Men's Basketball Quarter Season Check-In
Excessive turnovers. Close losses. Beautiful play designs. Occasional Glimpses.
We’re 8 games into a 32-game season, enough time to start forming some opinions on what type of trajectory this team is on for the rest of the season.
Cal’s record is 3-5. They were favored in 6 of those games;
Saint Thomas: Solid favorites, close win.
Pacific: Solid favorites, disappointing loss in which Cal surrendered a double-digit lead midway through the second half.
CSU-Bakersfield: Large favorites, large win.
Montana State: Large favorite, 3-point loss.
UTEP: Small favorites, 3-point loss.
Tulane: Small favorites, 3-point loss.
San Diego State: Large underdogs, overtime loss in which Cal overcame a double-digit lead to force the extra period.
Santa Clara: Small underdog, solid win.
At 3-5, this is an underwhelming record. But my reaction after all of the games has been, “That was fun. I’m looking forward to the next game.” Sure, there have been moments of frustration and disappointment. But the overall feeling I get from watching this team is, well, fun. The players appear to be having fun. The coaches are all animated and supportive of the players. Every player is capable of having a breathtaking play. Every game has been exciting and competitive.
At the beginning of the season, I primarily was hoping for aesthetically pleasing basketball that would give me something worth rewatching and breaking down the film. I wanted a team and program that makes it easy to root for and can draw the fans back to Haas. I wanted an engaged and communicative coaching staff that gives us insight into the program. I’m getting all of that. You’re getting all of that.
On Close Losses and Excessive Turnovers
The Santa Clara victory is Cal’s most complete game of the year. Coming into the game, Cal was averaging 13.5 turnovers/game (250th in the country, 315 programs). Teams were averaging over 15 points/game off of Cal’s turnovers. Against Santa Clara, the Golden Bears committed 7 turnovers. The Broncos converted those turnovers into only 8 points. Indeed, in Cal’s 3 wins, they have turned the ball over 9 times or less, well below their season average. When Cal does not commit turnovers, they win.
I’m not chalking up the close losses as some sort of defect of the team. As stated earlier, Cal also has a close win. The defect is the turnovers. Primary PG Devin Askew has only played 3 games (2 victories), in which he had a 1:1 assist-to- turnover ratio. During the 4-game losing streak, Jaylon Tyson collected 10 assists and 19 turnovers. When he does handle the ball, he is better suited to initiate-and-finish first, pass second (more on that below). Keonte Kennedy made his season debut against Santa Clara, and collected 4 assists (team high) with 0 turnovers. I’ll say it again. When Cal does not commit turnovers, they win.
Getting Askew back in a couple weeks, and adding Kennedy to occasionally handle PG duties, will go a long way towards helping lower the turnovers. Vladimir Pavlovic has played sparingly, but I don’t see his playing time increasing. I think Madsen wants to settle into an 8-player rotation, and Pavlovic may be one of the players to see limited minutes when everyone is available.
On Beautiful Play Designs
Coach Madsen’s coaching staff has drawn up effective ATO (after time-out) plays.
In the play below, Jalen Cone starts out in the low block. Keonte Kennedy and Gus Larson both set screens, and Cone is lightning quick as he cuts to the top and rotates towards Aimaq. He has enough time to gather the pass, dribble once and put up the wide open shot.
The sideline view gives a better feel for how open Cone was.
It’s one thing to design the plays. This team executes them exceptionally well, the ultimate payoff for practice time and repetition.
On Occasional Glimpses
A few items in this section. This team continues to grow, and will change as injured players return to the active roster. Occasional glimpses refers to things we see now, hopeful things to keep an eye on as the team continues to evolve.
a. Jaylon Tyson Rebounding
Jaylon Tyson is averaging nearly 9 rebounds a game, and has 3 double-doubles for the year. It’s not that he collects rebounds at a high rate, it’s how he collects them.
Every game, Tyson has 2-to-3 rebounds where he outsmarts and outplays the opponent. Take a look at this clip from the Santa Clara game.
After Rodney Brown’s miss, Tyson finds himself in the low block sandwiched between 2 defenders. He is behind by Santa Clara’s Johnny O’Neil, who is 3 inches taller than him. Here is the image as the ball initially bounces off the back rim.
Tyson is boxed out, and has a second defender on his hip. As the ball carries, Tyson times his jump and gets ridiculous extension. He is able to get his hand on the ball and hit it straight down where he has the best chance of gathering it.
The clip below is right before the double technical involving Tyson and Santa Clara’s Kosy Akametu. Again, Tyson times his jump and uses his length to make contact with the ball over 2 better positioned defenders.
He makes enough contact to keep the ball alive, and ends up in a jump ball stalemate with Akametu.
Tyson came out of the tie-up laughing, which angered Akametu and led to contact and words exchanged between the two. I’d like to think he was talking about his rebounding skills, but it was probably a different topic.
b. The Tyson Takeover
At times, Jaylon Tyson gets the look. He has the ball near the top, and everyone knows this will be a one-on-one play which will get him to the rim. I’ve talked before about Tyson’s skill to initiate and finish on his own. The Tyson Takeover is an extension of that.
In the Santa Clara game, Cal was holding on to a solid 10-15 point lead for most of the second half. Around the 10-minute mark, Cal enters a few minutes of a cold streak and a has a couple turnovers. Santa Clara is efficient, and after Johnny O’Neill makes a 3-point basket with 7:37 remaining, the lead is down to six, Cal 65-59. The fans in Haas are getting anxious, maybe remembering the Pacific loss or the recent string of close losses.
Enter the Tyson Takeover.
On the next possession, Jaylon Tyson misses a jumper.
Cal gets a defensive stop. On the offensive end, solid ball rotation results in a 3-point basket by Tyson (assist by Kennedy).
Cal gets another defensive stop. Tyson gets the rebound. Here is the action from Tyson’s rebound to him scoring at the rim.
I love love love everything about the sequence. After Tyson gets the rebound, Jalen Cone asks for the ball only to be waved off by Tyson. Tyson brings it up, and displays a good mix of patience and aggression in probing the defense. He is constantly moving and not giving the defense a chance to react quick enough to his motion. When he finally attacks, the help defense is not in a good position, and Tyson finishes with a nice spin move.
Look at where Jalen Cone is in the frontcourt. He knows. Cone is ready to get to the 3-point line and be available for a pass-out. But he is mainly staying out of the way and keeping his defender as far away from Tyson as possible. This is Tyson going one-on-one to the basket, never in doubt after he grabbed the rebound.
That’s 5 straight points. Cal gets another defensive stop. Tyson misses the initial shot, but Aimaq collects the rebound and the team resets the offense. What happens next is the clip above which ends in Tyson’s jumpball tie-up and double technical. He’s fired up. The team is fired up. Haas get extremely loud. After Santa Clara turns the ball over, Tyson makes a layup. The lead is back to thirteen, 72-59, and the final outcome is never in doubt.
There have been moments in the earlier games where Tyson gets the look. He had a couple in the 2nd half comeback against San Diego State. But this string of 7 straight points and taking over the game as he gets his team and the fans energized, was something different.
At the postgame press conference, I asked how the coaches respond when Tyson enters this mode. Coach Madsen replied, “We’ve seen this before…where it’s a look of focus, determination, and a look of ‘I am going to impose my will’. We definitely look for ways to put the ball in his hands more.”
c. Baseline Action
My favorite non-Cal basketball game of all time is UCLA-Princeton in the 1996 NCAA tournament. Princeton’s 4 corners slowed the game down to a crawl, and a baseline cut with 4 seconds left provided Princeton with the winning margin.
Successful backdoor cuts make me happy. They are fun to watch cause they usually involve a bounce-pass through traffic. They show good offensive execution and timing. And they bring back fond memories of the Coach Harrick’s UCLA flameout.
When you watch Cal games, watch what the person in the corner does when the PG has the ball near the top. Sometimes they will rotate towards the top, sometimes they will stay put and be ready for a pass. And sometimes they will cut to the basket at the right time.
This clip and the next one shows Keonte Kennedy as the wing player. Tyson, Newell and others have initiated the same motion so far this season. It’s a solid staple of our playbook. It brings me joy.
Especially when it ends up with the play of the game.
The crowd was already raucous at this point. What was a close game a few minutes earlier is once again a decisive lead. Keonte Kennedy’s emphatic jam gets then fans out of their seats and puts the finishing on the well-earned victory. Below is a much better angle of the entry pass and throwdown, courtesy of Rob Hwang.
Cal has three more non-conference games left, starting this Saturday when they face the Butler Bulldogs in Indianapolis. This will be their toughest test of the entire non-conference schedule. We have 24 more games to go. The Haas of Pain is not only a destination; it’s also a journey.
Great analysis! This team has some areas for improvement but has also been a bit unlucky in my opinion.
The coaches need money to attract players.