Mark Fox's Cal Basketball snapped by the Florida Gators in Fort Meyer's Tip-Off invitational, 60-80
This was a complete disaster after the first 10 minutes
There’s not much to say about this game, but let’s try to look back at where it all went wrong.
The Bears were actually competitive for the first 10 minutes of game time. Florida wasn’t in rhythm, the Bears weren’t rattled by the Gators’ press, and both teams were looking for an offensive spark. Missed shots clanged off of the hard iron on both ends of the court and it looked like for a second that Florida may have been ranked without any substance. It looked like if the Bears could find some interior scoring with Andre Kelly and Lars Thiemann, they could pace the Gators into the grind it outpace Fox wanted them to play.
That all changed in an instant.
A couple of shot clock violations and missed layups later the Bears were down 12.
Cal would score back but not enough until the deficit ballooned to 19 by halftime. Florida would score 20 consecutive points on offense in the final 5 minutes of the half, without missing another shot attempt or free throw.
That would pretty much be the end of the game with 20 minutes still to go.
The Bears would start to turn the ball over in the second half (11 in fact) and started to get flustered by the press either resulting in turnovers in the advancement of the ball or without sufficient time to get to a secondary or tertiary offensive set. The Cal offense would only have 7 assists on 22 made baskets while ending with 17 turnovers on the day. Makale Foreman and Grant Anticevich would not have a single made 3, with Foreman going 0-5 and Anticevich not even attempting a single 3 this game.
For Florida, Michigan Transfer Forward Colin Castleton was held in check early on in the game but took over in the second half, ending the game with 16 points (10 in the second half) on 6-11 shooting with 8 rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal. While Myreon Jones carried the scoring early on from beyond the arc. He was 4-6 from the field in the first half with 3-5 on 3s ending the first half with 11 points.
Florida started to dictate the tempo and their defense gave easy buckets to their athletically oriented team to boost the lead all the way up to 26 midway through the second half and that would end it.
On Wednesday, November 24th the Bears take on Seton Hall, in a rematch of the 2016 Pearl Harbor Invitational, at 3PM PT on FS1 as a part of the Rocket Mortgage Fort Meyers Tip-Off Invitational.
This was exactly what we have expected from this team. When everything goes right against at best a mid-level team, we can win. We just don't have the horses to beat better than mid-level teams even on a great day. It would take a super superb day for that, and those are quite rare. Foreman, Grant and the gang have to be on fire and they are not made of kerosene. So this is our Bear team right now. Fun to watch when they play well together against middling teams. Don't tune in against a top 40 team unless you are a masochist.
One of the key positives that we've had under Mark Fox is that we were a low turnover team. Now, that probably has a ton to do with pace and with Paris Austin but if we can't even be a low turnover team, we really do have to hit every shot to have a chance to win games.