Back from the game... good win for the Bears, despite the fact that a main reason we won is that the Waves went ice cold in the second half. Pepperdine will win their share this season. We came out in the second half and outplayed them. Nice start for the Fox Era!

Joel Brown: Got the start tonight over Austin. He is what they say he is: Athletic, some length, good passer, plays D.

Paris Austin: Had a decent game, was especially good in the second half.

Kareem South: Not a great player, but a pretty good one. Fills a backcourt need for us this year.

Kuany Kuany: Did not play again. Any word on when he might be back? (because we're intrigued at his potential)

Juhwan Harris-Dyson: Also DNP, with his annual beginning-of-the-season injury or illness.

Grant Anticevich: Got off to a slow start, but had a good game. Incremental improvement. Seems a little quicker.

Matt Bradley: Even better this year. He's our guy.

Lars Thiemann: Honestly, he didn't do jack squat tonight, on either end of the floor, but that's why we don't draw too many conclusions from the first game.

Andre Kelly: Most improved over last year, but then, he looked good early last season, too. Still: optimism! The staff is getting him involved in the offense: Good thinking!

Jacobi Gordon: Seems sleeker and better. Let's see more!

DJ Thorpe: Did not play. Why is that?

Dimitrios Klonares: Played a bit in the first half. He probably won't end up in the rotation this season, but let's see how good he ends up being.

Coaching: We seem to be professionally coached this year. Nice. Lots to work on still.

Go Bears!

I agree with almost everything above. However the stats show Pepperdine shot exactly the same in both halves, 13 for 35. The difference was we shot 11 for 26 in the first but a scorching hot 20 for 28 (71%!) in the second.

Interesting. What about a half-to-half comparison on Pepperdine's 3 pt attempts? It sure seemed like they were clanging them in the second half.

(We were definitely shooting better in the second half. Good assists, too.

Big C said:

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Back from the game... good win for the Bears, despite the fact that a main reason we won is that the Waves went ice cold in the second half. Pepperdine will win their share this season. We came out in the second half and outplayed them. Nice start for the Fox Era!

Joel Brown: Got the start tonight over Austin. He is what they say he is: Athletic, some length, good passer, plays D.

Paris Austin: Had a decent game, was especially good in the second half.

Kareem South: Not a great player, but a pretty good one. Fills a backcourt need for us this year.

Kuany Kuany: Did not play again. Any word on when he might be back? (because we're intrigued at his potential)

Juhwan Harris-Dyson: Also DNP, with his annual beginning-of-the-season injury or illness.

Grant Anticevich: Got off to a slow start, but had a good game. Incremental improvement. Seems a little quicker.

Matt Bradley: Even better this year. He's our guy.

Lars Thiemann: Honestly, he didn't do jack squat tonight, on either end of the floor, but that's why we don't draw too many conclusions from the first game.

Andre Kelly: Most improved over last year, but then, he looked good early last season, too. Still: optimism! The staff is getting him involved in the offense: Good thinking!

Jacobi Gordon: Seems sleeker and better. Let's see more!

DJ Thorpe: Did not play. Why is that?

Dimitrios Klonares: Played a bit in the first half. He probably won't end up being in the rotation this season, but let's see how good he ends up being.

Coaching: We seem to be professionally coached this year. Nice. Lots to work on still.

Go Bears!

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Matt with a career high 25 and looking good doing it.

South looks experienced and can score. We are lucky he's on our team.

Paris first half = terrible. Paris second half = dominated

I thought Lars changed shots (but was too slow to keep up with quicker players). We will need him this year

Kelly great offensively, but not on defense. They were going after him all game.

Jacobi will be a designator shooter for us this year. Will be the third shooter on the floor

Grant seems slow out there, but he grabbed 10 boards and had some good moments. Besides the 3 that was blocked, he plays smart and moves the ball

Joel with the great handle and flashy passes. His offense game is attacking the rim. Not a shooter, and needs experience, but will be a nice PG for us

DK played too few minutes to get comfortable. Probably a year away from contributing

Moved the ball better, several times making the extra pass. great half-time adjustment to shut down their star player. my biggest concern after game 1 is our interior defense. Could be a major issue against power 6 teams.

16 pt win over a solid mid-major.
Nice start to the season and Fox era

This. The stopped clock.

Big C said:

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What about a half-to-half comparison on Pepperdine's 3 pt attempts?

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The stats show Pepperdine made 4 of 10 threes in the first half, 6 of 19 in the second. That's down from 40% to 32%. Cal made 4 of 11 in the first and 6 of 8 in the second, up from 36% to 75%.

I don't see it any stats by halves except for shooting. But for the game I'm a bit concerned that Pepperdine beat us 11 to 5 on offensive rebounds - we need to box out more consistently.

stu said:

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Big C said:

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What about a half-to-half comparison on Pepperdine's 3 pt attempts?

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The stats show Pepperdine made 4 of 10 threes in the first half, 6 of 19 in the second. That's down from 40% to 32%. Cal made 4 of 11 in the first and 6 of 8 in the second, up from 36% to 75%.

I don't see it any stats by halves except for shooting. But for the game I'm a bit concerned that Pepperdine beat us 11 to 5 on offensive rebounds - we need to box out more consistently.

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Kelly missed some block outs and they got dunks out of it

Kelly is by far our best offense post. Love his game down low

But he is frustrating on defense

Part of it is his lack of length and hopes, some of it is fundamentals

Love Kelly, but I think he needs more focus/ desire on defense. It's not just his size that's at issue.

stu said:

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Big C said:

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What about a half-to-half comparison on Pepperdine's 3 pt attempts?

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The stats show Pepperdine made 4 of 10 threes in the first half, 6 of 19 in the second. That's down from 40% to 32%. Cal made 4 of 11 in the first and 6 of 8 in the second, up from 36% to 75%.

I don't see it any stats by halves except for shooting. But for the game I'm a bit concerned that Pepperdine beat us 11 to 5 on offensive rebounds - we need to box out more consistently.

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A lot of those second half missed threes were from the Waves going into desperation mode and launching early threes every time down the court. That's when most of their offensive rebounds came as well. I thought Cal did a good job boxing out when the outcome was still in doubt.

Grant looks like he made more than an incremental improvement. He had a step back jumper which looked pretty damn polished. He was setting up in the high post and moving the ball so it didn't stick. I've maintained he could be he "glue" guy and I think it's happening.

I also see improvement in Paris not only in his quickness but confident decision making. Those dimes to Kelly were sweet and not made last season.

The defensive rebounding looked efficient there were lots of one and dones for Pepperdine. Under Wyking opponents would often get multiple shots due to bad spacing and fundamentals.

Still have a lot of work to do but couldn't have asked for a better start.

stu said:

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Big C said:

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What about a half-to-half comparison on Pepperdine's 3 pt attempts?

---

The stats show Pepperdine made 4 of 10 threes in the first half, 6 of 19 in the second. That's down from 40% to 32%. Cal made 4 of 11 in the first and 6 of 8 in the second, up from 36% to 75%.

I don't see it any stats by halves except for shooting. But for the game I'm a bit concerned that Pepperdine beat us 11 to 5 on offensive rebounds - we need to box out more consistently.

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My sense is that we secured the defensive boards much better in the second half than the first. Also, Pepperdine seemed to play in desperation mode during the second half going away from their offense that was getting better cuts and looks in the first half.

Honestly, I put more of this loss on Waves coaching staff than anything else. Seems like they could have gathered their players together during the Cal runs and reminded them that Cal is doing the same thing as first half, just better, so be patient. I bet if they were more patient of offense, they would have scored more AND reduced the number of Cal possessions (and scores).

edit: I made my post before scrolling down and seeing CivilBear say pretty much the same thing before me.

good comments all around here.

A few thoughts:
I thought that Kelly was infinitely better than last year offensively. In part, I attribute this to better conditioning, but mostly I think it's the way he's new being used. In the second half there were at least 3 instances in which Austin drove the baseline and hit Kelly cutting down the lane for a dunk or easy lay-up. Plus, he was rotating out to the perimeter (he hit a 3 when unguarded!) and then cut to the basket, rather than merely trying to post up and clog the lane. In an earlier thread, SFCity was worried that having Kelly hang around the perimeter would take away offensive rebounding. My read is that the way he was used last night made a lot of sense: move him around and have him cut rather than be a statue. I'd be interested in SFCity's take on this.

This is the second game in which halftime adjustments meant a whole different game. Ross went for 17 in the first half and only 2 points in the second (and these were FT's near the end of the game). Obviously, the staff needs to work on getting them prepared earlier so that we don't have to wait for the 2nd half to turn it on.

Sorry that Thorpe didn't play, and I'd like to have seen more of Thiemann after the lead was a solid double digits.

Brown is clearly a better defender than Austin at this point, although Paris had an excellent 2nd half offensively.

Finally, Bradley was a beast. Not only was he driving hard, but 5-7 from 3 is ridiculous, especially as a number of them were step-back to NBA land. Too bad he's undersized for guarding 3's.

I think its good to also look at the defense, since that's really going to determine how much this team can really improve.

Anticevech - you saw improvement from him defensively last year, and he's continued to improve. Yes, he looks slow and unathletic, but he moves his feet and consistently keeps his man in front of him.

Kelly - still needs work, but definitely better than last year when (in my opinion) he lost mins to vanover mainly because of his defensive effort and intensity. He's never really going to be a shot blocking presence, but even if he can put his body in the way, that would be helpful

Bradley/South - both looked solid, nothing spectacular. Won't really be able to tell until they face more explosive perimeter players

Austin - ugh. still needs lots of work. doesn't work thru screens (especially off ball screens), has trouble guarding at the point of attack and has a bad habit of not getting back on defense (this improved in 2H). When he plays with energy (second half) his defense is passable, when he doesn't (first half) his defense really hurts us.

Lars - Nice big body, doesn't get pushed around down low like Vanover. Would like to see him improve his shot blocking, but that comes with time. Vanover didn't really develop into a consistent shotblocker till the latter half of the season. I think once the game slows down for him, he will improve his paint presence (something we desperately need). Pepperdine really started to pick on him beginning of 2H and isolating him in PNR's. Not sure the solution for this, besides our guards fighting thru screens better rather than just conceding the switch.

Brown - definitely has all the tools to be a good/great defender. Still gambling too much (2-3 steal attempts resulted in easy baskets). But as he gets more experience, I can see him being one of our better defenders

JHD - I know he didn't play. And I know there's a large majority who have written this guy off, but I really believe that he's going to thrive in Fox's system. He's still the best perimeter defender on the team and i think he will excel in Fox's offense which seems to rely on a lot of screening to promote straight line drives to the basket.

Overall, I saw a ton of improvement defensively. So many times last year a simple on ball screen resulted in a blow by. But yesterday, our guys were able to defend the point of attack much better. The rotations were also crisper (which is a clear sign of better coaching). But the biggest thing of all was the improved effort, intensity and focus. With all that said, we have a long way to go defensively. But its definitely an improvement from being the worst power 5 defense in college basketball.

Just excited to see Cal playing hard, playing unselfishly, and listening to the coach. Great start. It will be an entertaining season regardless of the ultimate win/loss record.

My man Kareem South looks exactly like who we thought he would be. I appears to be a more athletic Grant Mullins, which would just be great.

UrsaMajor said:

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This is the second game in which halftime adjustments meant a whole different game.

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Kudos to our coaches for that improvement.

Last night was my first time in the house in about a year and a half. What a great time I had! Cal playing basketball the way it should be played, as a team full of unselfish players all looking to make each other look good. When any player scored off an assist, he usually thanked the passer for getting the ball to him. The two plays where Austin drove along the baseline through the paint, and then passed behind him to a waiting Andre Kelly for an easy layup, were both run the same way, but were very different because Kelly was not in the same place each time, and on the second play, Austin had to come up with a different kind of pass to get the ball to Kelly. This is what motion offense is all about, running a play, but creating on the fly, using a pass which will avoid defenders and get to your teammate in a good spot for his shots. Another play I liked was the athleticism of Kelly getting a steal and as he was falling down, managed to pass the ball accurately down court to a teammate to get a fast break started.

Those two drives by Anticevich from the top of the key were text book beauties. I haven't seen every minute of his games the last two years, but I never saw him do anything like that before. He is clearly getting some good coaching now. One thing I was hoping to see at the game was what had Anticevich done to deserve to be a starter, as he was not good enough to do that in his first two seasons. The answer is he is a better looking player now. Stronger, more confident, a little faster, and now has a move or two to go with it. Last night he was up against players quicker and more athletic, and he out rebounded them by a lot. Kelly looks slimmed down some, and is quite happy, as are his fans, with him getting the ball, and getting it where he likes it, and having the freedom to shoot it, unlike last season. He is playing aggressively, rebounding really well, and finishing well.

Cal didn't start too well, and I wondered what adjustments Fox would make at halftime. Pepperdine was killing Cal inside, and actually missed a lot of shots in the lane that were makeable. They should have been up 10-12 points at halftime, but Cal fought to stay in it. Cal dominated the 2nd half, against a team which was more athletic and quicker than we are. Cal's defenders were losing their men, and they switched to a zone which was even worse, and went back to man. On offense, Cal was losing the ball on drives, and taking some bad shots. After the game, Fox said he didn't make any adjustments at halftime, but told his players to try harder to stick to the game plan. It worked.

Fox's reputation has been one of tough defense, and just adequate offense. It seems from this first game that his offense is ahead of his defense. Our players in the first half could not seem to stay between their man and the basket. They got beaten off the dribble too often. They were giving up fast breaks. I also disliked our turnovers. 12 is too many, and the Waves got 17 points off our turnovers. Austin had no turnovers, but our other guards, South, Bradley, and Brown had 9 turnovers between them. In the first half we lost the ball too many times on drives. We needed to take better care of the ball and we needed to finish better at the basket.

The players are always looking to pass to a teammate, but when I looked at the box score, it said we only had 12 assists for 31 buckets. That ratio needs to be closer to 50%, or better. And a 1:1 ratio of assists to turnovers is pretty pathetic. A lot of it is due to the passes being a little off the mark, and a lot is due to not finishing at the basket, or missing a wide open jumper. In the 2nd half we looked a lot better. Cal outrebounded the Waves by 38-30. Cal got out rebounded in most games last season, I think. Cal had only 5 offensive boards. That is poor. They need to get on that offensive glass more.

Lars does not look ready for prime time yet. He is ahead of where Vanover was in his first game, and we know how good Vanover became with coaching and more experience. Lars has a better body. He does bother some shots inside, but he does not defend well yet. I was pleased with Jacobi Gordon, who looks a lot more game-ready than last season, very athletic, shot well too. He should be a big help this season. Brown is another player who did not look quite ready. He is fast, but seems to dribble without a purpose sometimes. There was one play where Brown and Lars seemed to be running a pick and roll, and as Lars rolled to the lane, Brown cut in front of him, Lars couldn't avoid bumping him, and disrupted the play and Brown lost the ball. Brown is quicker than most of his teammates, and I think after they get more experience playing together, they should become better at running plays.

Bradley and South both looked good. The perimeter shooting was outstanding. Bradley got key rebounds. The basket blocked my view of Bradley's flagrant foul, and in the first half, and Bradley lost the ball or had his shot blocked on a couple drives, but he used his body better in the second half to protect the ball and finished those drives better. I can't say much about Klonaras, as he played very little and looked tentative. Cal was short-handed with Kuany, JHD, and Thorpe out. It's too early for injuries and I hope all are able to play soon.

There are some things to work on, which is normal with a team this young. All in all, a very nice first game for the team and Coach Fox. I'll be back.

UrsaMajor said:

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good comments all around here.

A few thoughts:
I thought that Kelly was infinitely better than last year offensively. In part, I attribute this to better conditioning, but mostly I think it's the way he's new being used. In the second half there were at least 3 instances in which Austin drove the baseline and hit Kelly cutting down the lane for a dunk or easy lay-up. Plus, he was rotating out to the perimeter (he hit a 3 when unguarded!) and then cut to the basket, rather than merely trying to post up and clog the lane. In an earlier thread, SFCity was worried that having Kelly hang around the perimeter would take away offensive rebounding. My read is that the way he was used last night made a lot of sense: move him around and have him cut rather than be a statue. I'd be interested in SFCity's take on this.

This is the second game in which halftime adjustments meant a whole different game. Ross went for 17 in the first half and only 2 points in the second (and these were FT's near the end of the game). Obviously, the staff needs to work on getting them prepared earlier so that we don't have to wait for the 2nd half to turn it on.

Sorry that Thorpe didn't play, and I'd like to have seen more of Thiemann after the lead was a solid double digits.

Brown is clearly a better defender than Austin at this point, although Paris had an excellent 2nd half offensively.

Finally, Bradley was a beast. Not only was he driving hard, but 5-7 from 3 is ridiculous, especially as a number of them were step-back to NBA land. Too bad he's undersized for guarding 3's.

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My take is that both Kelly and Anticevich were out on the perimeter a lot, and so was Lars in the short time he played, and it worked well to give Cal more offense. One other result was 5 offensive rebounds, a pretty low total, as I predicted. Doing this is fine, but won't work well, if the team is not hitting their shots, because then you need to get those offensive boards to stay in the game. The team has a lot of players who can shoot threes, so maybe they won't all go cold on a given night, and this offensive set won't hurt us. There are pluses and minuses for any set you use, I imagine. I feel sorry for Wyking in a sense, because he had only one or two players who could make a three.

As to halftime adjustments, I asked the friend I went to the game with, what adjustments did he see in the 2nd half, and we both said we didn't see anything different. Fox said afterwards that he made none, just told the players to stick to the game plan, believe in it, and play hard to make it work. He said the Bears just executed a lot better in the 2nd half.

Did you see Montgomery's interview with Fox after the game? It takes a lot for Montgomery to get excited, as I remember, and he sure was excited over Fox's coaching and the way the team played this first game.

Thanks for the write-up, SFCity. I agree with pretty much all you say, although I thought Kelly wasn't on the perimeter that much. I agree that we need more offensive rebounding, but one reason for the low total was the high shooting percentage (i.e., fewer rebounds to get). I'll take that.

I was also disappointed with the high number of turnovers, some of which appeared to be due to a lack of familiarity with each other--passers thinking the receiver was cutting one way instead of another, but it is still too many. I think that part of the reason for the low assist total had to do with Pepperdine's defense. They seemed to be overplaying passing lanes and leaving driving lanes open. There were a number of times Bradley had a more or less clear path to the bucket, and even Kelly was able to drive the lane pretty much unimpeded.

In terms of unselfishness, my favorite play was late in the 1st half when one player (I think it was South) caught a pass on the left wing and was open for 3 when he spotted another player (Bradley?) even more open and made the extra pass for an uncontested basket.

"... and we know how good Vanover became with coaching and more experience."

I'm sorry, but for me Vanover will remain,




..until he proves otherwise. It won't be the first or last time I will blow a player assessment if he blossoms.

P.S. I wasn't aware he was the recipient of college coaching.

UrsaMajor said:

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Thanks for the write-up, SFCity. I agree with pretty much all you say, although I thought Kelly wasn't on the perimeter that much. I agree that we need more offensive rebounding, but one reason for the low total was the high shooting percentage (i.e., fewer rebounds to get). I'll take that.

I was also disappointed with the high number of turnovers, some of which appeared to be due to a lack of familiarity with each other--passers thinking the receiver was cutting one way instead of another, but it is still too many. I think that part of the reason for the low assist total had to do with Pepperdine's defense. They seemed to be overplaying passing lanes and leaving driving lanes open. There were a number of times Bradley had a more or less clear path to the bucket, and even Kelly was able to drive the lane pretty much unimpeded.

In terms of unselfishness, my favorite play was late in the 1st half when one player (I think it was South) caught a pass on the left wing and was open for 3 when he spotted another player (Bradley?) even more open and made the extra pass for an uncontested basket.

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I agree. If we have to make turnovers, I'd rather have the ones which you described where players are trying to be unselfish and trying to work a play with another player, than the ones where a player takes it upon himself to score or do something too difficult by himself and loses the ball. The former can be fixed with more reps in practice. The latter ones are not so easily fixed.

I remember the unselfish play by South that you described. It could have been Bradley or Austin whom he passed to, but it was a very good good play.

bearister said:

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"... and we know how good Vanover became with coaching and more experience."

I'm sorry, but for me Vanover will remain,




..until he proves otherwise. It won't be the first or last time I will blow a player assessment if he blossoms.

P.S. I wasn't aware he was the recipient of college coaching.

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I get it. I'm only referring to the improvement he made over 3/4 of a season. Without him playing as well as he did, you don't win those last few games, IMO. Wyking Jones was reportedly a pretty decent post player in his day, and I figured if he knew anything about basketball, that would be it, so I credit Vanover's little bit of development to Jones or to a member of his staff. All the Cal players got college coaching from Wyking Jones, just not good coaching, or even average coaching. He should stick to being an assistant. I haven't seen his acting, so I can't recommend whether he should focus on acting or not.

"I haven't seen his acting, so I can't recommend whether he should focus on acting or not."

His acting was good enough to convince Williams he was Head Coach material.