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so close yet so far away
the bears showed heart tonite in coming back from a 9 point deficit to take a 5 point lead early in the 2nd half against a mentally tough & experienced #12 ranked team but couldn't finish the deal down the stretch at a loud & electric haas pavilion
sammy singer played one of his best games during his cal career with physically relentless d & also playing within his role/skill set on the offensive end scoring 10 points on 4 of 6 basketball attacking field goals along with 4 boards, 3 assists & only 1 turnover in 33 minutes...sam played with a bad azz attitude & hand clapping, when that happens he's at his best & tonite was no exception
roger moute a bidias is not being fully utilized at this time, rmd ony played 8 minutes...the playing rotation needs to be evaluated to ensure that roger is put in positions where he can help the team...he is arguably the team's best chaser thru brutal screen packages along with singer & the bird man, when kyle guy was going off roger could've helped the team defensively if given the opportunity...offensively he can attack the basket when the window opens & is shooting a remarkable 80.8% on free throws
yeah, the bears had another poor outing in terms of feeding young ivee with entry lob passes, rabb only took 4 shots which is likely causing the staff to lose some sleep & consider fresh solutions...but i now have come to the conclusion that the failure to facilitate our all american is part of a much bigger problem, this is a very poor passing team, the bears were last in the pac 12 in assists heading into the cal poly game & are currently averaging only 13 assists per game...cal only had 11 assists tonite...to put that in perspective ucla is averaging 23.8 assists per game with the ball moving rapidly between teammates (and it's not just lonzo ball), our guys are pointlessly dribbling the ball a couple of times before making a pass to nowhere
attending the asu vs creighton game in tempe yesterday evening was a real eye opener, the #9 ranked bluejays crisply & efficiently moved the ball like the golden state warriors with guys in constant motion & minimal dribbling, the jays are averaging 19 assists per game...mitch, marcus & nick will be breaking down asu for next week's game & i'm hopeful that every coach on the staff will watch the creighton game (yeah that's me in the 1st row behind coach mcdermott coaching him up as the jays 5th coach, he smiled & smirked at me the whole game as we shared moments together)
last year's team was also a very poor passing team which largely can be attributed to the one on one play of nba talents t-wall & jaylen brown, cal was 10th in the pac 12 last season with only 12.8 assists per game...the fact the team is not a better passing team with their departures suggests this is a systemic problem which needs to be addressed
bottom line, changes in the playing rotation & the passing game are necessary if this california golden bears team is gonna make the jump from good to great, the failure to pass the ball & faciliate/distribute each other partiucalry ivan is preventing this team from beating elite competition
the sun will rise tomorrow & both the staff & players will need to work harder/smarter...we already got the best d in the pac 12 & are a very strong rebounding team with contributions from everybody but our offense is a work in process
let's do this & make no mistake, taylor & i still love all of these guys
life is not linear (and failing to pass/share the ball won't win championships)#
