Tag: California Golden Bears

Cal moves to 3-0, but wary of stiffer Pac-12 competition around the corner

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, Calif. — Linebacker Evan Weaver didn’t want to interrupt the celebratory mood surrounding Cal’s third straight win to open the season, but the defense mistakes were troublesome to him.

“It’s gonna get harder,” Weaver admitted. “We have a tough Pac-12 schedule, and it’s going to get harder to win these games.”

Beating Big Sky opponent Idaho State 45-23 was satisfying no doubt, but conference football is a different animal, and it was apparent that the Bears could be in for a rude awakening when Oregon visits Berkeley in two weeks.

“We scored a touchdown, and then the ball comes back and then we are out of bounds,” coach Justin Wilcox said. “We can’t have that. If it’s 10 out of 11 guys doing it right and one not. They’re trying, doesn’t mean they aren’t trying. No one on our team overlooked the opponent today, we just have to play better. It’s technique, it’s focus, and it’s training. We have to be better across the board, starting with me.”

At the top of the list of irritants, were the two fourth quarter touchdowns scored by ISU after the Bears went up 45-9 with 8:04 remaining. Both Bengals’ drives took less than three minutes and provided too little resistance for the tastes on the California sidelines. To the internal critics, it mattered little that the Bears substituted liberally in the final minutes.

“We made a lot of mistakes today, myself included. Really did not have a great game. It’s a team sport, and when you get individual stats, sure it’s cool, but if we were to play better as a unit, they wouldn’t have 23 points. That’s why I’m mad.”

No one was mad at quarterback Chase Garbers or safety Ashtyn Davis for that matter. Garbers delivered an efficient performance with 20 of 25 passing, three touchdowns, two of those to Jordan Duncan in the first half in which Cal built a 28-3 lead. Garbers was sacked just once, and got the vast majority of snaps over Brandon McIlwain, who sat likely due to ISU’s defense crowding the line of scrimmage. Nine different Bears caught passes preventing ISU from keying on anyone in the absence of leading receiver Kanawai Noa, who was a late scratch.

Davis came up with a momentum changing chase down tackle of ISU’s Mitch Guellar after a 63-yard gain that appeared headed for the endzone. Davis’ tackle at the 8-yard line allowed Cal to limit Idaho St. to a field goal in the first half.

But Davis was just getting started, adding a 89-yard kickoff return after the ISU field goal, and an interception after that.

The Bears have a bye this week before starting Pac-12 play at home against Oregon, the first of nine contests in as many weeks. The Bears are likely to benefit from not having any week night contests mandated by the Pac-12 television contracts.

Let’s Go 2-0: Prepared, Physical Bears hold on for big win at BYU

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By Morris Phillips

If growth and maturity are gained with weekly gamedays, the identity-less Cal Bears reached the nascent stage on Saturday night in Provo, Utah.

Playing with the lead for the majority of the game, the Bears navigated the changing tides of the game, holding on for a 21-18 win to improve to 2-0. The Bears dominating defense led the way, holding BYU to fewer than 100 yards in offense in the second half.

“This defense really wants to just come and play every day and really dominate the football every single play,” defensive lineman Evan Weaver declared.

Without disruptive linebacker Cameron Goode, injured in the team’s opener against North Carolina, Cal’s defense figured to suffer without their singular star. Instead, Weaver, linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk and safety Ashtyn Davis played like stars, headlining Cal’s second half effort.

With Cal leading by 11 at key points of the third and fourth quarters, Cougars standout Squally Canada was limited on the ground, and quarterback Tanner Mangum was forced to throw. The Bears picked off Mangum twice to preserve their double-digit lead, with the interceptions being the byproduct of the Bears shutting down the BYU ground game.

“We didn’t do a great job in the first half of finishing tackling,” California coach Justin Wilcox said. “There were yards after contact for them. The possessions were a premium. In the second half, we made more of those plays on offense and that’s the difference.”

The two interceptions kept the Cougars in check, as did a three-and-out the Bears fashioned after Isaiah Kaufusi’s interception of Chase Garbers set up BYU at midfield with an opportunity to take the lead.

Offensively, the Bears fully committed to shuttling quarterbacks Garbers and transfer Brandon McIlwain in and out of the game, with last year’s starter Ross Bowers benched. Garbers connected with Kanawai Noa on a 52-yard pass play opening the third quarter, and McIlwain keyed Cal’s stubborn run game with 74 yards rushing. McIlwain bulled his way in from two yards to increase Cal’s lead to 21-10 at the outset of the fourth quarter.

Patrick Laird had a second, consecutive slow game, carrying the ball just 10 times for 30 yards. His production was seamlessly replaced by McIlwain and Garbers who combined for 129 yards rushing.

Cal starts fast, but sees North Carolina rally late in narrow 24-17 win

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, Calif. — Undoubtedly the California Golden Bears got a break in their sun-drenched opener against the North Carolina Tar Heels, but did they take advantage of it?

The Tar Heels were rocked by suspensions of 13 players including starting quarterback Chazz Surratt and defensive lineman Malik Carney due to improper benefits derived from the sale of team-issued Air Jordan tennis shoes. That created one obvious mismatch with junior quarterback Nathan Elliott facing the fastidiously prepared Golden Bears’ defense.

But while Elliott struggled until the end of the third quarter, the Bears did little outside two, early touchdowns that put the game out of reach. Down 24-3, North Carolina came up with a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to turn the final minutes anxious.

After the game, UNC’s early, offensive struggles and Cal’s uneven defense late stood out, but the Tar Heels four turnovers trumped both happenings in explaining how this one was won.

“Unfortunately, we turned the ball over four times today, and if you turn the ball over like we did, you’re going to have a hard time winning football games,” UNC coach Larry Fedora admitted. “You can still be in the game, but you’re going to have a hard time winning the football game. They didn’t turn it over and we turned it over four times.”

Elliott managed just one UNC first down before halftime, and three interceptions put the Tar Heels at a huge disadvantage on the scoreboard, trailing 17-0 at the break. With the Carolina receivers unable to create separation, and the Cal secondary jumping routes, Elliott found third downs to be disastrous.

Jaylinn Hawkins snatched Elliott’s overthrow late in the first quarter and that set up Cal’s first touchdown, Patrick Laird’s three-yard run three plays later.

Defensive end Cameron Goode joined the party in the second quarter going 23 yards with Elliott’s errant throw to give Cal a 14-0 lead.

Two other interceptions bogged down UNC’s offense that converted just one of their first 13 third down opportunities. Elliott finished 15 of 35 for 137 yards. Thirteen UNC penalties spoke to the team’s disjointed play given the numerous suspensions. But Cal never pulled away, as the Tar Heels crowded the line of scrimmage and dared Cal quarterback Ross Bowers to throw.

“We forced them to go to their quick game really the whole second half,” Fedora said. “I thought our guys played extremely well. The only other thing I would have liked to see from them would be a couple takeaways, but they played their hearts out. We were aggressive, we tackled. I thought we played really well on defense.”

The Bears head to LaVell Edwards Stadium to take on the BYU Cougars on Saturday, September 8 at 7:15 pm PDT.

Jim Knowlton named athletic director at Cal

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@CalMBBall photo: New Cal Athletic Director Jim Knowlton who held an introductory press conference at UC Berkeley on Monday announcing taking the AD position

By Morris Phillips

Jim Knowlton likes a challenge. He has one now as the new athletic director at UC Berkeley.

Knowlton was introduced on Monday, succeeding Michael Williams, who announced last year that he would be stepping down from the post. He inherits an athletic department with significant debt, and given a mandate issued by Chancellor Carol Christ to balance the books by 2020.

Also, Cal faces significant hurdles if it decides to maintain all 30 intercollegiate sports it now administers, given a second Christ mandate to bring Cal into Prong 1 compliance with Title IX by 2021. Title IX requires universities to maintain athletic participation at proportions mirroring the school’s student population. Currently the Cal student body is 52 percent female.

“He loves problems, loves challenges,” Chancellor Carol Christ said of Knowlton.

The 57-year old leaves Air Force after three years at the helm of that institution’s athletic program. Prior to that Knowlton was AD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has a military background starting at West Point where he captained the ice hockey team and later taught.

Knowlton is known as a fund raiser having boosted the Air Force program’s coffers by $22 million earmarked for facility renovations. Given his background, Knowlton bridges the gap between athletics and academics, an important distinction at Cal.

Cal ends season with huge 76-58 loss to Stanford in Pac-12 Tournament

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Photo credit: @CalMBBall

By Joey Friedman
March 8, 2018
Sports Radio Service

College basketball fans were treated to a third installment of the Cal-Stanford men’s basketball rivalry series this season on Wednesday in which the No. 5-seed Stanford Cardinal beat the No. 12-seed California Golden Bears 76-58 to end the Bears’ 2017-2018 campaign, while the Cardinal simultaneously collected their first Pac-12 tournament win since 2015.

Th Bears only had two conference wins this season, but one of them did come against the Cardinal in the conference opener. In an incredible comeback against their rivals on the road, Cal overcame a 17-point deficit with 10 minutes to go and 97.4% win probability for Stanford with three and a half minutes left to win by a score of 77-74 and to improve to an even record.

Coming off of what would prove to be one of the highlights of the season, Cal was looking to have a resurgent second half on the backs of senior Marcus Lee, junior Don Coleman, freshmen Justice Sueing, and Darius McNeill. Their only other win of the season came against Oregon State on February 3rd.

In round two against the Cardinal on February 18th, Cal tied the game up at 67 apiece with four and a half minutes left, but couldn’t hold on at home as Stanford evened the season series by winning 77-73.

In the third game, Stanford had the lead the whole way. As mentioned by Cal head coach Wyking Jones after the game, Cal started slow and was never really able to put together a run to gain momentum nor were they able to get enough of a rhythm going to chip away at the Stanford lead which was at 11 points at the half behind 13 points and five assists from Reid Travis and 10 points from Dorian Pickens. Travis would finish with 19 points and 13 rebounds, Pickens would finish with 16 points, as Daejon Davis and Josh Sharma would both contribute 12 points.

Darius McNeill added all 19 of his points to Cal’s total in the first half as Juhwan Harris-Dyson added seven in the second half to finish at 11 points. Justice Sueing finished with eight points and five rebounds to compliment Don Coleman’s eight boards. Darius McNeill shot 7-17 from the field and 5-10 from beyond the arc to send his season mark for threes to 67, a single-season freshman school record.

Cal was out-passed, out-rebounded, and out-shot all around by the Cardinal; however, they forced the Cardinal to turn the ball over more often than Cal turned the ball over. Unfortunately, Stanford capitalized more off of Cal’s fewer turnovers, collecting fourteen points off Cal’s 11 turnovers, while the Bears were only able to convert Stanford’s 16 turnovers into nine points.

What’s Next?
Stanford: The Cardinal look to keep their slim hopes for an NCAA tournament berth alive as they take on the No. 4 UCLA Bruins in the Pac-12 tournament.

Cal: This year’s performance can be viewed in a positive light when looking forward: a school record for losses in a season can only be improved upon. First-year head coach Wyking Jones looks to focus almost exclusively on individual player improvement during the offseason. With another year of experience for some exciting freshmen, a couple of four-star recruits already committed, and three more ESPN Top 100 recruits still considering Berkeley, next year could easily be a very successful one for the Golden Bears.

Stanford Cardinal Podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: Stanford dominates Cal 76-58 Pac-12 Tournament; face UCLA this afternoon

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Photo credit: @StanfordMBB

On the Stanford Cardinal Podcast with Jerry:

1 Turning to Stanford (17-14) men’s basketball, they played Cal (8-23) last night in Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament. The Cardinal dominated all game long.

2 The Cardinal were beaten last time these two teams met and they made sure they weren’t going to lose this time.

3 The Cardinal’s usual offensive core came through with Dorian Pickens, Michael Humphrey, and Reid Travis.

4  Jerod Haase says he believes that Stanford is an NCAA Tournament team.

Jerry Feitelberg does the Stanford Cardinal basketball podcast each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.co

 

 

 

Stanford routs Bears 75-58, moves on to face UCLA in Pac-12 Tournament

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gostanford.com photo: Stanford’s Travis Reid throws down against the Cal Bears on Wednesday afternoon at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas in the Cardinal’s first win in the Pac 12 Tournament

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Reid Travis helped No. 5-seed Stanford get off to a rolling start against No. 12 California in the opening round of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas.

Travis led the Cardinal (18-14) with 19 points and 13 rebounds on 7 of 11 field goal shooting in Stanford’s 76-58 defeat of the Golden Bears. Dorian Pickens was next on the Cardinal scoring list with 16 points. “We’re certainly excited to be able to move on,” said Stanford head coach Jerod Haase “I think in tournament situations, you do build momentum once you’re in the tournament. So we feel like we have some momentum moving forward. We were able to catch Cal on a cold night. They didn’t shoot the ball great, but I thought our defense was for the most part active. We executed the game plan how we wanted.” Haase told gostanford.com.

Josh Sharma and Daejon Davis each scored 12 points for the Cardinal, and Oscar da Silva added nine points and eight boards. Stanford held a 51-41 rebounding edge.

By winning the rubber game of their season series, Stanford ousted Cal from the tournament. The Bears beat Stanford in their first meeting at The Farm for one of Cal’s two Pac-12 wins. The Cardinal won the rematch in Berkeley.

Stanford dominated the Bears at both ends of the floor. The Cardinal defense held Cal to 28 percent shooting while maintaining a 30-18 advantage on points in the paint.”A big emphasis for me is playing with the motor and just trying to get us started the right way when we start the game,” Travis said. ”So the more I can do that, the more guys got to start helping down and trying to make the right reads, the right passes.”

Travis had the hot hand early, scoring 11 points in the opening 10 minutes as the Cardinal built a 12-point lead. As a team, Stanford connected on 16 of 29 shots in the first half and led 29-28 at halftime.

In the second half, the Cardinal led by as many as 24 (63-39). Though, Stanford isn’t quite on the bubble for the NCAA tournament, the possibility remains alive after defeating Cal. But the Cardinal must defeat No. 4-seed UCLA in the second round.

Pac-12 champ Arizona gets all they can handle from the Bears in the regular season finale

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UA_Harris_Dyson
Photo courtesy of Al Sermeno/KLC Fotos

By Morris Phillips

The California Golden Bears found themselves at college basketball’s epicenter for the regular season finale, and they played their role as unwanted guests to the hilt for 35 minutes.

Doubling down on arguably their best half of basketball all season, the Bears kept the pressure on Arizona in the second half in front of a sold out crowd at the McKale Center. But with the game tied 53-53 with 5:49 remaining and Cal controlling the tempo and the home crowd growing increasingly nervous, the Bears went cold.

Arizona finished the game with a 13-1 run to capture the Pac-12 regular season championship outright, winning 66-54.

So what happened to the Bears, seemingly having a positive experience in an otherwise awful season, in those final moments?

“We turned it over and it didn’t feel like we got a really good look the last couple possessions, so that was kind of the difference in the game,” coach Wyking Jones said.

In the final minutes, Don Coleman missed a trio of 3-point attempts, Marcus Lee missed two free throws, and two other starters, Juwahn Harris-Dyson and Darius McNeill also missed shots. For Cal, only a made Don Coleman with 14 seconds remaining kept them from the embarrassment of going scoreless for the remainder of the game.

What could have been an encouraging regular season ending morphed into another in a long line of scoring droughts, which have dashed the team’s hopes in several other ballgames, leaving Jones only to talk of his team’s attitude in tough circumstances.

“They followed the game plan, played with toughness and that’s all we ask of them,” Jones said.

The Bears finished the regular season 2-16 in Pac-12 play and will open the conference tournament against fifth-seeded Stanford on Wednesday at 2:30pm. The winner advances to a quarterfinal matchup on Thursday against fourth-seeded UCLA.

 

 

 

Sun Devils too slick, too polished in rout of Cal in Tempe

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ASU_Coleman
Photo courtesy of Al Sermeno/KLC Fotos

By Morris Phillips

What qualifies as offensive execution in Tempe doesn’t closely resemble what offensive execution looks like in Berkeley.

Not even close.

The Sun Devils routed Cal, 84-53 while entertaining their home crowd with slick passing and emphatic dunks throughout. ASU took what could have been a very tense evening for the NCAA tournament hopeful Sun Devils and transformed it into a basketball carnival.

“We started the game loose and making plays,” said freewheeling, point guard Remy Martin. “That’s what happens when we play Sun Devil basketball.”

Arizona State scored 19 of the final 29 points before halftime to break open a close game and establish a double-digit lead at the break. The lead grew to 18 just minutes into the second half, part of ASU’s torrid 56 percent shooting after halftime that turned the game into a rout.

While the Sun Devils managed to get whatever shot they wanted, the Bears struggled to establish anything offensively. Cal missed all 10 of their 3-point attempts before halftime and eight more after the break. Cal’s 0 for 18 shooting from deep marked the second time the Bears have gone an entire game without a made three this season. Poor passing and lack of meaningful penetration doomed the Cal attack, which amassed just six assists while totaling 17 turnovers.

“I felt like everything we did was perimeter based,” coach Wyking Jones said. “The times we did get into the lane, it just didn’t feel like we were able to capitalize.”

Don Coleman led the Bears with 16 points but missed 12 of his 19 shots. Justice Sueing had 13 points, but he also struggled to make shots. Coleman and Sueing both missed all five of their 3-point attempts.

The loss dropped the Bears to 8-22, 2-15 marking the first time in the program’s 111-year history a California team has lost 22 times in a season. The Bears have lost six straight, and 14 of their last 15.

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Washington outclasses Cal late in the Bears’ home season-finale at Haas Pavilion

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okoroah
Photo courtesy of Al Sermeno/KLC Fotos

By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Cal’s last line of defense featuring former walk-on Cole Welle and seldom-used reserve Roman Davis received a near immediate assessment of their abilities courtesy of Washington’s Naz Carter on Saturday in the heat of a close game between the visiting Huskies and the Bears.

Hint: Carter did not issue a ringing endorsement.

Carter’s vicious dunk over Welle with 14:13 remaining marked the conclusion of the competitive contest between Cal and NCAA hopeful Washington, and the commencement of a rout, as the Huskies pulled away emphatically for a 68-51 victory. Again, Cal’s uneven roster absent of frontcourt reserves, a true point guard, and ballhandlers was as responsible for the result as was the Huskies’ high-flying dunk artists.

“In the second half, I thought foul trouble completely took away our flow,” Cal coach Wyking Jones explained. “I had some lineups out there today that I thought I would never have to play but did because of foul trouble. Ultimately, it was foul trouble along with 50-50 balls and loose balls. We had just as much opportunity to get them as they did, but they beat us to a lot of 50-50 balls. At the end of the day, we lost to a very good basketball team.”

Jones was presented near impossible choices when both his shot blocking post players, Marcus Lee and Kingsley Okoroh picked up their fourth fouls early in the second half. With the possibility of losing either to fouls so early in a close game unpalatable, Jones elected to sit both. But that simply unleashed the Huskies, a team of drivers and slashers always on the hunt for point blank scoring opportunities. Carter’s wind up dunk came first, increasing UW’s lead to four, 47-43.

Noah Dickerson’s dunk came a minute later while Cal was in a drought at their end that would see them score just six points in the 13 minutes following Lee’s foul trouble departure with 16:19 remaining. When Don Coleman broke that string with a pair of made free throws with 3:11 remaining, the Bears trailed by 13.

How could Cal go from competing to not scoring so dramatically?

“Once Marcus and King got into foul trouble then I felt like their defensive focus was on Darius (McNeill), Don and Justice (Sueing),” Jones said. “The two guys who could hurt us inside are out of the game so they could focus on making sure the perimeter was tight, take away the driving lines and get over ball screens. Half of our attack was gone at that point, so they were able to focus in on the other guys.”

The Bears fell to 8-21, 2-14 with the loss, tying the record for most Cal losses in a season with 21, which had happened only once (1979) in the 111-year history of the program. The Bears haven’t finished last in the conference since 1980, but that appears to be a certainty barring a pair of major upsets in Arizona next weekend.