Tag: California Golden Bears

Cal Bears podcast with Morris Phillips: It’s as bad as it gets as Bears shoot for 27% against Huskies Sat nite

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The Cal Bears guard Matt Bradley (left) drives on the Washington Huskies guard Erik Stevenson (right) during first half action at Alaskan Airlines Arena in Seattle on Sat Feb 20, 2021 (AP News photo)

On the Bears podcast with Morris:

#1 The flight from the state of Washington for the Cal Bears (8-17) was only two hours but it had to feel like eight as Cal got served up another cold dish of rough basketball in their loss to their standings neighbors the Washington Huskies (5-17) in Saturday night’s 62-51 loss at Alaskan Airlines Arena in Seattle.

#2 The loss pretty much assures that Cal will finish in last place in the Pac 12 for this season. The Bears will need a miracle as they have two more games left at home.

#3 The Bears suffered their worse shooting performance of the year 27 percent and lost the game by 31 points. The Huskies turned up the defense and Cal just couldn’t hit their shots.

#4 Quade Green led the Huskies in scoring with 17 points and Jamal Bey followed up with 15 points on an offense that gave Cal fits all night.

#5 The Bears return home on Thursday night to close out their regular season facing Oregon State (8-17). Saturday Feb 27 will be their last game of the season at Haas Pavilion against the Oregon Ducks (14-4) third in the Pac 12.

Morris Phillips has podcasted Cal basketball for the 2021 season

 

Ice Cold Cal comes up empty in 62-51 loss at Washington

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By Morris Phillips

If awful shooting at Washington State didn’t get the job done, even worse marksmanship at Washington wasn’t going to cut it either.

Call it Cal’s easily forgotten weekend in the Northwest, one that almost assures that the Bears will finish the Pac-12 regular season in last place.

The Bears fell 62-51 to UW Saturday night, shooting a season-worst 27 percent from the floor, two nights after they shot 36 percent in a 31-point loss at Washington State. After fighting back to trail just 45-42 with 9:07 remaining, the Bears failed to make a basket over the game’s final eight minutes.

“When we got back initially, we didn’t have the poise to seize the moment,” coach Mark Fox said. “You can’t miss 10 or 11 free throws, the shots on the floor, and win on the road.”

Quade Green led the Huskies with 17 points, and Jamal Bey added 15 as the Huskies celebrated senior night with a pre-game ceremony and by welcoming fans into Hec Edmondson Pavilion for the first time this season. Governor Jay Inslee’s “Healthy Washington” edict just announced on Friday allowed 200 family members and friends of the UW program to provide a vocal presence at one of nation’s oldest on-campus arenas.

The Huskies (5-17, 4-13) had dropped four, consecutive home games. They also lost to Cal in Berkeley, 84-78 on February 9.

“Our defense was better tonight against them,” Washington coach Mike Hopkins said. “I thought there was some really good post defense. We did a good job on their 3-point shooters, knowing where they were, taking away their space.”

What Hopkins’ described in positive terms for his Huskies, was characterized more negatively by Fox. While the Bears’ coach liked his team’s movement on offense and play execution, the shots didn’t fall. Shaking up the starting lineup seemed to motivate Grant Anticevich and Andre Kelly, who came off the bench. But the play execution and motivational tactics couldn’t keep Cal in the game.

“I thought Andre really responded well, gave us a double-double,” Fox said. “I thought he answered the bell. I thought Grant was more active tonight.”

Matt Bradley led Cal again with 13 points, but he missed 13 of his 16 shots. Anticevich missed 11 of 15, Ryan Betley and Makale Foreman both missed four of five.

Joel Brown was a late scratch for Cal due to swelling in his Achilles.

The Bears were even at 10, but then they trailed 24-14. They would go on to trail for the game’s final 29 minutes, and by as much as 14 (42-28).

The ensuing 14-3 run for Cal was as good as it would get… all weekend.

The Bears (8-17, 3-15) return to Haas on Thursday to face Oregon State. They’ll see Oregon on Saturday. Both games start at 7pm.

Paloose Pounding: Cal blown out by WSU, 82-51, stays in last place in the Pac-12

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By Morris Phillips

The uncertainty of which players would be available for Cal’s visit to Washington State was quickly replaced by the certainty of the outcome, an 82-51 runaway victory for the host Cougars.

Noah Williams led WSU with 32 points in the absence of Isaac Bonton, the Cougars leading scorer who was a gametime decision but sat out his second consecutive game with an ankle injury. Williams, the team’s second leading scorer, added nine rebounds and seven assists in just 31 minutes of floor time.

Cal trailed 21-10 with 9:38 remaining before halftime and never recovered. The Bears shot 36 percent from the field, and trailed 48-26 at halftime. The 31-point loss marked their biggest margin of defeat this season, one game after they registered their biggest win, an upset at home of NCAA Tournament hopeful Colorado.

Matt Bradley–in an unexpected lineup change–came off the bench and led Cal in scoring with 16 points. Ryan Betley replaced Bradley in the starting lineup but scored just six points in 28 minutes, missing five of his seven 3-point attempts. Andre Kelly had 10 points, five rebounds.

The Bears afforded WSU way to many scoring opportunities by being outrebounded 39-26, and committing 11 turnovers to the Cougars seven.

Not that Washington State (13-10, 6-10) needed any additional help from Cal. WSU shot 52 percent for the game, making 12 threes in the process as Cal’s defense, especially on the perimeter, was severely lacking.

WSU coach Kyle Smith spoke in the leadup to the game about Cal’s recent competitiveness, as well as a rough stretch for his Cougars, which has them playing five games in nine days. But in the end, none of Smith’s fears were realized.

Cal (3-14, 8-16) continues its northwest road swing on Saturday in Seattle against Washington, which lost to Cal earlier this season in Berkeley, and were beaten soundly by Stanford on Thursday night.

Cal Bears podcast with Morris Phillips: City of Berkeley celebrates big as Bears beat big team

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Cal Bears and Colorado Buffaloes final score from Sat Feb 13, 2021 at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley (photo by CUBuffsMBB.com)

On the Cal Bears podcast with Morris:

#1 Morris talk about Justice Sueing and Connor Vanover who left Cal and could have been seniors on this year’s team. If they both were still here what would this Cal team be like.

#2 It’s was college basketball’s version of Joy in Mudville on Saturday night as the Cal Bears (8-15) got in the win column for the first time in eight games snapping a seven game losing streak.

#3 The challenge wasn’t going to be easy either as the Bears faced a tough competitor the Colorado Buffaloes (16-6) and had struggled with some injuries and loses and the odds didn’t look that great before Saturday’s tip off.

#4 The Cal Bears Matt Bradley led Cal in scoring with 29 points and this was a game when you looked at past games during the losing streak and Bradley wasn’t in the line up you could see the difference.

#5 How much of a surprise was it that second place scorer Jalen Celestine who scored 13 points in the winning effort we haven’t heard much of Celestine this year but he really came through against Colorado.

#6 Was this game a matter of a bad team catching a good team?

#7 Cal heads to Washington State this Saturday and the road has been rough for Cal how do you see this match up as the Cougars have been playing some great games this season as this game is Pullman?

Join Morris for Cal basketball podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Cal Bears podcast with Morris Phillips Mon Feb 15, 2021 by Sports Radio Service | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Cal breaks losing streak with 71-62 win, and hands Colorado a damaging blow to its NCAA aspirations

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA — A month ago, Colorado handed Cal its worst loss. On Saturday night, the Bears returned the favor.

Matt Bradley scored a career-best 29 points to lead Cal past Colorado, 71-62, snapping their seven-game losing streak in the process. Makale Foreman converted a pair of free throws with 16:58 remaining and the Bears never trailed again, a stunning reversal after the Bears lost by 29 points at Boulder on January 14.

“We played as well as we have all year,” coach Mark Fox said.

Buffs coach Tad Boyle tried to impress upon his club beforehand the sneaky challenge Cal presents in that they’ve piled up the losses while becoming increasingly competitive which they were in losing to Utah 76-75 on Thursday.

Apparently, Boyle’s club didn’t get the message.

“Cal is a team that’s playing better,” Boyle said. “They’re a helluva lot better than their record, I can tell you that. With that being said, this is a game we should have won, but we weren’t good enough tonight.”

“We did a lot of standing around,” said McKinley Wright IV. “The coaches had the perfect scouting report and we just didn’t execute.”

Colorado allowed the Bears to impose their plodding tempo, a task that became a lot easier with Cal getting off to a rare, fast start. The Bears led 10-4, 14-13 and after a long drought, recovered to lead 36-33 at the break. It was freshman Jalen Celestine, making his second start in place of Ryan Betley, that came up big for Cal in that regard.

Celestine scored nine of the Bears’ first 22 points–on three 3-pointers–to energize Cal while also taking the challenge of guarding Wright, a candidate for Pac-12 Player of the Year. While Celestine sizzled, Wright was held in check, finishing with 13 points (on 3 of 11 shooting) and two assists.

Bradley seamlessly followed Celestine’s lead with 15 before the break, and 14 after including a critical 3-pointer with 40 seconds that increased Cal’s lead to 65-60. The junior guard was 9 for 17 from the floor and 9 of 10 from the line in surpassing the 20-point mark for the fifth time in his last six games.

Colorado (16-5, 10-5) blew past Stanford on Thursday for their ninth win in 11 games, a run that has them in good standing with the NCAA Tournament selection committee. But should the Buffs falter in games against USC, UCLA or Oregon in their final stretch, earlier losses to Washington (167 in the Pomeroy ratings) and Cal (134) will receive greater scrutiny as bad losses.

“It gives us our fifth (Pac-12) loss and we’re back in the pack,” Boyle said. “Thought we had a chance to compete for a championship. We’ve just got to figure out how win our next one.”

Beating one of the conference’s best teams after nearly a month of losing typified the season for Cal (8-15, 3-13). Not particularly talented by Pac-12 standards, nor tall or deep, the Bears have confounded by staying engaged, when other teams might have splintered. Fox deserves credit for that along with his staff that hasn’t hesitated to shake things up. Celestine’s emergence is one of those moves. After not playing in seven games, and never seeing more than 18 minutes of action in any one game, the freshman played 33 minutes against Colorado.

“We felt like in the game today we could use him defensively against McKinley Wright because he has athleticism and size and he’s got great balance and so defensively I thought he was really good,” Fox explained.

The Bears travel to Washington next with their Pullman stop to face Washington State on Thursday. The battle not to finish last in conference play comes Saturday in Seattle against UW.

Cal Bears podcast with Michael Duca: Bears suffers it’s seventh consecutive loss; Drops close game to Utah 76-75

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Cal Bears Matt Bradley drives toward the basket against the Utah Utes on Thu Feb 11, 2021 at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley (utahutes.com photo)

On the Cal Bears podcast with Michael:

#1 The Cal Bears (7-15) almost did what they did in Utah and that’s beat the Utes but took a tough one point loss at Haas Pavilion 76-75.

#2 After only scoring 24 points in the first half of the game the Bears roared back with 41 second half points only to fall a point short. On the Utes side of the ball after losing to Cal at home in their last meeting the Utes were determined not to lose again to the Bears.

#3 The Bears Matt Bradley led Cal in scoring and kept busy on the floor as he was basically the go to guy in the second half finishing up with 20 points.

#4 In any close game everyone’s offensive effort counts and Grant Anticevich  with 18 points finishing second in scoring. Anticevich has had some good games offensively for Cal this season.

#5 Cal hosts the Colorado Buffaloes this Sat Feb 13th at Haas Pavilion. The Buffaloes defeated Stanford on Thursday 69-51 and have won five out of their last six games. Will the Bears have their hands full on Saturday?

Join Micahel Duca on Cal basketball podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Cal Bears podcast with Michael Duca Fri Feb 12, 2021 by Sports Radio Service | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Buzzer Beat: Missed free throw leaves Cal short in 76-75 loss to Utah

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Six consecutive losses didn’t leave Cal resigned to a seventh.

Instead the Bears battled visiting Utah in a tense second half only to miss a potential game-winning three with a second remaining and a critical free throw after Andre Kelly was fouled grabbing an offensive rebound with 0.7 remaining.

Kelly missed the first–then while trying to miss the second intentionally–converted, preventing the home team from coming up with a miraculous tip-in for the win.

“We had a tip-in play ready to go,” coach Mark Fox said. “It’s just hard to intentionally miss.”

The Bears trailed by ten at the half only to tie the game at 50, then lead 57-55 with 8:48 remaining. The Utes responded with the game’s next six points and never trailed again. But with Cal trailing 75-68 and 37 seconds remaining, the Bears didn’t quit.

Grant Anticevich’s steal led to Matt Bradley hitting two free throws to bring Cal within 75-70 with 33 seconds to go. After Timmy Allen made one of two from the line for Utah, Kelly followed his own miss and scored with 17 seconds left.

Allen was fouled again, but missed both free throws and Bradley’s layup got Cal within 76-74 with six seconds. Bradley was the trigger man on the potential game-winner setup by the Utes’ botched inbounds pass, but it rattled out.

Fox appeared to display displeasure with the referees after Utah paraded to the line in the final four minutes, in which they didn’t attempt a single shot from the floor. The Utes made nine of the first ten from the line to build a seven-point lead, but missed three of the next four free throw attempts to open the door for Cal.

Quite frankly, we got beat at the free throw line,” Fox said. “And that’s a hard place to defend”

The Bears showed tremendous character in making game of it, but put themselves in a hole by allowing Utah to shoot 58 percent in the first half. Also Utes’ reserve guard Ian Martinez was hard to handle, scoring 16 points, including nine in the final six minutes.

“My mentality is to just go out there and be helpful to the team however they need me,” said Martinez.

Allen led Utah with 18 points, and never came out the game, playing all 40 minutes. The junior forward wasn’t flawless however with five turnovers and the three late misses from the line.

The Bears led 31-30 in the first half only to see the Utes score 12 of the final 13 points before the break.

Bradley had 20 points to lead Cal (7-15, 2-13). Anticevich added 18 and Kelly 17. The Bears’ 31-21 edge on the boards was negated by 14 turnovers and 23 fouls committed.

“I told the team it’s not the last 30 seconds you stay up at night thinking about. It’s the first 39 and a half minutes. There’s a couple of mistakes in there we need to clean up,” Fox said.

The Bears host Colorado on Saturday at 7pm.

Cal Bears podcast with Morris Phillips: Bears on six game loss streak face Utah Thursday in Berkeley

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Joel Brown (left) and Matt Bradley (right) of the Cal Bears try to grab the rebound against the Stanford Cardinal Sun Feb 7, 2021 at Maples Pavilion (Stanford Athletics photo)

#1 Morris another tough loss for the Cal Bears on Sunday night at Stanford 76-70. The only difference was that Cal had a slightly better game if you can call it that Thursday 70-55.

#2 Morris, it was that first half that Cal was frustrated with 35-24, their second half vast improvement 46-41 but fell sort by six points on the final tally.

#3 Cal was tied with Stanford at 22 in the first half with 4:24 remaining but Stanford roared back with a 22-4 run and never looked back.

#4 In what is now a six-game losing streak for the Bears–the longest skid under Fox–their opponent made at least half their shots from the floor for the fourth consecutive game.

#5 Thursday night the Bears host the Utah Utes, the Utes have won three of their last four games. The Utes handled the Arizona Wildcats on Feb 4th 73-58. The Utes were supposed to play Arizona State on Sunday but that game was postponed because of Covid-19 protocol issues. How do you see this match up Thursday night with Utah and Cal?

Join Morris for Cal Bears podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Cal Bears podcast with Morris Phillips Mon Feb 8, 2021 by Sports Radio Service | Free Listening on SoundCloud

 

Cal more competitive but too repetitive in 76-70 rematch loss to Stanford

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By Morris Phillips

In order to make the most idiotic tip time in televised sports history make any kind of sense, the Cal Bears had to do one thing:

Stay competitive with Stanford for the first 15 minutes of Sunday night’s game, enough time for Tom Brady to accept his latest Super Bowl MVP trophy and then have insatiable sports fans (and gamblers) turn their attention to the Bay rivalry and–with Cal making a game of it–keep their attention.

Guess what? At roughly 7:45pm PST, the Bears were doing their part.

And then they weren’t.

Tied at 22 with 4:24 remaining before halftime–after Joel Brown’s high-difficulty flip in at the rim–Cal went to a dark place, not unlike Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. A 22-4 run spanning the halves put the visiting Bears in an insurmountable hole, with the result, a 76-70 loss that a got a prettier final score in the frantic, final two minutes.

In a repeat of Thursday’s loss at Haas Pavilion, the Bears were overmatched inside where Stanford scored 42 of their first 66 points in the paint on drives, dump-ins with a few dunks mixed in between. With Cal’s defense providing little resistance, a late run and a spirited effort was rendered as a footnote.

“Our defense is not at the level it needs to be to win, especially on the road,” coach Mark Fox said.

“We just can get enough stops consecutively to get us over the hump.”

Stanford made 60 percent of their shots over the first 30 minutes of the game before finishing at 58 percent. In what is now a six-game losing streak for the Bears–the longest skid under Fox–their opponent made at least half their shots from the floor for the fourth consecutive game.

Worse was Cal’s rudder less offense which shot 37 percent after a 36 percent mark on Thursday. The Bears again settled more often than not, with no free throws attempts in the first half and 16 misses from 3-point range.

An 11-4 edge in offensive rebounds for Cal seemed impressive, but ultimately it just added to their missed shot total.

“I thought we played hard,” Fox said. “It’s the intelligence we have to attach to that effort.”

That effort showed in the final two minutes when Cal cut a 15-point deficit to six, but even that push had to do with Stanford missing just enough free throws to irritate bettors who had Stanford minus 10.

Matt Bradley led Cal with 15 points. Jarred Hyder had 13 (in his best scoring output as a Bear), Ryan Betley and Brown added 12 each.

Oscar da Silva, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, led Stanford with 19 points.

Cal hosts Utah–the last team they beat three weeks ago in Salt Lake City–on Thursday afternoon.

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Stanford Cardinal game wrap: Cardinal control Bears 76-70; da Silva leads Stanford with 21 points

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Stanford Cardinal Oscar da Silva (13) shares congratulations with teammates as the Cardinal sweep the two game home at home series against the Cal Bears at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto on Sun Feb 7, 2021 (gostanford.com photo)

By Barbara Mason

Sunday night the Stanford Cardinals took on the Cal Bears at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal came away with the victory 76-70 over Cal. Last Thursday night the Cardinal beat the Bears 70-55 and tonight were looking for a sweep. The Bears have lost five games in a row and have been struggling with a record of 7-13 while Stanford is playing far better ball with an 11-7 record.

Stanford was leading by the score of 35-24 at halftime and the Bears were fighting to avoid a six game losing streak. The Cardinals stand-out Oscar Da Silva led the scoring with 21 points and getting help from Lukas Kisunas with 12 points and Michael O’Connell with ten points.

While Cal did get some nice work from Matt Bradley (15 points), Ryan Betley (12 points) and Joel Brown (11 points) it just wasn’t enough to get past the far faster, stronger, Cardinals. Stanford led at the half and never let up throughout the second half.

Cal did make a bid at the end of the game but it was just a little too late pulling to within six points. They just ran out of time as Stanford closed out the game at the free throw line. This sealed the game for the Cardinal being an exceptional free throw team.

Stanford is now 12-7 and 8-5 in conference play while Cal falls to 7-14 having a dismal season with only two wins in their conference. They have now lost six games in a row.

Stanford will now take on a couple of tough opponents in Colorado this Thursday afternoon at 4:00 pm at Maples. They will have one more game at home against Utah before they head out on the road for a meeting with Washington. Tipoff against Utah will be Saturday night at 8:00 PM.