What possible clue did we have that the PAC-12 (or PAC-10 as TBS announcer Kevin Harlan kept saying during the OSU*2 game last night) was improved this year? Maybe we weren't at the start, but got coached up? There was next to nothing non-conference-wise to use as a basis of comparison:
Best opportunities: ASU at Villanova (L), CU @ Kansas St (W) Tenn (L), UO vs Seton Hall (W) Missouri (L), Stan vs Alabama (W), North Carolina (L) Indiana (L), UW vs Baylor (L), Utah @ BYU (L), UCLA: Ohio St (L), San Diego St (L), USC vs BYU (W) vs UCONN (L)
UA: Best non-conf win: E Wash Worst non-conf loss: None
Quick note: the guy playing for ASU is Josh Christopher, not Patrick. (I'm sure that was on accident, and not to rub in our recruiting woes, right? Right?)
Pretty exciting to have four Pac-12 teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Mostly we are rolling over clearly inferior teams. No more basketball though for a couple of days.
Clearly inferior teams, many of which were seeded higher. The Pac-12 should have been dominating more, but the committee disrespected us even more by putting two of our best teams in the same side of the same bracket (USC, Oregon) which wouldn't have happened to any other P5 conference.
It happened the last time we made the Sweet 16...1997 saw Cal, Stanford, UCLA & eventual champion Arizona in the final 16...incidentally, Utah was also in, but was a member of a diff conference.
Pretty sure it’s happened again since but not sure when. Either way, a nice feather in the P12 cap.
This article gets at exactly what I was thinking: this year, with the smaller number of non-conference games, ranking the conferences by strength was going to be much harder. The Pac-12 was undervalued going in to the tournament (though probably still had the right number of teams selected).
What's been impressive about the Pac-12 in this tourney so far, is that most of these games haven't even been particularly close in what has otherwise been a pretty tightly contested tourney. On the opposite side, I'm interested in what the takeaway should be with the Big-10 mostly wetting the bed. We had been told that the Big-10 this year was one of the best conferences ever. I expect at least one of Iowa and Michigan will be done after tonight. Side note: The Beavers are playing Loyola-Chicago, not LMU.
Yup, the only game that's been close was UCLA going to overtime against Michigan St. in the first four. Otherwise they've all been double-digits (and one forfeit, though I would have strongly favored Oregon to beat VCU anyway).
What's been impressive about the Pac-12 in this tourney so far, is that most of these games haven't even been particularly close in what has otherwise been a pretty tightly contested tourney. On the opposite side, I'm interested in what the takeaway should be with the Big-10 mostly wetting the bed. We had been told that the Big-10 this year was one of the best conferences ever. I expect at least one of Iowa and Michigan will be done after tonight. Side note: The Beavers are playing Loyola-Chicago, not LMU.
Absolutely. One thing that has stood out watching the Tourney so far is how athletic these teams are. The good teams have tall and long guys that look like Kuany size-wise, move and defend like Joel, and shoot it like Grant...the Bears could really use an infusion of athleticism. With that in mind, keep your eye on incoming FR Sam Alajiki. More athleticism across the board should help Cal close the gap...eventually.
I dunno...the PAC-12 was better than the National media says, but West Coast fans kinda already knew that. Good to see the numbers catch up. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Cal was by far the worst team in the Conference for the third time in four years. Next year’s pretty big...another last place finish is on the table, but signs of improvement could portend good things are coming.
Well, both of those things are likely true. My "good things are coming" reference needs to be taken in context, PawlOski, as the bar is so much lower than at any time in my fandom, which dates back to Harmon and the mid-80's. We've said a number of times that Mike Williams set this program back a decade with the Wyking Jones hire, and I firmly stand by this...incidentally, we promoted Jones on Mar 24, 2017 after we whiffed initially on Musselman, which makes this Wednesday the 4-year anniversary of arguably the worst day in the past 50 years for the MBB program...and that includes the Bozeman/Jelani Gardner scandal. Get excited, Cal fans ;-) !! Questionable at best at the time, it has proven to be devastating.
By all evidence, we're still a good 4-5 years from even competing for an at-large Tournament bid, and Mark Fox is absolutely not the guy that is going to get us there. Fox is the guy that is going to re-build the foundation of the program, basically from scratch, and get them on the path to respectability, and not necessarily on the basketball court. But unlike talented coaches with dynamic offensive &/or defensive styles, Fox doesn't have either the recruiting or player development chops to really get us there any quicker than that. Hopefully Bradley returns next year rather than seeking out greener pastures as a grad transfer...if so, and if Fox can finally get this team to play the defense he wants (paging Lars Thiemann!!), they can start incrementally progressing up the standings, even if slowly.
So, the good things are coming in that Fox will probably eventually get us back to "respectability", and the inevitable being that his ceiling will be just that..respectable, but not NCAA Tournament. Hopefully Knowlton doesn't re-sign him at the end of his 5, tho. Then we're in trouble.
What possible clue did we have that the PAC-12 (or PAC-10 as TBS announcer Kevin Harlan kept saying during the OSU*2 game last night) was improved this year? Maybe we weren't at the start, but got coached up? There was next to nothing non-conference-wise to use as a basis of comparison:
Best opportunities: ASU at Villanova (L), CU @ Kansas St (W) Tenn (L), UO vs Seton Hall (W) Missouri (L), Stan vs Alabama (W), North Carolina (L) Indiana (L), UW vs Baylor (L), Utah @ BYU (L), UCLA: Ohio St (L), San Diego St (L), USC vs BYU (W) vs UCONN (L)
UA: Best non-conf win: E Wash Worst non-conf loss: None
ASU: Win: Rhode Island Loss: UTEP
Cal: Win: USF Loss: Pepperdine
Stan: Win: Alabama Loss: North Carolina
CU: Win: Kansas St Loss: Tennessee
Utah: Win: Idaho St Loss: BYU
UO: Win: Seton Hall Loss: Missouri
OSU: Win: Cal* Loss: Portland *yes, non-conf
UCLA: Win: Marquette Loss: San Diego St
USC: Win: BYU Loss: UConn
UW: Win: Seattle Loss: Montana
WSU: Win: E Wash Loss: None
Great, thoughtful take, as always.
Quick note: the guy playing for ASU is Josh Christopher, not Patrick. (I'm sure that was on accident, and not to rub in our recruiting woes, right? Right?)
Pretty exciting to have four Pac-12 teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Mostly we are rolling over clearly inferior teams. No more basketball though for a couple of days.
Clearly inferior teams, many of which were seeded higher. The Pac-12 should have been dominating more, but the committee disrespected us even more by putting two of our best teams in the same side of the same bracket (USC, Oregon) which wouldn't have happened to any other P5 conference.
Oh, well. The Pac-12's undefeated run was nice while it lasted. Colorado is losing to FSU. 65-48, under 3 minutes left.
Pac-10 is still undefeated tho!
4th time. 97, 98, 2001 and this season.
It happened the last time we made the Sweet 16...1997 saw Cal, Stanford, UCLA & eventual champion Arizona in the final 16...incidentally, Utah was also in, but was a member of a diff conference.
Pretty sure it’s happened again since but not sure when. Either way, a nice feather in the P12 cap.
#BRING BACK LARRY SCOTT!!! Hahaha
'97 was such a great tournament, both for Cal and for the conference.
...but SC is butchering Kansas
UCLA over Abilene Christian 31-19 with 0:20 remaining in the 1st half.
And, an easy 20-point win for the Bruins.
ACU would be pretty tough to beat if they could actually score the basketball. That said, they'd turn us over 30 times. THIRTY!
Oregon absolutely smoked Iowa. Pretty darn impressive.
Yikes...Altman knows how to get them ready in the Dance, esp after a mid-season COVID issue.
This article gets at exactly what I was thinking: this year, with the smaller number of non-conference games, ranking the conferences by strength was going to be much harder. The Pac-12 was undervalued going in to the tournament (though probably still had the right number of teams selected).
Would have been 6 if Arizona weren't self-sanctioned. Seems about right considering the...bottom half of our conference.
Yes, Zona would have had a good shot if they had been eligible.
What's been impressive about the Pac-12 in this tourney so far, is that most of these games haven't even been particularly close in what has otherwise been a pretty tightly contested tourney. On the opposite side, I'm interested in what the takeaway should be with the Big-10 mostly wetting the bed. We had been told that the Big-10 this year was one of the best conferences ever. I expect at least one of Iowa and Michigan will be done after tonight. Side note: The Beavers are playing Loyola-Chicago, not LMU.
Yup, the only game that's been close was UCLA going to overtime against Michigan St. in the first four. Otherwise they've all been double-digits (and one forfeit, though I would have strongly favored Oregon to beat VCU anyway).
It's going to be hilarious when they have 0 in the Elite Eight.
If USC beats Kansas then we are guaranteed at least one in the Elite Eight.
. . . and so it has come to pass.
What's been impressive about the Pac-12 in this tourney so far, is that most of these games haven't even been particularly close in what has otherwise been a pretty tightly contested tourney. On the opposite side, I'm interested in what the takeaway should be with the Big-10 mostly wetting the bed. We had been told that the Big-10 this year was one of the best conferences ever. I expect at least one of Iowa and Michigan will be done after tonight. Side note: The Beavers are playing Loyola-Chicago, not LMU.
Loyola Chicago, not LMU
Absolutely. One thing that has stood out watching the Tourney so far is how athletic these teams are. The good teams have tall and long guys that look like Kuany size-wise, move and defend like Joel, and shoot it like Grant...the Bears could really use an infusion of athleticism. With that in mind, keep your eye on incoming FR Sam Alajiki. More athleticism across the board should help Cal close the gap...eventually.
So we were not as bad as we thought given the upswing. Still in rebuilding mode however and waiting to get some impact recruits.
I dunno...the PAC-12 was better than the National media says, but West Coast fans kinda already knew that. Good to see the numbers catch up. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Cal was by far the worst team in the Conference for the third time in four years. Next year’s pretty big...another last place finish is on the table, but signs of improvement could portend good things are coming.
Could portend good things are coming or just delay the inevitable.
Well, both of those things are likely true. My "good things are coming" reference needs to be taken in context, PawlOski, as the bar is so much lower than at any time in my fandom, which dates back to Harmon and the mid-80's. We've said a number of times that Mike Williams set this program back a decade with the Wyking Jones hire, and I firmly stand by this...incidentally, we promoted Jones on Mar 24, 2017 after we whiffed initially on Musselman, which makes this Wednesday the 4-year anniversary of arguably the worst day in the past 50 years for the MBB program...and that includes the Bozeman/Jelani Gardner scandal. Get excited, Cal fans ;-) !! Questionable at best at the time, it has proven to be devastating.
By all evidence, we're still a good 4-5 years from even competing for an at-large Tournament bid, and Mark Fox is absolutely not the guy that is going to get us there. Fox is the guy that is going to re-build the foundation of the program, basically from scratch, and get them on the path to respectability, and not necessarily on the basketball court. But unlike talented coaches with dynamic offensive &/or defensive styles, Fox doesn't have either the recruiting or player development chops to really get us there any quicker than that. Hopefully Bradley returns next year rather than seeking out greener pastures as a grad transfer...if so, and if Fox can finally get this team to play the defense he wants (paging Lars Thiemann!!), they can start incrementally progressing up the standings, even if slowly.
So, the good things are coming in that Fox will probably eventually get us back to "respectability", and the inevitable being that his ceiling will be just that..respectable, but not NCAA Tournament. Hopefully Knowlton doesn't re-sign him at the end of his 5, tho. Then we're in trouble.
Someone's gotta be last, and we're coming off Wyking.
It's been two seasons already, we've looked worse than we did Fox's first season AND recruiting looks pretty bad too.
I'd watch!