I expect that we will use the next 4-5 games to decide which players will be in a regular 8 player rotation for the conference season. We know that Claudia will be one of the eight. For the other two, I hope that we will be looking for players who can come in and make a difference (e.g. upping defensive intensity, putting up some threes) rather than just serving as temporary placeholders while some of the starters are resting. So I will be focusing on Ojukwu, McCallop, Donez and Maul to see who can best do that in these upcoming games.

I would expect 6-1 soph forward, Naya Ojukwu, be the sixth man. She played 31+ minutes per game for Morgan State last season as a freshman and grabbed 9 rebounds and scored 17.1 points per game. The Bears will need her unique combination of skills.

Jet lagged getting to Paris. Jet lagged getting back from Paris. Not exerting much athletic dominance.

Clarendon seems pretty quiet on the commentary. I would like to hear more of Clarendon's insights.

Horrible shooting, pretty good defense. Crazy low score. Looks like Grace is not available. High energy from Mjracle. We have as many turnovers as baskets.

Sac State guards look pretty good. Lulu not looking like herself.

Cal is 6-13 on two point field goals - but the 2-11 from deep is a killer. Not that SacState's 3-15 is much better. And SacState is 7-17 inside the arc - all in the paint.

Lulu Twidale and Sakima Walker are both scoreless and have hurt the team with their play. Twidale has been beaten to the basket by Sac State guards 3-4 times in the 1st half. Sakima Walker picked up two fouls in 8 minutes and had to sit out the half. She contributed one shot block & one rebound.

Charmin Smith won't play Naya Ojukwu for than three minutes per half. She had an offensive rebound, a shot attempt and a shot block in that short stint.

The other team seems very well coached and plays tight defense. Cal is leaving shooters wide open for threes and layups as well yielding 7 offensive rebounds for second chance shots. Sac State had eight more shot attempts than Cal.

After three quarters, it's 40-33. Bears are hitting same 9-19 (47%) of their free throws that they did in Paris. They'll not win games doing that...

Puff Morris also getting beat on drives for layups by #1 & #2.

Cal's defense won the game. Bears outscored the Hornets by 10 in the final period to pull away, 69-52. Offense needs a lot of work, or they'll not be able to score enough to keep up with ACC opponents.

Commentary and Clarendon speculating that Twidales issues are that there are no (few) other three point options on the Bears so SacState can focus on denying Twidale with "best" defender whereas last year there were other options that teams had to defend.
True but it does seem like Twidale just isn't making her even open three point shots.

Two players with energy tonight are Sheppard and Donez.

Smith is going to be having intense free throw shooting practice after this game. Bears at 9-19 through three (with Sheppard at 2-7! but leads Bears with 12 points). My memory says the Bears were pretty good at the line last year ...

Twidale now 0-7 - 0-5 on threes

One good thing with Lulu not hitting, she is now going to the basket more. Gives us better ball movement when she is a more multidimensional player.

A player we can least afford to lose

Hopefully ankle sprain

It wasn't pretty until the last five minutes - but it's a win for the team. Now we wait to see if they have lost Sheppard for any length of time.

The Good: Sheppard, Barnes, Donez, Walker, only 3 turnovers in second half
The Bad: Free throw shooting (12-22)
The hopefully not bad: Sheppard injury

I think Mjracle was our best player by far tonight. Hope her injury isn't serious.

That was a rough game. I suppose we'll have to get used to that. Tonight we got the calls but then missed almost half of our free throws.

I'd like to see Naya play more against teams which don't have big, skilled posts. She's much more agile and has a better motor than our bigger players. Puff isn't yet up to speed on defense and got abused by a very good 5th year guard. Sac State was good at getting mismatches with their screens. Perhaps that would have been less of an issue if we'd played a more evenly-sized lineup.

Sheppard was pretty much the best player tonight. Was a downer that she went down so late. Looked like an ankle, maybe knocked knees? Didn't want to put any weight on it. Would be a big loss if the injury is significant. Sheppard looked comfortable running the offense.

One thing is quite obvious - Cal will not be banging the 3 like they have over the last 2 years. Also, Lulu is going to have to pick her spots. She looked like she was forcing shots up. Once they get a drive and kick game going, she may get some shots but teams know about her now.

Barnes looked solid, effective. Lola was very active, twice sticking her nose in to get an offensive rebound and getting fouled. Shot looked better from the right baseline - went 2-3 from that spot. Shot the first one tentatively and it was a brick. The next two were in rhythm and they went in.

Walker, in the first half was passive. Made an effort to get her going in the second half and was more effective. Needs to smooth out the rough edges though. It was nice to see Claudia on the court after all she's been through. She'll provide some depth but looked a bit rusty.

Cal's lack of depth at the post might be a weakness. Walker will have to stay out of foul trouble (stating the obvious a la Michelle).

Morris could not contain Versteeg, allowing her to go right time after time. Has to work on positioning and quite frankly did not look like she has lateral movement? But it's only one game (I did not watch the game in France). Did make two 3s though.

Cal struggled at the line. They will have to improve in this area because the Bears don't have the firepower like they've had the last two seasons. The games will be uglier and slower paced - at least at the outset (in my opinion) until they figure each other out.

With only 6 returning players and only 4 of them playing minutes, the majority of the team is new so it does make sense there will need to be some time to adjust and adapt.

This team has some pieces and it will be interesting to see what works. The combo of Barnes, Sheppard, Lulu, Walker and Lola looked like the smoothest unit...at least tonight. Again, one game.

Oh - and only 11 TOs?

Will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Too tired to post last night.

1. As i said in the practice, Miracle has a lot of energy and is fast. Great defender.

2. As I also said n the practice was Lola has worked on our shot from the corner. And she hit two tonight. She only practices from the corner.

3. No ushers at the game. Can't control who sits in your seat.

4. Food stand changed how they operate. and it was horrible.

5. We got free clear bags.

6. Attendance wasn't very good. So much for having a great season and it improving our attendance.

7. New cheerleders. miss the male cheerleader from the last two years.'

8. As usual the music was way too loud.

9. The music is the least diverse I have ever heard. So much diversity.

10. Looks like we are still relying to figure out who does what. a little better understanding with each game.

11. More later.

annarborbear said:

---

Jet lagged getting to Paris. Jet lagged getting back from Paris. Not exerting much athletic dominance.

---

With all due respect, please aab, can we let the travel fatigue narrative go? Heard about it all last season. Travel is a given. It sure didn't seem like Mjracle or Lola were suffering from jet lag. Did they take a faster plane home than everybody else?

RedlessWardrobe said:

---

annarborbear said:

---

Jet lagged getting to Paris. Jet lagged getting back from Paris. Not exerting much athletic dominance.

---

With all due respect, please aab, can we let the travel fatigue narrative go? Heard about it all last season. Travel is a given. It sure didn't seem like Mjracle or Lola were suffering from jet lag. Did they take a faster plane home than everybody else?

---

A trip to Paris and back is a different animal, and several players did look a bit slower in the first half. It was also tough to play a team - Sac State, - that was surprisingly intense.

It was kind of what you'd expect from an early game with a group of players who are still in the processing of gelling with one another and (some) getting used to the college game. Sacramento State is a well-coached team that plays pesky defense and has quick guards. We clearly have some talented players on the court and these early games offer the opportunity to work out the kinks. I think our limited post options is a challenge and our abysmal shooting from the line obviously cannot be the norm.

Pacific challenged us last year and always puts up a good fight so hopefully Cal can take some lessons from this game and execute better on Tuesday. I hope Sheppard suffered nothing more than an ankle sprain. She was impressive as were some other newbies to the team, Barnes in particular.

As for attendance, I actually looked around and thought it pretty typical for an early, non-conference game (1,323)...slightly higher than last season's opener against St. Mary's. I didn't get the band playing during the opening video though....that was odd. (I had earplugs in though).

My guess is the outside shooting will improve. Lulu is simply missing open looks. Also I know it's only two games but there are moments when Puff is looking more like a freshman out there. Hopefully she'll step up a bit more as the season goes on. OTOH, you gotta love Mjracle's game. Reminds me a bit of Jayda last year, especially on defense, but she appears to have solid offensive skills to go with it.