by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The game between the Cal Golden Bears and Stanford Cardinal last Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion was a very interesting game if Cal had come out of either of it’s games in Southern California and played with the intensity and the passion and desire that they played in this game against Stanford they would have at least defeated USC and they might have swept in L.A. against UCLA.

While the outcome of the Stanford game was a ten point “oh well another loss in the L column” the way it got there was a whole different thing and gives them some hope going forward. The Cardinal are a very good team they have two seniors on the floor almost all the time Chasson Randle and Anthony Brown are very, very good players. What was interesting is that the Cardinal’s Stephen Nastic gave the Bears fits in the second half.

Cal had a five point lead and Nastic just gave them fits in the second half for whatever reason, the Golden Bears chose not to double team them Bears head coach Cunozo Martin said after the game that Nastic had such an outside shot who got enough guys outside to block and if you decide to start dumping the post and your leaving somebody open on the perimeter getting burned for twos our liable to get burned for three.

Both teams shot poorly in this game both teams shot under 38 percent in the first half and their shots started falling in the second half and that’s why there was a 15 point differential. It wasn’t that the Golden Bears weren’t giving anything away in fact Cal’s bench had Jabari Bird coming off as Bird was their leading scorer at half time with eight points.

Bird didn’t score in the second half, the Cardinal bench outscored the Bears 19-0 in the first half but only added three more points in the second half. Stanford made some adjustments at halftime and made some defensive adjustments, Cal’s team in general played with a lot more aggression on the floor. Cal’s Sam Singer is a pretty decent defender and a pretty decent reader as a back up point guard but he’s not a scorer with Bird out of the line up.

The burden fell on Bird to try and score and it just wasn’t working and it took him out of his strength area and it highlighted his weak area. With Bird back on the floor it at least allowed then to present the credible outside threat which forces the defense to space it out a little more. Bird was able to do what he does and that’s distribute the ball, get some open looks from David Kravish who was down on the post. Kravish was 5-6 from the floor.

The Bears host the Arizona State Sun Devils this coming Thursday Jan 22 at Haas Pavilion