By Morris Phillips
Slow starts and frustrated opponents seeking redemption–those are your Golden Bears’ themes for the now completed, annual trip to the Arizona desert.
Warning: these themes aren’t filled with positivity.
Oakland native James Akinjo had 20 points, eight assists and no turnovers to lead Arizona to a wire-to-wire 71-50 win over Cal on Saturday. Once again, the Bears were lethargic offensively at the start, falling behind 10-2 and 19-7, then trailing by as many as 29 in the second half. The lack of execution was reflected in the numbers as Cal shot 38 percent from the floor with a paltry eight assists and 16 turnovers.
“I thought Arizona was the aggressor from the jump ball,” coach Mark Fox admitted. “I thought they dominated the paint. I felt like we were playing uphill all day, which we really were.”
Being the least-affected team by COVID protocols in the Pac-12 hasn’t benefitted Cal much. They’ve played a league-high 19 games with just one postponement in league play, but Saturday’s loss keeps the Bears in the conference basement at 2-10 and 7-12 overall.
Also, Cal’s 50 points against Arizona (13-4, 7-4) marked their lowest offensive output of the season.
The host Wildcats didn’t figure to be in a giving mood after losing on Thursday to Stanford, who was without three of their four best players. In that one, UA’s defense slumped, and they couldn’t get anything easy in the paint against the Cardinal’s size and double teams. Coach Sean Miller sensed something was amiss.
“We weren’t the together, hard-playing, unselfish group that this team has been throughout the year,” said Miller. “We let our guard down. Not sure how or why it happened but we were just not good in those areas.”
Those issues never surfaced against Cal.
Depending on your perspective, Arizona’s size harassed Cal into numerous bad shots, or their quickness kept Cal from dribble penetration while forcing numerous explosive turnovers. In either case, Cal couldn’t run their offense–a reoccurring theme–from botched inbounds plays to errant entry passes. The perimeter-leaning trio of Grant Anticevich, Ryan Betley and Makale Foreman suffered the most, combining to miss 14 of 18 shots from the floor.
Matt Bradley was back to being his hard-charging self, leading Cal with 21 points, including 5 of 6 from three. But Bradley wasn’t perfect: he had six turnovers, two of those in the first seven minutes, a period in which Cal scored just one basket and buried themselves from the start.
Meanwhile, Akinjo was the latest Pac-12 lead guard to give Cal the business in what Miller said was his best game yet in an Arizona uniform. A year ago, Akinjo was dismissed from the Georgetown team as coach Patrick Ewing issued a brief statement without elaborating. Big East journalists cited the smallish guard’s below average defense as a major reason the Hoyas struggled.
But this season, Akinjo’s been fantastic, while leading the Pac-12 in assists in conference play. He’s been the leader of an inexperienced team, he’s beefier from time spent in the weight room, and Miller–a point guard in his playing days–has coached Akinjo on all the finer points.
A talented playmaker from Oakland that went to high school in Richmond?
Cal could really use him.
The Bears host Stanford on Thursday at 6pm with the return engagement on Sunday at 7pm at Maples Pavilion, the second true home game for the nomadic Cardinal this season with the first on Tuesday against USC.
NOTES: The Bears had no steals or blocks in the first half on Saturday. Arizona shot 55 percent in the period and enjoyed an 18-4 advantage in points in the paint.
The Wildcats improved to 116-15 in the last 131 home games at the McKale Center, a mere 101 games above .500.
The Bears dropped Thursday’s contest to Arizona State, which snapped ASU’s six-game losing skid.
The Bears have lost eight straight to Arizona State, and nine consecutive to Arizona. The last Cal coach to beat either school? Cuonzo Martin in 2016. Mark Fox and his predecessor Wyking Jones are both 0-4 against the Arizona schools at Cal.
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