Category: Cal Bears

By Matthew T.F. Harrington

BERKELEY, Calif. – Entering play Sunday evening the California Golden Bears had only felt the sting of defeat twice this season, with the pair of losses coming against teams ranked in the top ten in the country. Add to the likes of Wisconsin and Texas another team that may never again find themselves in the same sentence as these two perennial powerhouses of the hardwood; CSU Bakersfield.

Cal (10-3) fell behind early, then watched as Bakersfield clung to the advantage for dear life, pulling off the 55-52 upset win at Haas Pavilion for just their third victory of the season. Bakersfield (3-10) adds Cal as a strange bedfellow alongside previous conquests Delaware and Idaho State.

“I always talk about ‘You respect all your opponents’,” said Bears coach Cuonzo Martin. “Don’t get consumed with what’s on the front of the jersey or the record. I told our guys before the game, I wrote it on the board, all it takes is one night. Don’t fall asleep We paid for it.”

Cal suffered due to its inability to hold onto the ball, turning the ball over 18 times.

“That’s unacceptable,” said Cal forward David Kravish on his team’s ability to handle the ball. “That’s 18 possessions we didn’t have. That’s 18 shots we didn’t get to put up. They took advantage of it.”

Also of consequence was a lackluster effort from the charity stripe where the Bears went 14 for 24.

“You shoot 14 of 24 from the free throw line, that’s a problem,” said Martin. “It’s a matter of confidence and feeling good. The best way to feel good about your shot is to see the shot go in.”

The Roadrunners dominated California in the early going, yielding only two home field goals over the first ten minutes of play for a 17-5 Bakersfield lead. Cal managed ultimately went into the locker room trailing by ten points at 30-20 at the half.

“We came out flat in the first half,” said Kravish.”That’s been a pattern we’ve set for ourselves for a while now. We came out flat, we .put ourselves in a whole and then we think we can just turn it on.”

Kravish and his teammates don’t know what the cause is for their slow start, but didn’t want to put the blame on a short break for the holidays.

“IT’s not in our DNA,’ said Kravish. “It’s not in what we do in practice every day. The energy level has to be there every day. I don’t understand why. The energy was high.”

Over the first period, the Bears turned the ball over 13 times. They went 7 for 19 from the field in their second worst first half point output this season. Cal previously struggled to a 15-point first half in a 45-42 win against Wyoming earlier this month in an 8-turnover total victory. They scuffled with the shooting touch in that contest as well, hitting 6 of 23 attempts from the field.

Bakersfield’s center Aly Ahmed dominated in the first half, notching 14 points over the first 20 minutes to put him well on pace to break his career-high of 26. The junior from Alexandria, Egypt managed to bully his way in the post, dominating Christian Behrens in isolation. Over the final 20 minutes, the Bears managed to find the solution to stop Ahmed, limiting him to just 5 second-half tallies.

“It’s post defense,” said Martin. “Being aggressive, being physical. In the second half, we did a good job defending the post. That’s what it is. You have to be physical, be aggressive, set a tone, do your job. Do your work early.”

With Bakersfield’s star stymied and turnovers cut down from 13 in the first half to 5 in the second, the Bears slowly chipped away at the ten-point deficit. The home team found themselves trailing by only six at 50-44 with just over a minute left to play.

Kravish got the ball and put up a lay-up, then Sam Singer stole the inbound pass and dished the rock to Tyrone Wallace for the bucket to bring Cal within two at 50-48 with 1:11 left.

Wallace finished the night with a Bears best 17 points, but his foul on Brent Wrapp with 28 seconds left allowed the Bakersfield guard to net a pair of free throws and push the lead back to four points.

Wallace then hit a pair from the Charity stripe of his own, but Wrapp was sent to the line once again. He converted on one of two to keep Cal within three with 17 seconds left and the final game-tying chance. Jordan Mathews instead turned the ball over, forcing Cal to foul to regain possession.

Aly Ahmed hit both free throws to put Bakersfield up by five, but Wallace dunked home the final basket for the 55-52 final.

When piecing together the schedule, Martin wanted to use this game to build confidence heading into Pac-12 play against Washington. Instead, the Bears will be using January 2^nd as a reset button.

They won’t be the only team looking to put non-conference play behind them though. The Huskies fell to Stonybrook in a monumental upset Sunday night.

“Washington lost a game at home tonight,” said Martin. “Every game is important. You take it one game at a time. That’s what I consume myself with. You want to win the game, you want to protect home court. But it’s back to the drawing board against Washington.”

by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears (10-2) only two loses if you compare them they were equally important coming on the heels of a loss from Monday night to the Wisconsin Badgers (11-1) 68-56. One was not having a credible outside threat in the game with guard Jabiri Bird still on the bench for who knows how long. Without Bird it was difficult to have the offensive output and against Wisconsin your going to lose games against teams who are bigger and better than you are and as athletic as you are.

Wisconsin is a very, very good basketball team and they just outplayed Cal on Monday. When Cal goes back to look at the film the coaches and the players will realize they were missing a lot of easy shots early in the game and that was the problem. For the Badgers it was getting the easy shots, they were getting clean looks at the basket up close and lay ups that were uncontested. The Bears were working on ball strength and they just weren’t getting the results.

For Wisconsin they were getting the results much easier than it was for Cal, the Badgers head coach Bo Ryan was very complimentary he said that Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin’s career was in the Big Ten and he always said that he was always a tenacious defender and played always hard on the court and Ryan hoped that he would coach teams that would be the same way and that’s a very excellent compliment coming from an excellent coach.

The Badgers have beaten Cal in the last three years and they’ve met Wisconsin in a tournament within the last three years. This is an interesting season Kravish came on with great things that were expected and he’s had a great career and has been steadily improving. You thought “wow he’s got all that experience” on the team and you would have high expectations for him. This is not the coach that recruited him and this is not the coach that he’s had the last three years.

There is an adjustment going on here everybody is saying the right things, but Kravish misses Montgomery’s offensive sets and he misses the offense that goes through him under Montgomery. I have to be honest with you this is a hard system to readapt to and Kravish misses Justin Cobbs. The Bears get ready to battle the CSU Bakersfield Raodrunners (2-10) on Sunday night and if it’s competitive for over ten minutes the Bears are in deep trouble. Bakerfield was a national champion as a Division two team a few years ago but since they arrived in Division one ball they are now in waters that are way over their head.

The Roadrunners are ranked 305th amongst the D-One schools in the nation, if this game is competitive for ten minutes I think that coach Martin will pull out the one hair he has left. With the Badgers coming last Monday and how do you prepare for them, how do you put a scout team out there with 6’8, 6’9 players when you don’t have it yourself. The Bears starters are not even that big, so how does Cal get ready to play and prepare offensive sets against a team that big.

The Badgers are not really burly but they transition well, they don’t turn the ball over and neither team turned the ball over and both teams had six turnovers. Wisconsin was averaging over eight per game, which is on of the best in the nation, they don’t commit fouls, they have the five lowest foul call teams. They were number five in the nation with calls against them add the fact that everything that Cal got earlier and they were only getting tough shots you could actually see evidence of that on the stat sheet. The Wisconsin Badgers were a big and tough opponent for Cal on Monday night at Haas Pavilion.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover Cal Men’s basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

By Morris Phillips

Among other things, losing to sixth-ranked Wisconsin meant Coach Cuonzo Martin had to answer a bunch of ridiculous questions like what’s bugging one of his starters off the court, and was he happy with the margin of defeat in the loss.  But as usual, Martin didn’t snicker at any of the inquiries, he answered them all, many punctuated with the keenest insight he could muster:

Simply, Martin said, “they’re a good team.”

And the visiting Badgers were, from start to finish in a 68-56 win over Cal Monday night that will rightly quiet any talk of the Bears being among the nation’s Top 25 anytime soon.

Wisconsin scored 17 of the game’s first 21 points and cruised from there, rarely posturing or preening before or after pauses in the action.  Besides a technical foul on impressive power forward Nigel Hayes, the Badgers clogged the lanes on defense, played it patient and efficient on offense, and gradually wore down Cal.

“Just being down I felt we rushed a little bit instead of just keeping on pace, flowing with the game and taking what the defense gives us,” Martin said. “They’re a big team.  They make you go over the top or you’ve got to be able to score one-on-one in the post.”

As one of those rare college basketball teams that has been to the Final Four and returns mostly intact with even greater prospects and aspirations, Big Ten favorite Wisconsin didn’t surprise anyone, unless it was with how easy they made it look at a couple of  junctures on Monday.  Lottery-level talent, 7’0″ center Frank Kaminsky drew scouts from more than 20 NBA teams, but didn’t shine with5 of 13 shooting.  But he did a great job of setting up his teammates from just about anywhere on the floor, just a step below the spectacular play he turned in during the NCAA tournament run in March.

Kaminsky’s unselfish play left the Bears vulnerable in their three-guard look that matched up with Wisconsin’s front line that had the All-American teamed with 6’9″ Sam Dekker and the more physical 6’8″ Hayes.  Big point guard Sam Singer, Jordan Mathews  and 5’10” Brandon Chauca often got left to defend Dekker and he was a handful with 14 points and six rebounds.

Still the Bears performed credibly on the defensive end, taking away many of Wisconsin’s back door opportunities as well as getting to shooters around the arc. But in one-on-one situations and in the post, the Badgers found a way to hurt Cal with Dekker and Hayes (17 points, 13 rebounds) on a night where their shooting was uncharacteristically off at 44 percent..

Offensively, the Bears struggled in their sets, and dribble penetration was a hit-or-miss proposition with the Badgers’ physicality and clogging.  Tyrone Wallace got the most done with 17 points and seven rebounds, but even he needed 16 shots to get there.  Cal’s other starters struggled, most notably David Kravish, thus the crazy question about what’s bothering the senior off the court.

Cal’s bench didn’t provide much relief, but against a quality opponent, that figured to be the case as only Roger Moute A Bidias made a dent with five points and four rebounds.  Stat crunchers highlighted the Bears’ meager seven assists, a nod to Wisconsin’s bigger presence.  For Martin, his team’s post defense was a problem on a night where there were few soutions for the home team.

The Bears (10-2) face Cal State Bakersfield after Christmas and then open Pac-12 competition against the Washington schools on January 2.

By Morris Phillips

Being 10-1 to start a season for the first time since 1955 is obviously rare. So is winning immediately with a new coach, and doing so with expectations low due to losing key seniors. Add the confounding injury to one of your best returners, and you’ve been introduced to the 2014-15 Cal Bears.

It’s a story that’s even surprised Coach Cuonzo Martin.

“It’s not easy but they brought their heart out to practice and the game,” Martin said in an attempt to explain the team’s early success. “They battle, they compete and they get better as a team. They value each other on both sides of the floor, allowing the team to be successful.”

The Bears got a test from Eastern Washington on Friday night that was at moments even bigger due to the presence of the Eagles’ two capable scorers, Venky Jois and Tyler Harvey. But the Bears played unselfishly offensively, established an 11-point lead at the half, and won pulling away late, 78-67.

Tyrone Wallace led the Bears with 21 points and 11 rebounds while playing both guard spots. When Wallace wasn’t manning the point, Sam Singer did, adding 15 points on 7 of 9 shooting. While the assist total of 13 wasn’t particularly high, the Bears shared the ball with Christian Behrens, roaming the baseline, the beneficiary. Behrens had 20 for Cal and eight rebounds, again showing that he will unquestionably have the best of his four seasons in Berkeley this season.

EWU was led by Harvey who looked almost Curry-like in a 31-point scoring night in which he included six made 3-pointers. Jois was good as well for an Eagles’ team that will compete for the Big Sky Conference title. The undersized, but mobile post from Australia had 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting, but came up short when the Bears focused on bringing a second defender to help on his forays to the basket midway through the second half.

Martin singled out Behrens for his continued growth in his post-game comments, saying that the senior forward grew quickly from summer workouts to now with him establishing himself as a 30 minute-a-game player for the first time. Singer also lauded his teammate for his dedicated effort in practices. For himself, Behrens simply declared himself healthy, which may the biggest statement of all.

“In the summer, when Coach Martin challenged him, he said, ‘Christian, you can either come with us or we are going to leave you behind.’ Christian said, ‘I’m coming with you and I’m going to lead this team, I’m going to help lead this team,’” Singer recounted.

For a team that has already achieved rarities, another awaits on Monday, when the Bears highly-ranked and regarded Wisconsin, a team that was a Final Four participant in March and returns NBA lottery prospect Frank Kaminsky.