Cal falls to Eastern Washington, 50-48

The Drought Continues

About 90 minutes prior to tipoff against the Eastern Washington, Cal announced that Devin Askew and ND Okafor would miss the game as they recover from COVID. This thinned out an already depleted roster, who were already without three rotation players due to injury. Wrenn Robinson joined the Golden Bears in early November as a walk-on. Robinson entered the game at the 13-minute mark in the first half, as he was the only active point guard behind start Joel Brown. Cal had 10 players dressed for the game, and all played except for Jack McCloskey. Coach Mark Fox subbed frequently to keep the players fresh and to find a team composition that could overcome the loss of Devin Askew.

Yes, COVID definitely impacted the team tonight. Yes, Cal definitely had injuries and a short roster to work with.

Cal still should have beaten EWU.

Without Askew, Cal ran their offense through Lars Theimann. The big man has a 2” height advantage over anyone on the Eagles, and appeared to be a natural mismatch. He responded well, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. He also drew 8 fouls, and was 4-of-8 from the free throw line.

Lars also has his flaws. For all his size, Lars does not impose his will in the paint like USC’s Joshua Morgan did last week against Cal. Lars also lacks hand strength. He loses contested rebound battles and is frequently stripped of the ball when he brings it down low. While Lars had 6 rebounds, Joel Brown led the Bears with 8 rebounds. EWU’s Casey Jones (6’ 6”) had 14 rebounds. Theimann is not capable of carrying the team on his own.

Cal still should have beaten EWU.

Cal is currently lacking any above average shooters. The Golden Bears shot an OK 39% for the game, but started off cold shooting 0-4, and fell behind early. Cal never led in the game. The Bears couldn’t find any success from behind the arc, shooting only 2-of-15 for the game. While EWU never pulled away, Cal was behind by 4-10 points for most of the game. In addition, Cal had 17 turnovers against EWU. Against USC and Arizona, Cal had 17 turnovers combined.

Cal still should have beaten EWU.

There’s a lot of little coachable things that could’ve changed this game. As an example, Lars is most effective when he gets a high entry pass while positioned in the low post. This allows him to make one decisive move towards the basket, while keeping the ball chest-level or above. Instead, there were low entry passes into Lars, or Lars is a step or two away from the basket and needs to put the ball on the floor in order to make his move towards the rim. This allows the defense time to collapse or potentially steal the ball. This is fixable through coaching and strategic changes based on the matchup.

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Speaking of strategy, I want to break down the ending of the game. At 5:22 remaining, Eastern Washington was holding a 9-point lead, 45-36. Cal starts applying more on-the-ball pressure which leads to a couple fast transition baskets. The Golden Bears go on an 11-3 run and closes the gap to a 48-47 EWU lead with 1:05 on the clock. EWU misses their next shot, and Joel Brown hits 1-of-2 free throws with :33 remaining, tying the game at 48-48.

EWU pushes the ball up the court, and instead of holding for the last shot, they take advantage of a semi-open lane. EWU’s Tyreese Davis drives the right side, and Lars can’t collapse in time to affect the shot. The shot is good, EWU lead 50-48 with :24 left. Cal calls a timeout.

EWU comes out in zone defense, most likely to provide assistance to collapse on Lars is the play goes through him. Instead, Cal chooses to run a play designed to free up Kuany Kuany for a corner 3-point shot. Lars sets a good screen and Newell fakes a pass to Joel at the top before quickly passing it to Kuany in the corner. He is momentarily open and has a decent look at the shot.

Kuany hesitates for a second, the defense is given time to collapse and Kuany misses the contested shot.

EWU’s Casey Jones, he of the 14 rebounds, outbattles Sam Alajiki for the weakside rebound and the game is effectively over.

It was a good play design. Except for Kuany’s brief hesitation, the team ran it well. I also think it was the wrong strategic decision.

Cal is in the double bonus, getting two free throws on any foul. They don’t need a 3, they need a 2 to tie and extend the game. Cal has all the momentum at this point. The way to attack a zone defense is to find the soft spot in the space and hit the shot. One option was to have Newell or Kuany (Cal’s best FT shooters) attack the lane. They have the option to go all the way, maybe draw a foul, or kick back out for a 3-point attempt. With 24 seconds, there is enough time to run motion and even call their last timeout if the play collapses. Ben Braun talked about this briefly on the telecast. Instead, Coach Fox gave the team one option, a do-or-die 3 point shot from Kuany. I understand the logic. I don’t think it was right.

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One bright spot was the appearance of walk-on Wrenn Robinson. Forced into action out of necessity, Wrenn only play 5:32 total. A redshirt sophomore, Robinson led City College of San Francisco to the state championship last year. He joined the Golden Bears 3 games into this season, and had previously played one minute against TCU. In the second half, he hit a beautiful 3-point shot with 6:54 left, injecting some energy into the crowd. He would go on to miss his only other shot attempt less than one minute later.

Wrenn Robinson (photo courtesy of Lucas Stremba/Cal Athletics)

Okafor and Askew will most likely miss Saturday’s matchup with Butler. We will be seeing more of Robinson as Askew continues to miss time. His shooting may earn him more time as the season progresses.