Tag: Connor Vanover

Coaches On The Floor: OSU too smart in crunch time for winless Cal

Published on by moepeaLeave a comment

By Morris Phillips

Ethan Thompson may be just a sophomore in accordance with his NCAA status, but on Saturday afternoon with the game on the line, the wily point guard was Oregon State’s professor emeritus.

With OSU clinging to a 73-71 lead with less than two minutes remaining, Thompson drove on Cal’s Darius McNeill and drew a foul. The two made free throws increased the Beavers’ lead to four. After Cal’s Matt Bradley missed a three, OSU’s Kylor Kelley rebounded his own miss and scored to give the Beavers an insurmountable six-point lead.

Seconds later, Thompson capped the scoring with two more free throws. In all, the son of OSU assistant coach Stevie Thompson scored eight of Oregon State’s final 13 points.

“We put the ball in his hands primarily this year,” head coach Wayne Tinkle said of Thompson. “We know that he can erupt and score for us when we need it. He’s a great playmaker because he’s got great vision.”

The coach-player connection drove OSU on Saturday, less than 48 hours after OSU was embarrassed in 23-point, home loss to Stanford. Tres Tinkle, the head coach’s son, along with Thompson and his older brother, Stevie Jr. combined for 60 of OSU’s 79 points.

The juxtaposition of OSU’s lineage and experience against Cal’s inexperience didn’t play well for the Bears. Cal allowed 54 percent shooting to OSU, along with committing too many fouls (the Beavers converted 23 of 28 from the stripe set up by 22 Cal fouls) which negated a pretty good shooting afternoon for Cal (49 percent).

The Bears lost for the 12th consecutive time, and are closing in on an unprecedented, second straight 20-loss season. Still, coach Wyking Jones was quick to acknowledge his team’s effort.

“I thought our guys fought, scrapped, clawed, left it all out on the court and played really, really hard and played together,” Jones said.

Cal had several bright spots offensively including McNeill, who scored 14 of his 16 points before halftime. Justice Sueing put up 14 of his 16 after the half, and Connor Vanover had 15 in a career-high 30 minutes on the floor.

Vanover especially is emerging as a factor for the Bears at both ends.

“He’s always been very good offensively. Now he’s starting to figure it out and do some things defensively that are really helping us, changing shots, blocking shots. He was a bright spot today,” Jones said.

The Bears have a short turnaround, facing UCLA on Wednesday night in Berkeley. The Bears are hopeful they’re catching the Bruins at the right time as UCLA was beaten by a Utah 3-pointer at the final buzzer after they blew a 20-point lead in the game’s final six minutes on Saturday.

What Now?: Late game, reversed call prevents Cal from ending losing skid

Published on by moepeaLeave a comment

By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, Calif. — The made shots, assists, team effort and the coaching staff’s approval all leaned heavily toward the Cal Bears on Sunday afternoon.

The critical, late game calls made by the officials did not.

The Bears appeared to gain an 83-83 tie on Matt Bradley’s physical drive for a bucket and a foul, but a video replay compelled the referees to reverse the call, wipe out the basket, and put Stanford in the driver’s seat with 13 seconds remaining.

Both coaches weighed in on the critical call, and both admitted the situation left them powerless and in hope that the whistle simply went their way.

“First of all, I didn’t know that you would overturn a call,” coach Wyking Jones said. “Mike Reed is a great official and he went to the monitor and saw something different, so I have to respect the call.”

“It was some kind of a dire situation so I felt very excited when they went to the monitor that there was still hope,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase admitted.

Instead of Cal tying the game and getting an opportunity at the foul stripe to establish a one-point lead, Stanford’s KZ Okpala made one of two free throw attempts to increase Stanford’s lead to three. Seconds later, Paris Austin’s 3-point attempt fell woefully short and the Cardinal escaped.

The Bears fell to 0-9 in Pac-12 conference play, and lost for a school-record tying tenth, consecutive time. The Bears last lost 10 straight in 1962.

Stanford won for the third time in their last four outings, and stayed above .500 at 11-10.

Okpala, Stanford’s emerging sophomore who is gaining interest from the NBA, led the Cardinal with 19 of his career-best 30 points after halftime.

Justice Sueing paced Cal with 23 points. Paris Austin and 7’2″ Connor Vanover contributed 15 points each.

Jones vowed that his Bears would respond with a better effort following a full week of preparation, and they did give Stanford fits with pressure defenses that forced the majority of the Cardinal’s 18 turnovers. The Bears led by one at the half, and extended their lead to 56-49 with 12:44 remaining.

But Stanford–which countered their issues holding on to the basketball with 57 percent shooting from the floor–responded with a run at that point and forced the Bears to beat them with late game execution.

The result was a devastating loss decided in the final seconds, but the effort was laudable, far more than in the nine losses that preceded Sunday.

“They emptied the tank today,” Jones said. “I felt they gave us everything they had. They played together. They looked like a cohesive group. I’m very proud of the effort and the fight that they showed today, but we came up short.”

Cal heads to Oregon for a Wednesday night game at 6:30 pm PT.