Let me start with my usual rant about playing at altitude. It's a disadvantage, pure & simple. Would not have changed the outcome in this game, but MF addressed it by going deep into the bench early & often to keep players fresh. Unfortunately, the talent thins out fast the further down the bench we get, and this begets turnovers and ill-advised shot selections. Having to play Hyder for 23 minutes really hurt us. He's either not ready (i.e. not his fault), or not capable of PAC-12 level play. He, Brown, Thorpe, & Celestine attempt passes that probably worked in high school, but are ridiculous (i.e. turnovers) at this level. As we will need him on Saturday especially, and for the rest of the season, Hyder needs to restrict himself to open straight up and down jump shots, or uncontested drives.
MF ran a play today (once, unsuccessfully) for Betley that Cal ran as their first play (once, successfully) against UW. He is so good from 3, and has such a quick release, we should be running the offense through him, with multiple sets to get him open 3's.
It's a shame Anticevich has missed time. His fall-away 15-footer had just become deadly. Kelly is becoming a force inside with some nice moves and reliable shots. Between him, Anticevich, Bradley, and running more plays for Betley, we might have contended in the top-half PAC-12 games to come.
Brown has so much potential, but he needs to become a scoring threat. Thiemann is improved but still 2 years away, Kuany was getting some confidence. We have some guys who could be real factors in the PAC-12 by their senior years. Unfortunately, that only puts them on par with the top team's freshman & sophomores.
MF's coaching is not the problem. We need some serious recruits.
Oh yes, it certainly is, and I don't have a lot of faith in that regard. I'm just separating out Fox's coaching from his recruiting.
We *should* be able to recruit top players to Cal, but we have negatives that are unique, and... Fox was handed a 90% empty cupboard of talent when he arrived. Wyking put us in a huge hole in that regard, Plus Fox's winning personality was not enough to keep the transfers from bailing. (btw - I loved Sueing on offense, but thought he was lazy on defense, wasn't totally crushed when he left). I read a book on Gonzaga hoops, and as an aside it mentioned the inquiries we made to Chris Petersen about coming to Cal before we ended up getting Dykes, and he was quoted as saying something to the effect of "not in a million years, it's impossible to win there". We apparently made similar under-the-radar inquiries to Mark Few, but he had the same opinion of Cal as Petersen plus it's too perfect of a situation for him there, he's never leaving. We probably were not Fox's first choice either, but we were the only major conference team that came knocking maybe? Problem is, his recruiting at Georgia was only so-so, and they don't have the same negatives that we do, hence the lack of faith.
Talking only about defense now, I don't see huge problems with his coaching (other than his demeanor perhaps), i.e. I feel that with better players, his coaching would not be an impediment to our success. The issues I see on defense are a lack of anticipation (i.e. less than stellar basketball IQ by some players), some brain farts, and the occasional lack of effort. I think he's coaching the right stuff, they're just not always doing it. I concede that could be blamed on coaching as well - maybe not motivating the players enough. But to my eye it's the players not executing.
Not a good game for the lads. Surprisingly we had an 18-11 lead in the 1st half. But when the opposing team shoots over 60% on threes your goose is basically cooked, plus Cal went cold and starting turning the ball over in the 2nd half. May also have been elevation-related, e.g., our guys got tired. But the consolation is that we looked really good for the first 10 minutes of the game,
Let me start with my usual rant about playing at altitude. It's a disadvantage, pure & simple. Would not have changed the outcome in this game, but MF addressed it by going deep into the bench early & often to keep players fresh. Unfortunately, the talent thins out fast the further down the bench we get, and this begets turnovers and ill-advised shot selections. Having to play Hyder for 23 minutes really hurt us. He's either not ready (i.e. not his fault), or not capable of PAC-12 level play. He, Brown, Thorpe, & Celestine attempt passes that probably worked in high school, but are ridiculous (i.e. turnovers) at this level. As we will need him on Saturday especially, and for the rest of the season, Hyder needs to restrict himself to open straight up and down jump shots, or uncontested drives.
MF ran a play today (once, unsuccessfully) for Betley that Cal ran as their first play (once, successfully) against UW. He is so good from 3, and has such a quick release, we should be running the offense through him, with multiple sets to get him open 3's.
It's a shame Anticevich has missed time. His fall-away 15-footer had just become deadly. Kelly is becoming a force inside with some nice moves and reliable shots. Between him, Anticevich, Bradley, and running more plays for Betley, we might have contended in the top-half PAC-12 games to come.
Brown has so much potential, but he needs to become a scoring threat. Thiemann is improved but still 2 years away, Kuany was getting some confidence. We have some guys who could be real factors in the PAC-12 by their senior years. Unfortunately, that only puts them on par with the top team's freshman & sophomores.
MF's coaching is not the problem. We need some serious recruits.
I dont mean this in an argumentative way, but just asking your thoughts. is the recruiting better players part not on Fox's shoulders as well?
Oh yes, it certainly is, and I don't have a lot of faith in that regard. I'm just separating out Fox's coaching from his recruiting.
We *should* be able to recruit top players to Cal, but we have negatives that are unique, and... Fox was handed a 90% empty cupboard of talent when he arrived. Wyking put us in a huge hole in that regard, Plus Fox's winning personality was not enough to keep the transfers from bailing. (btw - I loved Sueing on offense, but thought he was lazy on defense, wasn't totally crushed when he left). I read a book on Gonzaga hoops, and as an aside it mentioned the inquiries we made to Chris Petersen about coming to Cal before we ended up getting Dykes, and he was quoted as saying something to the effect of "not in a million years, it's impossible to win there". We apparently made similar under-the-radar inquiries to Mark Few, but he had the same opinion of Cal as Petersen plus it's too perfect of a situation for him there, he's never leaving. We probably were not Fox's first choice either, but we were the only major conference team that came knocking maybe? Problem is, his recruiting at Georgia was only so-so, and they don't have the same negatives that we do, hence the lack of faith.
Talking only about defense now, I don't see huge problems with his coaching (other than his demeanor perhaps), i.e. I feel that with better players, his coaching would not be an impediment to our success. The issues I see on defense are a lack of anticipation (i.e. less than stellar basketball IQ by some players), some brain farts, and the occasional lack of effort. I think he's coaching the right stuff, they're just not always doing it. I concede that could be blamed on coaching as well - maybe not motivating the players enough. But to my eye it's the players not executing.
Not a good game for the lads. Surprisingly we had an 18-11 lead in the 1st half. But when the opposing team shoots over 60% on threes your goose is basically cooked, plus Cal went cold and starting turning the ball over in the 2nd half. May also have been elevation-related, e.g., our guys got tired. But the consolation is that we looked really good for the first 10 minutes of the game,
Sigh. Joel Brown has turned it over 4 times in the 5 minutes I've been watching.