grant are about the same size. Cole is stronger, tougher, more aggressive and communicates better. They put him in last night to be that player, and I thought he did well. Three points (1-4 FTs) and five rebounds (all offensive) in ten minutes. Have to say that was the right move.

Roman is more athletic/experienced than Grant. The consideration in playing him over Grant is that they needed more athleticism in those matchups. Roman with two points (0-2 FTs) and one rebound in 10 minutes. He played alright. Would Grant have done more? Doubt it.

I am a Grant supporter. Believe he can find a role here and play. Like his offensive game. Good feel, good hands, can shoot the three. But it is all too fast for him. He is not aggressive, strong, athletic enough at this point. He has had some good moments (e.g., first half of Wichita State; SDSU; big late three against Stanford), but has not done enough to nail down minutes, and certainly not enough to preclude the staff from looking at other options in the correct circumstances, like last night.

In normal circumstances he would be redshirting and we wouldn't even be having this (valid and interesting) discussion about him.

I wrote in a different thread that he is always the first guy out on the floor in the road games I have covered. Got to like that. But his warmup is a bit casual and methodical, just basic shooting and such. I think it would help him if he got in a more vigorous warmup. To start moving faster. Something closer to what Jabari was doing Tuesday (I posted some of those videos on Premium Board) or Tyrone Wallace pregame (have posted some of those, as well), to use two Cal examples (and shamelessly promote the Premium Board).

Excited for Cole to get some time and do pretty well.

I was impressed by his leadership and practice habits when I watched practice last week at Pauley and the Galen Center.

Wrapped up Friday's practice in style:

A couple more practice videos from Galen Center.