Category: Cal Bears

By Morris Phillips

On the same night, on the same big stage, on the same court, experienced, but still youthful coaches Cuonzo Martin and Joe Callero experienced the biggest wins of the careers last March.  In Dayton, at the NCAA First Four, Martin’s Tennessee team got past Iowa in overtime, and Callero’s Mustangs of Cal Poly became just the second team in NCAA Tournament history to win a tournament game despite having 19 losses that season.

Wednesday night was not in any way the same stage for Martin and Callero.  Just a holiday eve meeting of teams trying to find their way that went decidedly to Martin’s Bears, 72-52 at Haas Pavilion.  For Martin, the adjustment of being the new coach with an established group of players continued full force as he described after the game.

“Any time there’s a coaching change there’s adjustments with different styles and different philosophies,” Martin explained.  “I thought Jordan Mathews has taken steps defensively and has really accepted challenges.  I thought (point guard) Sam (Singer) did a great job defending.  I thought Christian (Behrens) played a tremendous game on both ends of the floor.  He really defended and really accepted challenges.  It doesn’t happen overnight because you have to go through things.  Every team presents a different challenge.  They have to take personal pride and be tough and hard-nosed.  That’s how you win games.”

For Callero, his team and environment is the same, but the challenge to maintain the momentum created by winning the Big West tournament last spring and then winning their NCAA opener against Texas Southern without repeating the adversity that comes with losing 19 games.  Callero’s team last spring overcame injuries, got hot at the right time and made a run.  Now with most of that team back, minus a pair of senior leaders, Callero is trying to create an environment that includes winning more frequently.

Against Cal, Callero’s Mustangs had their hands full.

“We took care of the basketball, but their speed you just can’t simulate,” Callero said.  “They had six or eight transition baskets on us in the first half, which we felt like that was difference in the seven-point lead they had at the half.  Second opportunities and tip-ins are things you can control.  They ended up with nine offensive boards and just dominated the glass with potential possessions there.”

The Bears built upon their edge on the glass, out rebounding Cal Poly 44-27 and shooting 47 percent from the field.  Cal led by seven at the half, and the stubborn Mustangs hung around for much of the second half, but the Bears extended their lead to double digits with eight minutes remaining.

The Bears were led by the trio of Jabari Bird, Tyrone Wallace and Mathews who combined for 51 of Cal’s 72 points.  David Kravish added nine points and six rebounds.

Brian Bennett had 16 points for Cal Poly.  David Nwaba added 14 points, five rebounds.

On Sunday afternoon, Cal travels to Fresno State to face the Bulldogs at 3pm.

By Morris Phillips

Whatever Michael Lowe’s intentions were with his swooping, head first tackle on Stanford’s Austin Hooper, the result was Cal’s senior leader was ejected on the game’s first play from scrimmage and his final Big Game was over before it got started.

Needing a big start, near immediate impact on the scoreboard and a physical effort for 60 minutes, Lowe’s ejection for targeting was none of the above.  Instead, the Bears’ Big Game aspirations disappeared soon after Lowe was ejected.

Remound Wright’s first of four rushing touchdowns came six plays later—less than three minutes into the 117^th Big Game–and Stanford went on to smash Cal, 38-17 on Saturday.

“In 20 years, I have never seen something like that happen during the first play of the game,” California coach Sonny Dykes said.  “That is a tough call for the first play of the ball game.  I wish that something like that wouldn’t affect us as much as it did.  It affected me and I think it affected our players.”

Lowe’s departure robbed the beleaguered Bears of a playmaker, one of the few Cal’s defense possesses, and someone who understood what it would take to topple Stanford and prevent a fifth-consecutive loss to the Bears’ biggest rival.

From the Cardinal’s perspective, the ejection simply accelerated what they had been slow-cooking all week: a game plan bent on slowing Jared Goff, sprinkled with an extra helping of physicality for the Cal quarterback and his targets.  Offensively, Stanford needed to break out of its malaise, and it did, courtesy of five Cal turnovers.  Afterwards, Stanford’s David Shaw expressed his pleasure with his team’s effort.

“I thought our defense played really well,” Shaw said.  “We’ve been talking all year about trying to get turnovers and to come away with a bunch today is huge.  For our offense to make something of those turnovers is big, as well.”

As always, for teams that know each other all too well, details were crucial.  Fifth-year senior David Parry described how tipped balls and rushed throws by Goff were precipitated by film study that showed how quickly Cal’s offensive line retreats in their shotgun sets, and how that tactic gave Parry and defensive linemates opportunities to get their hands up in the passing lanes.

One of those tipped Goff passes wound up in the hands of linebacker Blake Martinez with Stanford up 17-7 in the second quarter as Cal was driving to tighten the game.  Instead, Cal came up empty, part of a stretch between their initial, first quarter touchdown and a third quarter field goal where Goff was picked off three times and the Bears punted twice.

“They did a nice job tipping a couple of passes, so you have to give them credit for that,” Dykes said.  “We have to make sure we move in the pocket and make space.  A lot of times, tipped passes are on the quarterback, if we are not finding a throwing lane.”

For a team dependent on creating pace and offensive rhythm, the turnovers were killers.  Against Stanford and all their opponents, the Bears want to run at least 100 offensive plays.   That many plays run, contributes to the fatigue of the Bears’ opponents, and creates the possibility of mistakes, both physical and mental.

Instead, Stanford saw Cal run just 76 offensive plays and punt four times in addition to the damaging turnovers.

By Morris Phillips

One night after the Cal Bears shot up Syracuse, they came crashing back to the earth against Texas.

The Bears were doomed by their early, cold shooting in a 71-55 loss to the Longhorns Friday night in the Championship Game of the 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden.  Cal missed 22 of their first 29 shots from the field and trailed Texas by 10 points at halftime.

Cal opened the second half with a brief 6-0 run to climb within 33-27, but the Orangemen responded with an 8-2 surge and led 41-29 with just over 15 minutes remaining.  Syracuse would cruise from there, maintaining a double-digit lead over Cal for the final eight plus minutes of the ballgame.

The Bears shot just 24 percent in the first half, and 31 percent for the game.

Texas improved to 3-0 with the win and played without star point guard Isaiah Taylor, who suffered an injured wrist in the Longhorns’ win over Iowa.   In Taylor’s place in the starting lineup, Javan Felix was so integral to win he was named to the all-tournament team along with MVP Jonathan Holmes.

Holmes led Texas with 21 points and 13 rebounds and he and Felix were joined on the all-tournament team by Cal’s David Kravish, Iowa’s Aaron White and Syracuse’s Chris McCullough.

Kravish led Cal with a career-best tying 19 points and Tyrone Wallace added 16.  Kravish needed 18 shots to score 19 points and credited the Texas’ frontline for making things difficult afterwards.

“You cut off one head and they bring three after you.  They’re a big team and I don’t know if there’s any other frontline in college that could match that frontline,” Kravish said.

The Bears, picked to finish seventh in the Pac-12, lost for the first time, falling to 3-1.  Cal hosts Cal Poly on Wednesday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

By Morris Phillips

To appreciate what Cuonzo Martin’s Cal Bears did in beating Syracuse in Madison Square Garden on Thursday, you have to first digest what Mike Montgomery’s Bears weren’t able to do against the Orangemen the previous two seasons.

In Montgomery’s final NCAA tournament appearance, his Bears led by Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs scored just 60 points against Coach Jim Boeheim’s vaunted, matchup zone, shooting 39 percent from the field and making every possession look like pulling teeth against Syracuse’s experienced, lengthy defenders.

“I was fearful that was going to happen,” Montgomery said after that March 2013 season-ending NCAA third-round loss.  “I knew where the strengths of the zone and what the weaknesses were.  I wasn’t sure we had the personnel in a day to get done what we needed to get done.”

“It’s like when a shark smells blood,” Syracuse guard Michael Carter-Williams, who would go on to being picked in the 2013 NBA Draft’s first round and become the 2014 NBA Rookie of the Year.  “You just get excited and want to keep going and shut him down some more.”

A year ago, in the cozy, well-known Lahaina Civic Center in Maui, Cal’s offense wasn’t bad, led by Cobbs the Bears scored 81 points and shot 52 percent from the field against the Orange.  But freshman phenom Tyler Ennis scored 28 points for Syracuse and they broke open a close game midway through the second half and cruised to a 92-81 win.

Syracuse’s superior talent stood out in both wins, but this time, with a few players for both teams back from each of the previous Orangemen wins, Cal looked to be the more talented bunch.  The Bears’ 3-point shooting highlighted the first half as Cal went up 34-20 just before the break, and extended their lead to as much as 19 points in the second half.

This time, under Martin, the Bears attacked Boeheim’s zone aggressively, using dribble penetration to get to the basket or kick outs to shooters.  To be fair, the biggest difference between this time and the first two matchups, was Syracuse’s inexperience with promising freshman point guard Kaleb Joseph and forward Chris McCullough suffering subpar games, especially on the defensive end.

But the Bears responded with a crisp effort, shooting 46 percent from the field and canning eight 3-pointers to establish and maintain their lead.  Jordan Mathews, Jabari Bird and Tyrone Wallace weren’t bad against Syracuse in Maui a year ago, combining to score 38 points.  But this time the trio led Cal’s confident approach, combining for 48 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

“We lost to them the past two years, and with guys that were returning it plays on your mind.  But I thought our guys did a great job of accepting the challenge,” Martin said.

“We’re going to have to spend the month of December getting better,” Boeheim said.  “You can’t lose guys like we’ve lost and play like you played last year.”

The Bears improved to 3-0 on the season and the national televised game allowed famed broadcaster Dick Vitale to repeatedly question pre-season prognostications that have the Bears finishing seventh or worse in the Pac-12.

Cal will face Texas Friday night in the championship game of the 2K Classic.  The No. 10 Longhorns ran past Iowa in the opening game Thursday at the famed Garden.  The big, physical Texas team will provide quite a difference test for Cal with their experience and size.

Syracuse allowed more than 48 points for the first time this season on Thursday, while Martin’s Bears scored in fewer than 90 points for the first time after a pair of opening round blowouts last week.