Cal Dominates Cal State Bakersfield in Decisive 87-60 Victory
Cal's balanced scoring attack overwhelms the Roadrunners
The Golden Bears jumped out to an early 10-0 lead and never looked back in the 87-60 victory of the CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners.
Cal’s starting lineup consisted of guards Dai Dai Ames and Justin Pippen, forwards Chris Bell and John Camden, and center Lee Dort. Nine different players had logged playing time within the first 5 minutes, with all nine players logging at least 7 minutes of court time in the first half. Cal led at the half 37-26 thanks to a balanced scoring effort with eight different players hitting at least one basket.
Cal featured good ball movement early on, with 7 assists on Cal’s 13 baskets. While only 2-of-16 on 3-point shots(both from John Camden), Cal was an impressive 11-of-15 from 2-point range. Justin Pippen and Lee Dort both had 7 first-half points, while John Camden led the Bears with 9 points.
The Roadrunners never threatened in the second half. Cal maintained a low double-digit lead before pushing it up to 24 points near the 8-minute mark, and cruised to the victory.
Four different Golden Bears scored in double digits, lead by John Camden’s 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Dai Dai Ames scored 16 of his 18 points after intermission to fuel Cal’s second half scoring. Justin Pippen added 15 points and 7 assists. Lee Dort scored 15 points, collected 9 rebounds, and dished out 4 assists in an impressive all-around game.
On defense, Cal held the Roadrunners to 38% shooting for the game and forced 16 turnovers. Cal played with an increased defensive intensity compared to last year. The Golden Bears were more decisive on defensive switches, displayed better communication, and played lockdown on-ball defense on the perimeter. Chris Bell, in particular was a tenacious defender who used his length to stifle his perimeter assignment. In his postgame comments, Lee Dort talked about a strategic change from last year on switches; in addition to dropback coverage, they are mixing in cutting off the switch action and closing down on the ball handler.
Notes and Observations
With nine players playing quality minutes, who starts and who comes off the bench may not matter much early in the season. It will be interesting to see what the closing lineup will be when Cal has a more competitive game.
Coach Madsen has historically used a core rotation of 8 players. As the season progresses, look for the team to be centered around core trio of Pippen, Camden and Dort, with flexibility at the other spots for matchup-specific decisions.
Cal had 20 assists tonight, more than any game from last year. John Camden when asked about the ball movement; “There were several moments in the game when guys passed up shots….it’s fun playing on team like that where you actually have to tell the guys, hey shoot the ball.”
Lee Dort may be poised to take a large step forward. He appears to have slimmed down and added muscle while moving very well in the post. If he improves his ability to handle the ball, he may have a special year.
More on Dort, from Coach Madsen; ”Over the summer, Lee Dort changed his body, he changed his nutrition, he got in the gym even more than he had been doing.….4 assists and 1 turnover, that shows how unselfish he is.”
While Cal only shot 5-of-23 from behind the arc, the Bears shot 27-of-36 from inside the arc. Evanmiya.com ranks Cal as having one of the best collection of elite 3-point shooters in the country in Ames, Camden and Bell. Expect both shooting percentages to regress to the mean as the season continues.
Though the defense played well, there are certain aspects Coach Madsen wants to improve; “I thought our transition defense was not good, I thought we made some mental mistakes….but there WAS improvement. I’m hopeful this was below a 1 (point-per-possession) game.” CSUB scored .86 points per possession.
In the postage comments, Coach Madsen indicated Freshman G Jovani Ruff will redshirt this year as he continues to recover from a lingering wrist injury.
Sammie Yeanay and DJ Campbell did not play tonight. They are both considered day-to-day as they recover from minor injuries.
Scottie Pippen sat courtside, watching his son have an impressive Cal debut. For about 30 seconds of game time toward the end, both Justin Pippen and Stephon Marbury were on the court for the Golden Bears. No commentary, just a weird thing for this Gen-X author to type.
Tonight’s win was the Men’s Basketball 300th win in Haas Pavilion. May the ‘Haas of Pain’ moniker come to fruition for this season.
Cal returns to Haas Pavilion on Thursday, facing the Wright State Raiders at 7pm.
Thanks BP.
An encouraging opening tilt, especially on the defensive end. Madsen's first 2 teams at Cal have struggled to defend at a competent level, which has made it quite difficult for him to consistently beat P4 rosters.
If they are going to show any progress in year 3, they need to defend at a much higher level. Last night looked so much more promising, especially at the G position.
I just wanted to add that our new white jerseys are basic af but kinda go hard. I like them.