Tag: Cal

Singer’s big shot carries Cal past Washington

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By Morris Phillips

After a rough January, the Cal Bears caught several breaks in Seattle on the first day of February.

Most noticeably, the television-centric scheduling of Pac-12 conference games finally played in Cal’s favor.  The Bears found themselves in a normally hostile Alaska Airlines Arena on a day where the entire Northwest region was preoccupied with the Super Bowl and their Seahawks, and all the empty seats clearly aided the Bears in their attempt to capture a rare, second consecutive road win.

That, and having point guard Sam Singer in his sweet spot against a hobbled defender with the game on the line in the final seconds.

Singer’s 3-pointer propelled Cal past Washington, 90-88, reinforcing that despite a rough stretch, the Bears are far from giving up on the rest of their season.

“Even after losing six in a row, we never lost confidence,” Singer said.  “We got healthy when Jabari came back.  And so now, it’s just about getting on a roll and these two wins against Washington State and Washington were huge.  And now we’re going to look to keep going against the Los Angeles’ next week.”

After all of Cal’s offensive struggles which have been dissected again and again, the Bears found themselves in a game where neither team played much defense, and that allowed Cuonzo Martin’s group to gain confidence shooting the ball almost from the opening tip to the conclusion of the game.

One week after the Bears had only four guys score in a depressing loss to highly-ranked Arizona, all five of Cal’s most voluminous shooters converted more than half of their shot attempts with Jordan Mathews (23 points, 7 of 11 shooting) and Tyrone Wallace (21, 9 of 17) leading the way.  On the game’s final play, the Bears looked to Wallace first, but when the defense against Cal’s leading scorer slumped into the lane to prevent his drive, Wallace delivered the ball to Singer at the top of the key.

Normally, the pass-first Singer would have looked for a teammate, but with the clock about to expire and UW’s Andrew Andrews defending on an hobbled ankle he suffered early in the game, Singer looked to attack.  Andrews attempted to take away Singer’s drive when the big guard took a hard, jab step toward the paint, and that gave Singer an uncontested look from the top of the key which he drained with five seconds remaining.

With no time to celebrate prematurely the Cal defense retreated to contest UW’s Nigel Williams-Goss’s last ditch race up the floor.  And when his difficult, long range shot failed to draw iron, the Bears were winners with Martin in the middle of Cal’s celebratory huddle at mid-court.

“I was happy for our team because like I told the guys ‘we are right there.’  Sometimes in a loss you can’t see the progress that guys are making.  I’ve said that.  But those guys have made a tremendous amount of progress and I was happy to see in these two wins the progress that guys have made,” Martin said.

The pair of wins allowed Cal to escape the conference cellar and into a ninth-place tie at 3-6 with Washington and Arizona State.  The Bears host last place USC on Thursday with an opportunity to extend their win streak.

Cal gets big boost from Tyrone Wallace and wins at Washington State

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Cal back on top

By Morris Phillips

When you haven’t won in nearly a month, you’ll go anywhere—even to Pullman, WA—to get a much-needed victory.

That’s where the Cal Bears went, and after some tense moments down the stretch, were able to end a six-game losing streak with a 76-67 win over host Washington State.

The Bears appeared to re-establish their relationship with the rim in the win, shooting 55 percent from the field and scoring 10 more points than they did in any of their six losses in January.  Tyrone Wallace discovered the basket first, scoring 21 of Cal’s initial 39 points in a 26-point, seven-rebound performance that paced the Bears.

While Wallace soared, Cal’s second-leading scorer, Jordan Mathews flatlined, drawing a pair of personal fouls in the game’s first minute.  Mathews finished the first half scoreless and played just four minutes.  But with the game on the line, and WSU holding their only lead of the game’s final 20 minutes, Mathews strung together all nine of his points in the game in Cal’s closing run that turned a 65-64 deficit into a 73-67 lead with 51 seconds remaining.

The Bears improved to 12-9, 2-6 in Pac-12 play and moved out the conference basement with the win while USC fell at home in triple overtime to Colorado.  The Bears will attempt to string together wins for the first time since December 19 on Sunday when they visit Washington in Seattle.

Nine Bears scored on the evening, including all four that played off Coach Cuonzo Martin’s bench one game after only four scored in the dismal loss to No. 7 Arizona at Haas Pavilion.  Brandon Chauca was the big surprise with a career-best 10 points off the bench on 4 of 7 shooting.

Washington State was led by DaVonte Lacy and Josh Hawkinson who combined for 42 points but missed 22 of their combined 34 shots.  The Cougars have lost four straight after opening Pac-12 play 3-1.

No. 7 Arizona blows past Cal after a slow start

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Cats too tough

By Morris Phillips

As much as the Cal Bears needed it to not be the case, Saturday night’s Pac-12 showdown was undoubtedly all about the Arizona Wildcats.

No. 7 Arizona didn’t play well early, and the meeting between league rivals headed in opposite directions carried some intrigue approaching halftime.  But once the Cats started to look like the Cats, Cal was outclassed as Arizona cruised to a 73-50 victory.

The Bears wanted things to be about them as they were in last season’s big upset of Arizona at Haas Pavilion, but this time Cal offered little other than an inspired defensive effort in the game’s early stages.

Upon closer inspection, what better explained why the game was close early–the last tie score came with 3:23 remaining at 17 apiece—was Arizona’s mistakes and tentative play.  The Wildcats had six turnovers in the game’s first 11 minutes, and nine for the half.  Also, Arizona went more than five minutes scoreless, allowing the Bears to erase an early double-digit deficit.  Granted an opening, the Bears again struggled to make shots.  Cal needed almost 10 minutes to compile three made baskets and finished the opening half with just 19 points.

“It’s easy to say what you’d like to do, but sometimes there is a reality to what we are doing,” Coach Cuonzo Martin said in an attempt to explain his team’s offensive shortcomings.  “Scorers score the ball.  Some guys aren’t built to do it. We will get them better.  We will continue to get them better.”

The box score illustrated how deep Cal’s issue are.  Only four Bears scored, and the other six that saw action took just one shot, Christian Behrens’ point blank miss after an offensive rebound in the first half.  Cal’s bench went scoreless and the team attempted just four free throws while the Cats converted 23 of 26.  Only two Bears, Jordan Mathews and Jabari Bird, are legitimate shooters from distance, and Bird continues to work himself back after an extended absence due to injury.

So from Arizona’s perspective–given Cal’s lack of firepower—the Cats merely needed to weather the early storm, not get rattled or draw upon the experience of last season’s upset in a negative way.  Brandon Ashley, the San Francisco native who was lost for the season in last season’s meeting, said he thought little of the experience during Saturday’s game.  And his teammates may not have played their best games, but their effort was consistent from Coach Sean Miller’s perspective.

“I was excited about our effort level.  We were really a team that gave everything we had,” Miller said.

Cal has dropped eight of nine, and remain in last place in conference play at 1-6 along with USC.  Arizona has won four straight after a two-point loss at surprising Oregon State.  The Wildcats claimed first place in the Pac-12 to themselves with 5-1 Utah idle on Saturday.

The Bears will attempt to regroup at Washington and at Washington State next weekend with the trip to Pullman up first on Thursday night.

Clang!: Bears go 13 minutes without a point in loss to Arizona State

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Blowout!

By Morris Phillips

How serious are Cal’s offensive issues?

Serious as shown by a 13-minute stretch on Thursday night where shots hit the rim and bounced off, quality free throw shooters failed to convert and high-scoring point guard Tyrone Wallace found himself motoring to the hoop, but then inexplicably attempted to pass the ball in the opposite direction of where his momentum was carrying him.

None of it worked as the scoreboard showed.  Cal was tied with Arizona State, 10-10, after five minutes of play, then—with less than two minutes remaining in the opening half—the Bears trailed the Sun Devils, 32-10. Opponents’ 22-point runs and 13-minute scoring droughts often signal the worst a team has to offer, but for Cal, which went on to lose 79-44, it was just the tip of the iceberg.

The loss was Cal’s seventh in their last eight games, and the 35-point margin ranks as the second-worst in school history at home in Berkeley.

“It was a tough loss,” Coach Cuonzo Martin said.  “It’s my job as coach to get our guys ready to play and compete.  Their job is to execute what we’re trying to do.  I didn’t do a very good job of that as a head coach to get our guys ready to compete in battle.  We came up short.”

Martin’s Bears needed this to be the weekend that they recovered from a tough stretch bridging December and January but it doesn’t appear as if that will be the case.  No. 7 Arizona visits Haas Pavilion on Saturday night and the Wildcats won’t be overlooking the Bears after last year’s huge upset loss in which their standout forward Brandon Ashley suffered a broken bone and was lost for the remainder of the season.

Instead of springing an unlikely second upset win, the Bears might be better served to get reacquainted with the rim, which the Bears found truly confounding on Thursday.  Jabari Bird and Dwight Tarwater were late adds to Cal’s starting lineup, but both guys went scoreless.  Cal scored 13 points in the first—their fewest since 2010—and shot 33 percent for the game.  In addition to all the rushed shots and poor decisions, the Bears committed 19 turnovers.

Jordan Mathews was Cal’s only double-figure scorer and he totaled just 11 points.

The Sun Devils won their second straight after opening Pac-12 play with four losses.   If one player signified the turnaround in ASU’s play it would be Eric Jacobsen, who scored nine points and gave the smallish Sun Devils an interior presence.  Jacobsen’s improved play coincided with David Kravish’s foul trouble that put Cal’s 6’9” post on the bench for a huge stretch in the first half.

‘Nobody likes to lose, but we have to give the credit where it’s due and Arizona State played a great game,” Kravish said.

With No Bench Support, Cardinal Falls in Pac-12 Opener to Rival Cal

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By Matthew Harrington

The Stanford Cardinal’s greatest strength proved to be its greatest weakness in a Thursday evening 69-62 loss to rivals University of California Berkeley. Stanford’s starters, who produce one of the best totals in the nation of 66.9 points per game, provided all of the scoring for the Cardinal (9-4) in the defeat to open up Pac-12 play with a loss to their cross-bay foes Cal (10-4).

The Cardinal starting five once against consisted of Chasson Randle and Anthony Brown at the guard positions and Josh Huestis, Dwight Powell and Stefan Nastic in the frontcourt, the 13th straight time coach Johnny Dawkins penciled in this starting unit. Powell, the only player in white to make more than half of the baskets he attempted, paced the Cardinal with 16 points before fouling out in the second half. Randle (15) and Brown (14) finished right behind the forward in points on a night where the bench provided no support.

Golden Bears guard Tyrone Wallace dropped a game-high 20 points on 6 of 13 from the field, including four three-pointers, while forward Richard Solomon (14) and Justin Cobb (18) also cracked double-digits for the victors. Cal made 42.1 percent of field goals to Stanford’s 41.4, with Berkeley narrowly out-rebounding the Cardinal 37-35.

The Cardinal raced out to an early eight-point, 12-4 lead on a pair of Anthony Brown free throws 3:45 in but the Golden Bears clawed back, outscoring Stanford 17-6 over the next four minutes. Cal ultimately took the lead after Richard Solomon nailed two free throws to give the visitors a 19-18 lead 7:45 into play. They would go on to outscore Stanford 18-13 for the remainder of the first half to boast a 37-31 lead at the half.

Cal continued distancing itself from the Cardinal, allowing consecutive Stanford baskets only once in the opening ten minutes of the second frame for a 51-45 lead. Stanford responded with a 10-3 run for its first lead in over 26:34 of game time when Randle nailed a jumper with just under six minutes to play. Dwight Powell chipped in a free throw with 5:17 remaining to give Stanford its biggest lead of the half 56-54.

With Stanford’s Nastic and Powell watching from the bench after each fouling out in the closing minutes, the Golden Bears outscored their hosts 13-6, including an unanswered eight points just after Stanford wrestled the Cal lead away. A Justin Cobb jumper, 2 of the guard’s 11 second-half points, iced the game 67-62 with 25 seconds left. Randle lost the handle on a dribble while taking the ball down court on the next play, turning the ball over to the Golden Bears with 22 seconds on the clock. Cobb then added a pair from the charity stripe to close out the game.

For Stanford, the loss against Cal at Maples Pavilion is its first since March of 2010. The Cardinal entered play amidst a stretch that saw it dominate Berkeley at home with 18 wins in the previous 20 contests in Palo Alto. Stanford  will have a chance to bounce back in Pac-12 when they square off against Oregon State in Corvallis on January 9th before a trip to Eugene to face no. 10 Oregon January 12.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips on Cal basketball

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by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The thing about Cal facing Creighton and losing last weekend in that non conference game is that loss won’t help them as we approach the NCAA Tournament on whose going to go and who isn’t. Cal head coach Mike Montgomery knows there’s not that many opportunities in the non-conference to make them last.

When the Golden Bears went to Maui and lost to Syracuse 91-82 November 26th Syracuse is ranked number two in the nation right now but they weren’t ranked number two when Cal played them after raking up a few more wins. The Bears didn’t beat Syracuse and they didn’t beat Creighton that will hurt them come selection time.

As far as the Bears next opponent Furman is concerned whom they play at Haas on Saturday they won’t give Cal much of a battle that will be the final non conference game for the Bears and they will see Stanford on January 2nd at Maples Pavilion to open their first conference game in the new year.

The Bears best game in non conference play was the game against Oakland which they won 64-61 the team from suburban Detroit that was in Berkeley on November 15th that game went down to the last two minutes. Oakland went onto do some almost wonderful things.

The Bears also took Michigan State down to the end of the wire that game was played at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. Non conference basketball is where you don’t want any slip ups like losing to someone your not suppose to lose to because people will come and hurt you come selection tme.

The NCAA will select someone whose in the top 40 who will hurt you, especially since Cal comes off that loss to Creighton which is disappointing and you’ll see them bounce back pretty well. The Bears are in Stanford Jan 2 and you don’t want to open the conference season with a loss and Cal hasn’t had much success at Maples lately. The Bears have lost the last three or four in Maples.

The Bears have won at Stanford only once since Montgomery was the coach the win was in his first year it’s a tough place to play for Cal. Montgomery doesn’t get much a of reception down there any more even though he was a great coach at Stanford for many years and they’re going to have to deal with Stanford and their size. If anything we know that Stanford doesn’t shoot the ball well all the time and hopefully Cal can take advantage of it.

Morris Phillips covers the Cal Bears with Michael Duca for Sportstalk Radio

Morris Phillips on the NCAA

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by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears are getting confidence with these non conference games wins like the one Saturday against the Fresno State Bull Dogs 67-56 in an 11 point victory and it’s an opportunity to gain confidence with a young basketball team which is great. The Bears have got new players that haven’t had expereince at the division one level and that’s why home games or pre conference games are so critical so that will help them.

The Bears didn’t see anybody of size this week and obviously when the conference games start they will be seeing bigger teams and taller players and the Bears will have to contend with those teams. At that point Cal will be the smaller team of the group. Especially they played Nevada and Fresno State on Saturday at Haas Pavilion and they saw a pair of undersize teams and that won’t be the case in the Pac 12.

The one thing that’s going on right now for the first time since 2006 the number one team in the country is from the Pac 12 Arizona who won against Michigan to secure that number one spot and the Pac 12 looks to be as balanced and competitive as it has been in years top to bottom and their already getting raves for being one of the strong leagues in the country.

Once again Cal is not in a conference schedule there is nothing compared to what they will see once the conference season starts. Just to run through the team, Arizona is number one, Oregon is ranked, Washington State looks to be much improved, Washington as like Cal a younger team trying to find it’s way.

Stanford is kind of interesting they just lost their point guard Aaron Bright for the season the Pac 12 is going to be a bear and every week it’s going to be tough ball games that are going to be very closely contested. Cal is going to be right there in the mix. They are younger and less experienced than some of the teams that they will face.

Morris Phillips covers Cal basketball and is filling in for Dr.Michelle Richardson this week for the NCAA commentary

Michael Duca on Cal basketball

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–What you want to do is construct a schedule that challenges your team and give it the opportunity to give it different kinds of looks. What a way for Cal (8-3) to rack up a win over the Fresno State Bull Dogs (6-5) an 11 point victory on Saturday night at Haas with a 67-56 victory. It’s silly the way you can beat non-conference teams like this but this is the way you get into the NCAA Tournament.

 

Getting there you need to play North Carolina, Duke, Michigan in the pre season and it really doesn’t matter who else you play you can play 11, 12, 13 non conference games and you want to make sure you win most of them and you want to be sure your team is challenged a little bit in the process. 8-0 at home is good, they lost three away from home not so good but that’s how Cal constructs their pre conference schedule so that their almost entirely at home.

 

The interesting thing is a lot people are wondering how Cal would be this year without Allen Crabbe, without a two time Pac 12 player, who was a good shooter, a good scorer who left early for the NBA and is intimately acquainted with the bench up in Portland now. The answer is their doing just fine the Bears are not relying on just one guy to score for them now their spreading that scoring all around.

 

The Bears had six players in double figures earlier this week against Nevada and three of those players came off the bench. You like to have an eight man rotation that has eight guys that can score in double figures and so Saturday night against the Bull Dogs the Bears spread the scoring around quite as thickly but you did have two guys with double figures in rebounds from Richard Solomon and David Kravish both.

 

One night Justin Cobbs comes and gets you 25 points and the next night he gets eight or nine assists so Cobb can find different ways to adjust his game to what needs to be done on the floor. The conference games will be starting soon enough and there are a lot of very good teams in the Pac 12 this year. Washington is always a tough team for Cal, Oregon is a nationally ranked team, UCLA is a nationally ranked team Arizona is a top ranked team.

 

You have just a variety of squads in the Pac 12 that could give anybody fits on any given night and Cal is always going to struggle when they go to places like Utah or Colorado because of the altitude. It’s going to be a very competitive conference, it will not surprise me Cal in the top second tier after Arizona and UCLA who will be right up there with Oregon.

 

The Cal Bears Tyrone Wallace you look at him on the floor and you think he’s a tweener and it’s the same position that former Bear Patrick Christopher used to play he has the scoring ability to rebound like a power forward with Kravish and Solomon and with that many rebounds to be gathered in right around the bucket and paint he is one of those guys like Kravish was a couple of years ago who has a nose for the ball. I don’t know if Wallace studies and scouts down the other team but he’s got a playbook in his mind where to go on the floor.

 

Michael Duca covers the Cal Bears for Sportstalk Radio each week

Cal runs past Nevada in a high-scoring shootout

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By Morris Phillips

Nevada and Cal engaged in an old-fashioned shootout Tuesday with a pair of former prep adversaries turned NBA hopefuls at the center of the action.

For a crowd of nearly 8,000, the Bears’ 92-84 win was satisfying entertainment.  For coaches David Carter and Mike Montgomery, not as much; they immediately harped on the lack of defense.

“I think we’ve got to do a better job of putting pressure on guys and just having that toughness defensively, collectively, and then if they make shots there really isn’t much we can do about it,” Carter said of his Wolf Pack’s defensive effort.

“I thought we made a lot of mistakes defensively,” Montgomery said.  “I think there’s still things we’re learning about how to play defense.  Some of the things that we didn’t do, we tried to talk about.”

Nevada forged an early seven-point lead, 17-10 then watched the floodgates open for Cal.  The Bears went on a huge run, finished the first half with 49 points and shot 55 percent for the game.  The Wolf Pack clearly missed three injured players in their frontcourt, and suffered even more when forward Ronnie Stevens, Jr. was saddled with foul problems.  Senior guard Justin Cobbs had no problem navigating on the offensive end as he racked up 15 points and eight assists, and did a great job of getting his freshman teammates involved offensively.

The Wolf Pack’s Deonte Burton stood as the counterpoint to Cal’s big scoring night as he put up 26 points and led a brief, Nevada second-half run.   Burton, the 6’3” senior, battled Cobbs many times as a prep in Los Angeles, and did so again on Tuesday.   When Burton got inside for a couple of big dunks and drew fouls, it didn’t sit well with Cobbs, eventhough he termed himself and Burton as friends.

“I wouldn’t say he got under my skin,” Cobbs said.  “It’s just frustrating sometimes when the calls were going the other way and myself being so competitive.  He was doing a great job of getting body contact and getting some calls, but it’s just the game of basketball.”

Six Bears finished in double figures, and Montgomery’s tweaking of his starting lineup in the wake of Cal’s disappointing loss at Santa Barbara seemed to work just fine.  Freshman Jordan Mathews and Ricky Kreklow got starts, while Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird came off the bench.  Mathews, Wallace and Bird all scored in double figures along with Cobbs, Richard Solomon and David Kravish.

“We just wanted to change,” Montgomery said of the lineup switch.  “If we can keep it competitive, we want to.  We want to keep guys motivated.  We don’t want guys to get stale or take anything for granted.”

The win allowed Montgomery to move up the all-time victories chart with 664 wins, tied for 27th with UCLA legend John Wooden.  When asked about Wooden, Montgomery took the route of humility.

“The number of wins doesn’t mean much to anybody, but when they say that’s John Wooden, all of a sudden everybody perks up.  I have a little work to do.  I’m 10 national championships short (of Wooden).   There’s nothing to compare other than the fact that I’ve got the same number of wins.  That’s the only comparison there is,” Montgomery said.

The Bears face Fresno State on Saturday at 3:00pm at Haas Pavilion.

Michael Duca on Cal basketball

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–There were a couple of performances from last Monday night’s game at Haas Pavilion against the UC Irvine Anteaters that Cal put on that really didn’t even jump out at you from the stat sheet. That were critically important Tyrone Wallace had a career high 11 rebounds from the lane position last night and he had Justin Cobbs as Cal’s point guard. When they lost in the consolation round to Dayton in Maui David Kravish was just about worn out by them and Richard Solomon was missing his second straight game with a cornea operation.

The Bears had no real post presence they couldn’t go inside outside so all they could do is shoot outside the zone and Cobb put up 31 points and they lost by two or three handful of points about 18. Cal’s Sam Singer had three points but he had three rebounds and Cal assisted on all three quarters of their baskets and things just looked a whole lot better than they did in the game versus Dayton in Maui.

The offense looked pretty good and the defense looked even better in the first half, Irvine missed ten straight and then they hit two out of three and missed eight more and rode in the half so the end of the half shooting hitting two of their last 21 shots and your probably not going to win a lot of basketball games doing that. Solomon is now sporting goggles from getting his eye scratched in the Dayton game and has decided to wear goggles for the rest of the year.

Solomon was not instructed to by doctors he didn’t need to it’s his own choice he doesn’t want to go through that again he doesn’t want to get someone’s finger in his eye. That was a pretty nasty abrasion, Solomon’s eye was swollen shut for two days he could not see and he could not open it. Getting back out on the floor he was rusty and you could tell a week without game action and his timing was not fully there but he set the tone literally from the get go.

Solomon lacked ten inches on Irvine’s center from Senagal, Mamadou Ndiaye who is 7’7 and one of the three or four tallest players ever to play college basketball and Solomon won the opening tip and he did it with climbing athleticism and that is basically how he got Ndiaye to get into foul trouble early in the first half and he picked up his second foul just about 3:50 into the game and sat the rest of the first half. Ndiaye got five and half minutes play in the second half.

Solomon challenged Ndiaye going straight at him early in the game and scored the first five points of the game for Cal and in the second half David Kravish hit Cal’s first ten points and had 12 of the first 16 and he hit six shots in a row and five of them were Ndiaye who was in the game in the second half. So instead of lurking in the backs of too many peoples minds and he is huge and he does have a wing span.

Most big men can get up close to Ndiaye and use their athletic ability and quickness to create some space while he’s trying to back away and make shots and they did. They hit a lot of mid range jumpers.

Michael Duca does commentary on Cal basketball each week for Sportstalk radio