the bears roster will be very thin this season (which will not be an issue in 2015 & beyond as the team is built via recruiting) which means that guys are gonna have to stay healthy in order to play the up tempo ball favored by coach martin & his staff
the starters:
1-sam "the day of the dog" singer: 28-32 mpg, sammy's lack of top end quickness will be offset by his size, unselfish style of ball & most importantly his heart of a champion...singer gotta take wide open shots & look for offensive opportunities to score
2-jordan "en fuego" mathews: 28-32 mpg, jordan needs to bring a more consistent positive mental approach to his 3 point shooting every game...when the sometimes streaky ocean league mvp is on, opponents are gonna be burned
3-jabari "alcatraz" bird: 30-34 mpg, jabari needs to ferociously rebound & sprint back on d like a prisoner at the rock running for the getaway boat
4-tyrone "t-wall" wallace: 30-34 mpg, tyrone needs to rediscover the joy of being a little kid playing basketball, find his inner 12 year old self playing ball on the school's courtyard with passion & without fear leading his teammates to victories while relentlessly attacking the rim
5-david "doc" kravish: 30-34 mpg, the smartest bear of them all needs to stay out of foul trouble...expect cuonzo to play more zone d than we'll see in future seasons in order to protect our only proven big
the 1st guys off the bench:
****"prince" roger moute a bidias: 10-20 mpg: perhaps the bears only high level pac 12 athlete not starting, the steadily improving roger can be an energy guy who fights for loose balls & challenges opponents on d
****christian "the fast & furious" behrens: 10-15 mpg a healthy productive summer working out for the 1st time since he arrived in berkeley, christian is no stranger to adversity & if he can channel his inner beast mode that would allow cuonzo the luxury of playing 2 bigs on the court
****dwight "let go to shoneys" tarwater: 10-15 mpg, dwight reported to berkeley out of shape but he knows where to be on the court & will bring undersized rebounding grit to the bears
bench strength:
****"sir" kingsley okoroh: 5+ mpg, kingsley has size but needs to lose the lovely afternoon tea at the dorchester mentality & evolve into a ******* bad azz on the court
****brandon "boom boom" chauca: 5+ mpg, brandon will be an instant fan favorite but needs to work on his slow & low release point technique on his 3 point shooting
the walk ons:
dudes are 1 injury away from real playing time
cuonzo martin (to jeff faraudo) on jabari bird: "i think he can be a great player"
jabari bird: "i want to be better with focus, effort, defense, ballhandling, everything...i had an up and down freshman year and i feel i can improve on everything"
jabari bird on david kravish: "david is definitely the leader of this team...he's changed a lot since last year...he's gotten way more physical...you can in his game, he's scoring around the block a lot better..i think he's one of the best bigs in the nation"
jabari bird on roger moute a bidias: "i really like what i see from roger moute...he's really improved a lot...he's improved his jump shot...he's always been a hard worker, a great athlete...we should look for him to contribute a lot this year"
this is cal basketball#
together we attack#