Cal Men’s Basketball Opponent Preview 22-23: The Cardinal come across the Bay
Cal Men’s Basketball Opponent Preview 22-23: The Cardinal come across the Bay
Rivalry game to start the New Year
As we begin the new year and enter into conference play, W4C will have weekly preview posts on the upcoming conference opponents of the week.
We start the year with a rivalry game against the Cardinal.
Stanford Cardinals
HC: Jerod Haase
Record: 5-9 (0-4)
Team Stats
68.1PPG/34.6RPG/13.3APG/6.9SPG/4.0BPG/14.0TOPG
43.5 FG%
72.0 FT%
30.8 3PT%
Key Players
Spencer Jones (Senior Forward)
12.3PPG/4.2RPG/1.0SPG/1.3BPG/38.3FG%/83.3FT%/29.6-3PT%
Michael Jones (Senior Guard)
9.8PPG/2.7RPG/39.0FG%/73.6FT%/25.4-3PT%
Harrison Ingram (Sophomore Forward)
9.1PPG/4.6RPG/3.0APG/2.3TOPG/36.6FG%/63.4FT%/27.9-3PT%
Advanced Stats
The Cardinal’s record might not be a great representation of them as a team. They rank in the top 85 by KenPom. Outside of the loss to UCLA, their other 3 conference losses were within 5 points. Their 5 Non-Conference losses came against ranked teams or teams with a winning record. Ole Miss is the only team that currently does not have double-digit wins, but still sits at 8-6. Haase’s team has gotten better in most statistical categories from last season despite the drop in production from Harrison Ingram and the loss of Jaden DeLaire. Points, Assists, FG%, and FT% are all up from last season with rebounds and 3PT% slightly down from last season. The Bears currently rank 294th in offensive efficiency, Stanford ranks 58th in defensive efficiency. The Bears rank 149th in defensive efficiency, Stanford ranks 115th in offensive efficiency. It will be competitive when Stanford has the ball, but it will be in uphill climb for the Bears to score enough against a top-60 offense.
It's apparent that Mark Fox teams are better when their go-to guy is out. When the ball went in to Bradley, Shepard, or Askew, it's followed by a bunch of standing around because the ball rarely comes back out while the 'scorer' goes one-on-four. Why work your ass off to get open when 9 times out of 10 you won't be rewarded? The play making and ball movement while Bradley was out, and last game vs CU was much improved. Our scorers need to become reliable assist artists which opens up the game for them and everyone else.
Jermaine Terry to the transfer portal.