Without a doubt Louisville was the best defensive team we've played this season. Watching today's game, none of our players "cost us" the game. Time after time in the half court offense, Louisville made it very difficult for us to run our rotations, and quite often we'd end up taking a bad shot, sometimes to just beat the shot clock. Our only other chance for success was to hit some shots in transition, and that didn't materialize. That Louisville team was really good.

Agree with Stu. Naya struggled against the taller Cardinals. and she doesn't look right. I thought claudia looked like she moved better than before. she just didn't shoot well. Missing Taylor was huge. she is taller than Naya but can play outside.

With a healthy Taylor and/or Puff, we would have had a good chance to win this game. Even with out them, we were in this game until the last 3 or 4 minutes or so, we just needed to put together a good run.
I thought it was a good, vocal crowd for 11am on a Sunday..

I'm not understanding the knocking of Claudia. Of the players who played 10 minutes or more she had a +/- of Zero (0). Everyone else was in the negative. Her shot wasn't dropping...that happens to everyone, including Lulu, and our big 3 3 point shooters in various games last year. What she did doesn't show up as a statistic...those of us at the game saw her draw the defenders away from Sakima, add some defensive size presence against a very tall team, and facilitated the passing game. For someone that missed about a month of games, and had played a little bit less due to apparent back issues before she got ill, she's responded well when pressed into duty against Notre Dame and Louisville (these aren't the Cal Poly's and Boston College's of Division 1). Please note that despite the loss our NET will go up one slot to 53. And Claudia and all the rest of the defenders should be proud that they held a team that averages 83 points a game to 71! Lots to be happy with in this game, as well as the three before this. There are 8 games left in the regular season, and Cal has a decent chance to run the table...the scariest part of their schedule is behind them, with some tough ones (and theoretically easy ones) ahead.

Woodacre said:

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I'm not understanding the knocking of Claudia. Of the players who played 10 minutes or more she had a +/- of Zero (0). Everyone else was in the negative. Her shot wasn't dropping...that happens to everyone, including Lulu, and our big 3 3 point shooters in various games last year. What she did doesn't show up as a statistic...those of us at the game saw her draw the defenders away from Sakima, add some defensive size presence against a very tall team, and facilitated the passing game. For someone that missed about a month of games, and had played a little bit less due to apparent back issues before she got ill, she's responded well when pressed into duty against Notre Dame and Louisville (these aren't the Cal Poly's and Boston College's of Division 1). Please note that despite the loss our NET will go up one slot to 53. And Claudia and all the rest of the defenders should be proud that they held a team that averages 83 points a game to 71! Lots to be happy with in this game, as well as the three before this. There are 8 games left in the regular season, and Cal has a decent chance to run the table...the scariest part of their schedule is behind them, and some tough ones (and theoretically easy ones) ahead.

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I agree. Thanks for posting this.

Running the table would be great, but (I hate to have to keep bringing it up), we really depend on Taylor's minutes. Add to that, Puff is still not playing. This team has great resilience but sometimes the key injuries really take their toll. At this point of the season, a deeper rotation would go a long way.

Good report on the game, and the rest of the season, from Nick Kranz: https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/short-handed-bears-fade-late-against

BearBint said:

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Good report on the game, and the rest of the season, from Nick Kranz: https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/short-handed-bears-fade-late-against

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Great article.... Thank-you!.. Injuries are tough, and I give our student athletes much praise for their determination to do the rehab to heal and return to the court.......the tenacity of this team on the court is amazing to me. I worked as a much younger nurse(now retired) at the old Student Health Service, known as Cowell Hospital from 1974-1978. I love the game as much as when I played in highschool in the early 1960's..... GO BEARS!!!!!