Shocky1;842601530 said:

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stats: san diego state bench 35 cal bench 7
cal 15 turnovers & 5 assists
jabari bird 1 shot
jaylen brown & ivan rabb 5 fouls apiece

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Not good. 3 McD AA's being outhustled and outplayed by a bunch of 3-stars. If this were a North Carolina, Kentucky, etc, board there would be a serious meltdown.

[video]http://www.calbears.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30100&id=4750298[/video]

richmond is 3-2 including an impressive 91-82 road victory at wake forest & competes in the atlantic 10 conference

the spiders are led by human bulldozers 6'8" 240 lbs terry allen (19.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg & an unselfish 3.6 apg) & 6'9" 235 lbs tj cline (15.6 ppg with a .500 3 point %, 4.6 rpg & a facilitating 3.4 apg) with support from 5'11" 165 lbs shawnee' jones (15.2 ppg) & 6'8" 220 lbs marshall woods (10.2 ppg & 5.2 rpg)...they have significant size yet still distribute the ball for 18 assists vs only 11 turnovers per game

this game will be very revealing re: the dna of this year's california golden bears, will they learn from yesterday's mistakes & bounce back with energy?...t-wall gotta huge size advantage vs their guards & has gotta show leadership when opponents make the inevitable runs in game, wallace needs to be the calming on court presence for the bears to weather the storm...the spiders offense runs thru their highly skilled bigs, are jaylen & ivan gonna avoid foul trouble vs more experienced & highly physical veterans?

cal needs to do a much better job in decisively sharing the ball, the bears were too slow in recognizing passing opportunities last nite in breaking the press, finding open looks vs the zone with the shot clock winding down & feeding young ivee down low...there were also breakdowns defending the aztecs breakaways

last nite there were several bears that were visibly frustrated with themselves & their teammates, guys need to stay together...and yeah, the bench including the assistant coaches could be more vocal, this is not a chess match, ok?

the preseason is a time of building blocks for a strong pac 12 foundation, the richmond spiders are gonna be another challenging opponent

let's do this

last season i saw the bears play high energy 1st games (including the epic victory vs syracuse & the dominant washington state beatdown) only to come out with tired legs/minds vs texas at madison square garden & arizona at the pac 12 tournament the next day in cal's 2 24 hour turnaround battles

richmond basically plays a 6 man rotation so they're gonna be tired too after the heavy minutes in the 67-59 loss to west virginia:

terry allen-38 minutes
trey davis-37 minutes
shawndre' jones-37 minutes
marshall woods-30 minutes

the bears worked as hard as any team in the nation this offseason with coach christopher in his relentless s&c program that is designed to build stronger bodies & minds

that could be the difference vs richmond, the bears gotta be off to the races




compete#

CalEnviroLaw;842601542 said:

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Not good. 3 McD AA's being outhustled and outplayed by a bunch of 3-stars. If this were a North Carolina, Kentucky, etc, board there would be a serious meltdown.

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assuming their fans are educated enough to read words & **** like that

CalEnviroLaw;842601542 said:

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Not good. 3 McD AA's being outhustled and outplayed by a bunch of 3-stars. If this were a North Carolina, Kentucky, etc, board there would be a serious meltdown.

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I hate to nitpick, but 1 to 13, SDSU has more talent than we do. And no, they aren't filled with a bunch of "3 stars". They've actually recruited quite well. Jeremy Hemsley and Dakarai Allen, for example, are guys Cal should have gone after and landed.

Malik Pope - 5*
Winston Shepard - 5*
Trey Kell - 4*
Angelo Chol - 4*
Jeremy Hemsley - 4*
Dakarai Allen - 4*
Skylar Spencer - 3*
Zylan Cheatham - 4*
Nolan Narain - 4*
Matt Shrigley - 4* (Injured)
D'Erryl Williams - 3*
Montaque Gill-Caesar - 4*(sitting out as transfer from Mizzou)
Max Hoetzel - 3* (sitting out as transfer from Indiana)

That said, it's inexcusable to lose the way we did. We got punked in the last 15 minutes of the game.

tsub, realize you're frustrated & its agreed that steve fisher has done a terrific job of assembling basketball talent but the cal staff recruiting sub 3.0 gpa non student athletes like jeremy hemsley (damien high school) & dakarai allen (sheldon high school) is not the solution

former cal assistant gregg gottlieb recruited malik pope (2.8 gpa at laguna creek high school) until it became clear that pope really didn't want to do more than 30 minutes of homework a nite

let's be real here, a high school diploma will work at san diego state state, that's not gonna work at cal...both schools have different blueprints for success

don't be a dumb azz#

Shocky1;842601587 said:

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tsub, realize you're frustrated & its agreed that steve fisher has done a terrific job of recruiting basketball talent but the cal staff recruiting sub 3.0 gpa non student athletes like jeremy hemsley (damien high school) & dakarai allen (sheldon high school) is not the solution

former cal assistant gregg gottlieb recruited malik pope (2.8 gpa at laguna creek high school) until it became really clear that pope didn't want to do more than 30 minutes of homework a nite

let's be real here, a high school diploma will work at san diego state state, that's not gonna work at cal

don't be a dumb azz#

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If we so smot, how comes it we sumtimez plae soo dum?

Bobodeluxe;842601595 said:

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If we so smot, how comes it we sumtimez plae soo dum?

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good question, bobo

tsubamoto2001;842601570 said:

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Malik Pope - 5*
Winston Shepard - 5*
Trey Kell - 4*
Angelo Chol - 4*
Jeremy Hemsley - 4*
Dakarai Allen - 4*
Skylar Spencer - 3*
Zylan Cheatham - 4*
Nolan Narain - 4*
Matt Shrigley - 4* (Injured)
D'Erryl Williams - 3*
Montaque Gill-Caesar - 4*(sitting out as transfer from Mizzou)
Max Hoetzel - 3* (sitting out as transfer from Indiana)

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Thank you. This is the post I needed to understand what happened last night. I had no idea they had so many 4 and 5 star recruits. I can rest easy now.

Shocky1;842601587 said:

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tsub, realize you're frustrated & its agreed that steve fisher has done a terrific job of assembling basketball talent but the cal staff recruiting sub 3.0 gpa non student athletes like jeremy hemsley (damien high school) & dakarai allen (sheldon high school) is not the solution

former cal assistant gregg gottlieb recruited malik pope (2.8 gpa at laguna creek high school) until it became clear that pope really didn't want to do more than 30 minutes of homework a nite

let's be real here, a high school diploma will work at san diego state state, that's not gonna work at cal...both schools have different blueprints for success

don't be a dumb azz#

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Where did you learn your insufferable arrogance? Hopefully not at Cal.

tsubamoto2001;842601570 said:

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I hate to nitpick, but 1 to 13, SDSU has more talent than we do. And no, they aren't filled with a bunch of "3 stars". They've actually recruited quite well. Jeremy Hemsley and Dakarai Allen, for example, are guys Cal should have gone after and landed.

Malik Pope - 5*
Winston Shepard - 5*
Trey Kell - 4*
Angelo Chol - 4*
Jeremy Hemsley - 4*
Dakarai Allen - 4*
Skylar Spencer - 3*
Zylan Cheatham - 4*
Nolan Narain - 4*
Matt Shrigley - 4* (Injured)
D'Erryl Williams - 3*
Montaque Gill-Caesar - 4*(sitting out as transfer from Mizzou)
Max Hoetzel - 3* (sitting out as transfer from Indiana)

That said, it's inexcusable to lose the way we did. We got punked in the last 15 minutes of the game.

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Thanks for that. I did not remember some of those guys being rated that high, and I think you chose the highest rating, not an average across the recruiting services. The point remains that we have 4 guys that were among the top 10-20 players in their class, including 2 in the top 5 (3 McD AA's + Domingo who was a USA Basketball national team player, and they don't just hand out those honors to just anybody). Those guys should make the difference. SDSU has no players like that.

[SIZE=5]okay, so the Cal basketball team went bust in the second half...shouldn't have hit on 15

but I'm thinking we are going to win big in the second game vs Richmond[/SIZE]

tsubamoto2001;842601570 said:

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I hate to nitpick, but 1 to 13, SDSU has more talent than we do. And no, they aren't filled with a bunch of "3 stars". They've actually recruited quite well. Jeremy Hemsley and Dakarai Allen, for example, are guys Cal should have gone after and landed.

Malik Pope - 5*
Winston Shepard - 5*
Trey Kell - 4*
Angelo Chol - 4*
Jeremy Hemsley - 4*
Dakarai Allen - 4*
Skylar Spencer - 3*
Zylan Cheatham - 4*
Nolan Narain - 4*
Matt Shrigley - 4* (Injured)
D'Erryl Williams - 3*
Montaque Gill-Caesar - 4*(sitting out as transfer from Mizzou)
Max Hoetzel - 3* (sitting out as transfer from Indiana)

That said, it's inexcusable to lose the way we did. We got punked in the last 15 minutes of the game.

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Actually, I checked Pope and Shepard on Verbal Commits and only Rivals rated them as 5 stars, all the other services had them as 4 stars. About the same as Domingo before he reclassified. I suspect most, if not all of those other 4 star guys on your list were rated 3 stars by some services. Cal has 3 consensus 5 star, top 10-20 players on the roster. No excuses for getting outhustled and outplayed by what is a 3-4 star talent level team. Cal's best players are much higher rated, and by extension more talented, than anyone SDSU has. They should have made the difference, not folded.

Any coach in America would take Cal's roster over SDSU's. It is not even close, really.

CalEnviroLaw;842601647 said:

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Thanks for that. I did not remember some of those guys being rated that high, and I think you chose the highest rating, not an average across the recruiting services. The point remains that we have 4 guys that were among the top 10-20 players in their class, including 2 in the top 5 (3 McD AA's + Domingo who was a USA Basketball national team player, and they don't just hand out those honors to just anybody). Those guys should make the difference. SDSU has no players like that.

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Yeah, I chose the highest rating. Still, the point is that they do have talent. Honestly, SDSU is a good, not great, team. They are athletic and long, but don't have the quality that we do in our top players, as you mentioned. But with the way the game was officiated last night, our lack of quality depth hurt us greatly.

CalEnviroLaw;842601744 said:

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Actually, I checked Pope and Shepard on Verbal Commits and only Rivals rated them as 5 stars, all the other services had them as 4 stars. About the same as Domingo before he reclassified. I suspect most, if not all of those other 4 star guys on your list were rated 3 stars by some services. Cal has 3 consensus 5 star, top 10-20 players on the roster. No excuses for getting outhustled and outplayed by what is a 3-4 star talent level team. Cal's best players are much higher rated, and by extension more talented, than anyone SDSU has. They should have made the difference, not folded.

Any coach in America would take Cal's roster over SDSU's. It is not even close, really.

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I would take Cal's roster over SDSU simply because of the star power of Rabb, Wallace (on most nights), and potentially Brown, if he ever gets it together. Then you've got shooting with Mathews and Bird (when they are right). That said, our bench stinks. They can replace a Spencer with Chol. Neither guy is Rabb, but they are way better than Rooks or Okoroh. Zylan Cheatham has been nice for them, too.

tsubamoto2001;842601750 said:

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Yeah, I chose the highest rating. Still, the point is that they do have talent. Honestly, SDSU is a good, not great, team. They are athletic and long, but don't have the quality that we do in our top players, as you mentioned. But with the way the game was officiated last night, our lack of quality depth hurt us greatly.

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I agree. Especially about how the second half officiating allowed SDSU to be super aggressive on D, which is their only chance to beat more skilled/talented teams, like Cal. The thing is despite depth, 1 or 2 great players in basketball should be able to make the difference. In theory, we have 4 guys that should be able to do that: Rabb, Brown, Wallace, and Bird. Even Mathews has gone for 30+ in games. Allen Crabbe did it at Arizona, and in other games. Justin Cobbs did it. The current guys have even more raw talent. Any one of Cal's starting 5 should be able to make the difference against teams of SDSU's level.

Chapman_is_Gone;842601621 said:

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Where did you learn your insufferable arrogance? Hopefully not at Cal.

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why are you still reading cal's monster class thread after 3 years?

washington drops to 2-3 on the season after the losing 82-70 to texas in their rematch on paradise island in the bahamas after defeating the longhorns on opening day in shanghai, china

tsubamoto2001;842601750 said:

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...Honestly, SDSU is a good, not great, team...

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I don't necessarily disagree with the statement, but I think they played great in the second half. I thought their defense was good throughout the game, but you could see that offensively, they are hit-and-miss. They had a long stretch when they were cold, and we built the 45-30 lead, but then they played a great stretch of basketball to end the game. I also thought they had great fan support there, and the crowd definitely helped in their come-back run.

basketball games are won & lost based upon team performances



stars don't mean ****#

Shocky1;842601868 said:

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basketball games are won & lost based upon team performances



stars don't mean ****#

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PLUS ONE; and I say this as a great Cuonzo fan, and echoing the same sentiment that has been expressed numerous times on this board by numerous posters: That molding this great group of athletes into the power that only team creates is totally on Cuonzo; and I believe it is a task he enthusiastically believes in, and probably realizes that its achievement is going to take the kind and degree of personal growth in himself and his staff that he and his players want for their careers, both here and hopefully in the pros - altogether a particularly dramatic and interesting dynamic with which to frame this particularly dramatic and interesting season.

Not only do the multi-star players have a lot of yet unrealized potential, but the lower star players have much the same possibilities for growth, and, as is the theme of this post, so do the coaches, and the athletic-academic culture we're all trying to build here.

In a certain way, this is a real powerful aspect of being a Cal fan that one has not seen so much always, but that provides, in this season of seasons, something very meaningful to root for - the realization of the power and strength of this ideal, a lot to shoot for.

As Cuonzo, I think rightly, points out: In order to develop that power and strength, one does have to go through stuff; and I hope we can see that this journey is something worth supporting, is what is worth supporting.

OK....What I really want to know is where the HECK is Shocky finding these Dr. Seuss things? They will vastly improve my internet trolling skills.

Shock, maybe you can use your access to question some of the bad coaching decisions. Seems like Rabb and Brown are not the only ones trying to find their way...
Terrible decision tonight to keep Brown on the bench from the 3:30 until under a minute. Cost the team a game.

89Bear;842602116 said:

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Shock, maybe you can use your access to question some of the bad coaching decisions. Seems like Rabb and Brown are not the only ones trying to find their way...
Terrible decision tonight to keep Brown on the bench from the 3:30 until under a minute. Cost the team a game.

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it's easy for us to question the coaching staff's decisions & strategies when the team loses (i wondered why we didn't call time out in order to substitute jaylen in on a late in the game offensive sequence which resulted in a foul/turnover) but the reality is that our head coach is a really smart guy that has played basketball at every level including the nba & that has recently coached a team into the sweet 16

this team is a work in process, watching the pieces come together will be fun but it's not gonna happen overnight no matter how many stars some of our guys got

the sun will rise tomorrow#

too many defensive breakdowns particularly in the 1st half but a valiant 2nd half rally spearheaded by roger "goallllllll!!!!!" moute a bidias spearheaded the comeback effort...rmb has earned more playing time in the future, he's a special young man & a true student athlete & respected teammate

bears gotta ask themselves, do you want to compete with relentless defense for 40 minutes?




taylor & her dad still love their squad#

Totally agree. Plus as explosive as Brown is he's still learning how to harness it productively within the team set. While he's probably already our most capable scorer, I don't think he's our most reliable scorer right now. I bet that changes by February and March. Really proud of Tyrone knocking down all those clutch fts down the stretch to keep the pressure on until the bitter end.

Shocky1;842602162 said:

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it's easy for us to question the coaching staff's decisions & strategies when the team loses (i wondered why we didn't call time out in order to substitute jaylen in on a late in the game offensive sequence which resulted in a foul/turnover) but the reality is that our head coach is a really smart guy that has played basketball at every level including the nba & that has recently coached a team into the sweet 16

this team is a work in process, watching the pieces come together will be fun but it's not gonna happen overnight no matter how many stars some of our guys got

the sun will rise tomorrow#

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Shocky1;842602162 said:

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it's easy for us to question the coaching staff's decisions & strategies when the team loses (i wondered why we didn't call time out in order to substitute jaylen in on a late in the game offensive sequence which resulted in a foul/turnover) but the reality is that our head coach is a really smart guy that has played basketball at every level including the nba & that has recently coached a team into the sweet 16

this team is a work in process, watching the pieces come together will be fun but it's not gonna happen overnight no matter how many stars some of our guys got

the sun will rise tomorrow#

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Their coach is a smart guy too. Ivy league. I'm sure he was very happy to see our hottest offensive guy on the bench for over 3 minutes in crunch time!!!!

I would do head stands as an opposing coach...
Don't throw games away#

will the coaching staff make it back in time to watch the games? bunch of Cal recruits in action. Marquee game is the finale with Sierra Canyon going up against Moreau Catholic ...

http://www.prepcircuit.com/prep2preptipoffclassic

Cal scored 90 points with multiple Cal players joining the scoring party
But the problem was they gave up a ton of points (94) and looked bad doing it
Coach Martin adjusted using zone defense after foul trouble forced his hand, but he may have also found the magic to get back on the winning streak

A lot of issues coming out of these past two days but agree the poor D has to be the biggest concern.
I really thought this team would play great D.
They sure looked strong when zone inspired a comeback.
Need to be able to use that more with our athleticism and length.
Play good D, cut down turnovers, get good shots in rhythm plus passion to win and we can be a good team.
It's not that hard and we are not that far away.
Hope our coaches and players learn from this, come back and shove it the haters faces (especially the TN haters) that say Cuonzo can't coach our talented team to play together and win.

HoopDreams;842602204 said:

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Cal scored 90 points with multiple Cal players joining the scoring party
But the problem was they gave up a ton of points (94) and looked bad doing it
Coach Martin adjusted using zone defense after foul trouble forced his hand, but he may have also found the magic to get back on the winning streak

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Yup. Our zone fouled them up just like our opponents zones have stymied us. Sure hope we see us playing a lot more zone-----not only from reducing our opponents flow, but also reduction of fouls. 'Twas effective tonight.

Shocky1;842582712 said:

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team: arizona wildcats

shockster 2015/2016 pac 12 prediction: 1st place

coach: sean "dunkin' donuts" miller

what you need to know about miller: his guys play tenacious defense, not a great gameday coach...and yeah he likes them dunkin' donuts variety boxes, he's multiple that way


what up in tucson?: arizona loses a lot in stanley "bumper car" johnson (13.8 ppg & 6.5 rpg), undrafted college drop out brandon ashley (12.2 ppg & 5.2 rpg), rondae hollis-jefferson (11.2 ppg & 6.8 rpg) & fearless leader tj mcconnell (10.4 & 6.3 apg)

the wildcats will return kaleb "zeus" tarczewksi (9.3 ppg & 6.2 rpg) who along with utah's jakob poeltl are the best true 5s in the pac 12...boston college transfer ryan anderson will be an impact player at the 4 after redshirting last season & gabe york (9.2 ppg) along with former bears recruit (moms didn't like berkeley) elliott pitts & parker jackson-cartwright (suspended at loyola high school for cheating on classwork) will play bigger roles along with incoming freshman allonzo "the gunner" trier, justin simon & chase comanche (moms is a protypical little league dad)...the wildcat with the most nba upside ray smith tearing his acl is a damaging loss

what this means for the bears: the pac 12 title & west coast dominance runs thru tucson until cal knocks them on their azz...tuscon is a dump but them senior citizens from the surrounding retirement communities along with the low gpa students show up at mckale in numbers...this program was built by the legendary lute olson along with his braintrust jay john...it's currently being slowly run into the ground by donut boy, he's shown no indication that he's capable of winning the big games


bear down#

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arizona goes down to unranked providence 69-65 with zeus out with an injured left ankle

Shocky1;842564314 said:

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what is arguably the most important scouting date of the year for the cal basketball staff?

that would be november 28th's prep2prep tip off classic at newark memorial high school...i'm gonna attend as much as possible working around the cal vs asu football game that saturday...check out kevin mccarthy's always informative nor cal basketball blog linked below for details...i'm gonna buy anybody who is also wearing cal gear a hotdog & a coke (bears coaches are not eligible for this promotion and food product substitutions are not acceptable, please ask your doctor if you're healthy enough for junk food...if you have a stomach ache for more than 5 hours, go to yoga instead & flirt with your curvy brunette yoga instructor)
http://norcalbasketball.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-prep2prep-tip-off-classic.html

so who are cal's key targeted prospects that we'll have a chance to check out in person?

game 2: bishop o'dowd's elijah hardy, the prized 2018 facilitator & distributor


game 5: richard midgley's modesto christian crusaders will battle jordan ford's folsom bulldogs

game 6: woodcreek's (roseville) jordan brown, a top 5 player in the 2018 class that midgley told me recently is an ivan rabb type impact talent


the vision right now for an ideal cal's started at the bottom class (2018) would be jordan brown, elijah hardy & miles norris

game 7: moreau catholic's oscar frayer, an off the charts athletic cal commit


moreau catholic's damari milstead, a talented point guard on cal's radar


sierra canyon's ira lee, a top priority for cal's touch the sky class (2017)...he got hair like vantastic

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the bishop o'dowd game will allow the staff to see for the 1st time incoming freshman class of 2019 raymond hawkins who lou richie told me will be an elite national recruit in the future like young ivee, apparently he's the real deal

good luck to former cal commit oscar frayer as he evaluates other collegiate opportunities, high character young man that assisted in the recruitment of rabb to berkeley

remember the walk ons#