by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–The game against the Cal Poly Mustangs was close for quite awhile last Wednesday night but the Cal Bears pulled away and won it 72-52. The Bears started pulling away with 11 minutes left in the game. Until it was a three point game, right when I turned to Jeff Faraudo of Bay Area News Group and said their letting Cal Poly hang around too long they stopped letting them hang around.

It took Cal 30 minutes of play to really solve the way Cal Poly was defending the game running the shot clock down as close to zero as they could. Extending possession making a lot of passes with a lot of ball movement. On defense they were packing it in low.

Cal was kind of filling up the lane and forcing Cal Poly to take shots that they didn’t really want to take at that time and it took them a little while to really solve it but they eventually did. They executed a three guard offense and three guards scored in double figures Jabari Bird (18), Jordan Matthews (17), and Tyrone Wallace (16).

Basically Cal on defense collapsed in the lane making it impossible to drive the lane, you have to move the ball around a lot and find an open shooter. On offense Bird played well, Matthews used his speed to get the transition game going in the last ten minutes of the game. Christian Behrens had a really nice night he had a career high with nine rebounds.

Behrens could stand to put on a few pounds he still is in general in Cal terms a lightweight compared to a lot teams in the Pac 12. That really showed in the Texas game during the 2K Tournament which they lost, Texas had four guys who were 6’11 and were bigger. All of those four weighed at least 250 pounds and they were able to go in and physically dominate Cal.

The one thing that Cal does not have at this point is bulk down in the key as a senior David Kravish looks like he’s missed a couple of meals. The kids all have sufficient stamina to play 40 minutes that’s not an issue but what’s more an issue is just the ability to be a physical presence in the lane. When your 6’10 290 lbs you take up a lot more space in the key.

When your 6’10 220 lbs you get the leverage to spread out your base and have the physical mass just to move people off the block or just from keeping them from getting the position. Cal Poly was a good basketball team that Cal faced on Wednesday night they compete all night long and if you go back to last year they were the NCAA Tournament team and Cal was not an NCAA Tournament team.

Cal now gets set to play at Fresno State on Sunday for a 3:00 PM (PST) tip

Michael Duca does Cal basketball commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com