I don't get mad at losses this year because I expect the team to learn and grow. I actually like how Madsen seems to be giving them the reins a bit to make those mistakes and grow.
What was upsetting about the loss today was how careless our turnovers were.
Got burned on backdoors all night. Amaq is what he is, so his teammates need to cover for him every time he gets pulled out of the paint to cover anyone one-on-one. Guys need to stay on their feet. We need to scheme for and take more threes. Great that we have guys that can attack the basket and a consistent low post weapon in Fardaws, but you can get any leverage on teams if you’re not able to hit threes consistently enough. We were clearly hampered with Askew and Celestine down, but we still have to find guys that contribute something/anything offensively in spots. Don’t know what the assist numbers are, but we surely didn’t have many. I had hoped we had figured something out against bakersfield, but alas. I still like this team and think we can win big games. The atmosphere at Haas was good again for a small turnout. Hoping to see more folks at games to get that place really jumping.
I think Devin being out revealed our weakness: our 1/2/3s are super talented but they are more scorer types than facilitators. Devin is best at this (and a super dynamic player) but can also get a little sloppy on the dribble penetration. Behind him we really drop off in this regard. How is Kennedy in this regard? Can he help when back?
I actually think Tyson is our most natural distributor. At a certain point last night, it was clear that he was going to be able to get to the basket on any one-on-one, so we leaned in hard on that. But I don't think that single-mindedness is where he is most comfortable. He's a flow guy. But you're right, not having Askew as a distributor and then having Tyson looking just to score limited ball distribution by a ton. So it's no wonder none of our role guys found any opportunities to score. I don't know anything about Kennedy yet, only that folks on this blog have noted that he's a lock down defender.
So, Cal again struggled to find a 3 pt shooter. The defense was not real good. Mad dog failed to make changes defensively to stop them and the final inbound play for the 3 was not set up well. Now Cal has lost to Pacific who just lost by 40 + points to Nevada and now Montana St who is a big sky conference team. I hope this team turns it up in all phases because so far it’s been disappointing and we’re going to get schooled in pac 12 play if maddog doesn’t get more production out of more than just two players. Only two players were in double figures and I didn’t see any consistent three point shooting at all. I’m having flash backs of fox and his teams, that’s scary. LOL
That final inbound play was atrocious. Embarrassingly inept coming out of a T.O. I'm probably less concerned in our defensive than I am our indifference and inability to scheme for open three-pointers on offense. If we can do that we'll start to get some contributions from the bench guys on offense. I'm not ready to panic yet, but it's fair to be disappointed and a little concerned.
Let me ask the basketball experts out there why it was not an offensive foul every time their big guy threw his big strong left arm fully extended to his side , chest high level on the defender, simultaneously with making a spin move to his right. This move clearly impeded/ obstructed the defender to allow him to get a least a step and/or get his shit off. I’ve seen this called in tge NBA many times. I even saw the great Kobe called on this. Other players on their team were also coached to do the same thing. We lost the game because we missed at least 10 easy baskets at the rim, and our foul shooting is still bad. Montana was well coached and their players were long, skilled and smart. But we blew this game. I wonder if Madsen complained about Walkers offensive fouling, which allowed him to more than double his average.
Tough to draw many conclusions from this game, given the 3 key pieces that were missing, other than to say this team is still a helluva lot better than any of the Cal teams from the past 6 years. However, there are still hurdles, and despite the talent boost that Tyson, Aimaq and Cone bring, we're still not a good enough squad yet to beat efficient, well-coached teams that can shoot, even if they are from outside the Power 5.
Pre-season, I had admittedly unrealistic delusions of grandeur of a possible Bubble bid...then the Kennedy injury news hit...then we clearly struggle to defend the 3 and at the point of attack, and struggle from the stripe.
Now 4 games in, I agree 100% with bigaddi: let's finish at .500 or better, and get meaningful improvement from Newell/Okafor and try and get some development from Rodney Brown, Vlad, Gus Larson and maybe Devin Curtis.
Still a happy to be better than the past 6 seasons of Wyking and Fox, though...let's get this program headed in the right direction.
Lots needs to be improved. Madsen is really gonna need to coach up some of the younger guys throughout the year. Aimaq has been really disappointing considering how hyped up he was coming into the season. Tyson is the best player by far and very glad he decided to come to Cal. I will judge this year based on how much they can improve throughout it, and after the first four games there is lots to improve on.
I think Aimaq's been pretty consistent offensively and on the boards. But he's a highly limited defensive player to say the least. We have to scheme and find the right lineups to cover for his limitations there. He's an ok one-on-one post defender under the hoop and he doesn't lack effort, but really asking anything him on that end is too much.
Still a work in progress. Not surprising that our team is still struggling to gel on defense and making turnovers but it is frustrating. The hope is, of course, that those things get worked out as the season progresses and we start to see more evidence of our ceiling than our floor.
I don't get mad at losses this year because I expect the team to learn and grow. I actually like how Madsen seems to be giving them the reins a bit to make those mistakes and grow.
What was upsetting about the loss today was how careless our turnovers were.
My wife just pulled the red hot fire poker out of the fireplace. She is slowly pushing it into me as I whisper ever so sweetly …………… “Go Bears”
Got burned on backdoors all night. Amaq is what he is, so his teammates need to cover for him every time he gets pulled out of the paint to cover anyone one-on-one. Guys need to stay on their feet. We need to scheme for and take more threes. Great that we have guys that can attack the basket and a consistent low post weapon in Fardaws, but you can get any leverage on teams if you’re not able to hit threes consistently enough. We were clearly hampered with Askew and Celestine down, but we still have to find guys that contribute something/anything offensively in spots. Don’t know what the assist numbers are, but we surely didn’t have many. I had hoped we had figured something out against bakersfield, but alas. I still like this team and think we can win big games. The atmosphere at Haas was good again for a small turnout. Hoping to see more folks at games to get that place really jumping.
I think Devin being out revealed our weakness: our 1/2/3s are super talented but they are more scorer types than facilitators. Devin is best at this (and a super dynamic player) but can also get a little sloppy on the dribble penetration. Behind him we really drop off in this regard. How is Kennedy in this regard? Can he help when back?
Kennedy’s a slasher that can get into the paint and create. His absence is impacting us on O, as well as D.
I actually think Tyson is our most natural distributor. At a certain point last night, it was clear that he was going to be able to get to the basket on any one-on-one, so we leaned in hard on that. But I don't think that single-mindedness is where he is most comfortable. He's a flow guy. But you're right, not having Askew as a distributor and then having Tyson looking just to score limited ball distribution by a ton. So it's no wonder none of our role guys found any opportunities to score. I don't know anything about Kennedy yet, only that folks on this blog have noted that he's a lock down defender.
Also, Tyson is really, really good.
He is. He was asked to do a little too much yesterday with Askew out - definitely pressing a bit with the 8 turnovers. But he's a helluva ballplayer.
Between this and Pacific’s 88-39 loss to Nevada yesterday, it’s been a rough couple days for perception of this team.
So, Cal again struggled to find a 3 pt shooter. The defense was not real good. Mad dog failed to make changes defensively to stop them and the final inbound play for the 3 was not set up well. Now Cal has lost to Pacific who just lost by 40 + points to Nevada and now Montana St who is a big sky conference team. I hope this team turns it up in all phases because so far it’s been disappointing and we’re going to get schooled in pac 12 play if maddog doesn’t get more production out of more than just two players. Only two players were in double figures and I didn’t see any consistent three point shooting at all. I’m having flash backs of fox and his teams, that’s scary. LOL
That final inbound play was atrocious. Embarrassingly inept coming out of a T.O. I'm probably less concerned in our defensive than I am our indifference and inability to scheme for open three-pointers on offense. If we can do that we'll start to get some contributions from the bench guys on offense. I'm not ready to panic yet, but it's fair to be disappointed and a little concerned.
Still better than last year. There is still hope. Just means it’ll take longer than we hoped.
Let me ask the basketball experts out there why it was not an offensive foul every time their big guy threw his big strong left arm fully extended to his side , chest high level on the defender, simultaneously with making a spin move to his right. This move clearly impeded/ obstructed the defender to allow him to get a least a step and/or get his shit off. I’ve seen this called in tge NBA many times. I even saw the great Kobe called on this. Other players on their team were also coached to do the same thing. We lost the game because we missed at least 10 easy baskets at the rim, and our foul shooting is still bad. Montana was well coached and their players were long, skilled and smart. But we blew this game. I wonder if Madsen complained about Walkers offensive fouling, which allowed him to more than double his average.
Tough to draw many conclusions from this game, given the 3 key pieces that were missing, other than to say this team is still a helluva lot better than any of the Cal teams from the past 6 years. However, there are still hurdles, and despite the talent boost that Tyson, Aimaq and Cone bring, we're still not a good enough squad yet to beat efficient, well-coached teams that can shoot, even if they are from outside the Power 5.
Pre-season, I had admittedly unrealistic delusions of grandeur of a possible Bubble bid...then the Kennedy injury news hit...then we clearly struggle to defend the 3 and at the point of attack, and struggle from the stripe.
Now 4 games in, I agree 100% with bigaddi: let's finish at .500 or better, and get meaningful improvement from Newell/Okafor and try and get some development from Rodney Brown, Vlad, Gus Larson and maybe Devin Curtis.
Still a happy to be better than the past 6 seasons of Wyking and Fox, though...let's get this program headed in the right direction.
Lots needs to be improved. Madsen is really gonna need to coach up some of the younger guys throughout the year. Aimaq has been really disappointing considering how hyped up he was coming into the season. Tyson is the best player by far and very glad he decided to come to Cal. I will judge this year based on how much they can improve throughout it, and after the first four games there is lots to improve on.
I think Aimaq's been pretty consistent offensively and on the boards. But he's a highly limited defensive player to say the least. We have to scheme and find the right lineups to cover for his limitations there. He's an ok one-on-one post defender under the hoop and he doesn't lack effort, but really asking anything him on that end is too much.
It’s still a big sky team and a Power 5 conference team should always beat a big sky team.
Madsen will earn it this year trying to keep these guys focused and improving for what most likely is going to be a rollercoaster season.
I can’t get too down on this team, though it does suck when they lose they “easy” games.
Just please let me see team improvement as the year goes on.
Still a work in progress. Not surprising that our team is still struggling to gel on defense and making turnovers but it is frustrating. The hope is, of course, that those things get worked out as the season progresses and we start to see more evidence of our ceiling than our floor.