Tag: Devin Askew

Woes Continue: Cal wears down in 59-46 loss to Colorado at Boulder

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By Morris Phillips

The lead up to Thursday’s game wasn’t positive: the Cal community lost heralded coach Lou Campanelli, the architect of their mid-80’s resurgence, who directed the Bears to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 30 years.

Then, leading scorer Devin Askew, who ironically has yet to participate in a win at Cal, was declared out for the remainder of the season with a nagging, sports hernia injury.

On Thursday evening, the Colorado Buffaloes’ defense proved burdensome as well.

The Bears suffered three lengthy, second-half scoring droughts and bowed meekly to CU, 59-46. The loss was Cal’s sixth in a row following an encouraging, early January win over Stanford.

Colorado’s win is their sixth consecutive over Cal at the CU Events Center, and it interrupted a rough stretch for the hosts in which they dropped five of their previous six games.

The Bears reached halftime both leading (27-24) and struggling, as they went the final 2:38 before the break scoreless. That trend would continue as the Bears scored just 19 points the rest of the way.

“It’s a testament to their grit and their toughness and not letting that frustration on offense bleed over into defense,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “I’ve gotten on our guys about that at times this year when that’s happened, and tonight, it didn’t happen.”

The Bears shot just 37 percent from the floor and compiled a telling, nine assists. Leading scorer Kuany Kuany tallied 10 points but missed eight of his 10 shot attempts.

“We have to play with a tougher mentality on the road,” coach Mark Fox said. “We played about 25 good minutes, and then they made a run, and we collapsed for five or six minutes.”

Tristan da Silva led the hosts with 20 points and KJ Simpson added 10. Colorado gained revenge for their 80-76 loss at Berkeley on New Year’s Eve.

Cal’s road swing continues Saturday in Salt Lake City, where they will face Utah on Saturday.

Cal embarrassed at Haas by Oregon State in 68-48 loss

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Porous defense, non-existent shooting, and inattention to detail… the Cal Bears were guilty across the board on Sunday afternoon.

Coach Mark Fox admitted his team missed the directive regarding an early shot at the end of the first half. That allowed Oregon State to cap a 13-0 run ending the first half with Jordan Pope’s jumper as time expired. And the defense as a whole?

“We have just failed to build a defense,” Fox admitted. “We are really struggling with our ability to keep the ball out of the lane.”

And the offense? Well, at one juncture of the second half, the Bears had more turnovers (11) than made baskets (6). In an unsightly first 20 minutes, the Bears started 3 of 17 and finished 4 of 23 after a scoreless stretch across their final, six possessions.

Add it all up, and Cal may have squandered its best remaining opportunity for a win this season. The visiting Beavers ended a six-game losing streak–and an 18-game road skid–with the easy, 68-48 win in Berkeley.

Early on, the gracious visitors did all they could to keep the Bears attached. With shooting as errant as the hosts, OSU trailed 15-14 with 4:30 remaining in the half. But that all changed in their closing run that picked up steam after the break. After Pope’s layup, Oregon State led 58-30 with 6:25 remaining.

Pope led three OSU starters in double-figures with 19 points. The Beavers’ shooting picked up dramatically with them finishing at 54 percent shooting from the floor, including 13 made threes.

The Bears wilted with 37 percent shooting and just three makes from distance.

Devin Askew returned to the Cal lineup after missing six games with a foot injury. But the team’s leading scorer might have been too aggressive with his shooting given his rust. He finished 2 of 12 from the floor for eight points. Kuany Kuany led Cal with 15.

The Bears next appear at Stanford on Saturday in a matchup of last place teams.

Utah stifles Cal, hold Bears to season-low points in 58-43 win

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–The Cal Bears losing streak has been laid to rest. But another menace has surfaced: Pac-12 defenses.

Utah came to Haas Pavilion on Thursday with two missions: get a win in the wake of a pair of frustrating losses and a commitment to lean heavily on their defense in the process.

Missions accomplished.

“The bright side is we held them to 43 points,” Utah coach Craig Smith said of the Utes 58-43 win over Cal. “That is hard to do. I don’t care who you play when you play. To do that, that is hard. Defense travels, so super excited about that.”

Utah held the Bears to 34 percent shooting from the floor and that combined with a holiday-dented crowd of fewer than 2,000 made for a quiet night in Berkeley.

The Bears welcomed super senior transfer DeJuan Clayton to their rotation but got little in return. Clayton showed his rust and the significance of having just two practices in missing eight of his ten shots. With Clayton, Cal’s plodding attack changed little as they struggled to create separation from Utah’s attentive defenders. That standstill was best reflected in Cal’s underwhelming total of four assists on the evening.

“We didn’t help each other offensively,” coach Mark Fox said. “Defensively, we did okay.”

“We got some pretty good looks, especially in the paint,” said Kuany Kuany, who led Cal with 12 points. “We didn’t convert, and we can do better.”

The Bears trailed 27-18 at the break then found some disruptive defense of their own to climb within 33-31 with 13:40 remaining. But the Utes steadied and cruised from that point, leading by as many as 16 with 1:37 to go.

“That first media timeout wasn’t pretty in our huddle, but to the credit of our guys, they showed self-awareness,” Smith said. “Nobody was pointing fingers. They manned up to it and figured it out.”

Cal’s leading scorers, Devin Askew and Lars Thiemann, suffered the worst. Askew returned from missing Cal’s first win over Texas-Arlington and wasn’t right, taking just three shots and scoring seven points. Thiemann was hounded by the Utes’ big front line, missing six of his eight shots before fouling out late.

The Bears fell to 0-3 in Pac-12 play and will now look to getting their initial conference win against Colorado on Saturday.

“If we can get healthy and whole, I think we can make some headway,” Fox said, “but we’re going to have to grow up.”

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Defensive Breakdown: Cal offers little resistance in 82-58 home loss to Butler

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–At some point, being winless isn’t just about being outmanned and outgunned. Lack of effort is going to seep into the mix as well. That’s just how human nature works.

On Saturday, the Butler Bulldogs tested the 0-11 Bears inside, and the home team’s lack of resistance was obvious. Butler converted 25 of their 36 shots inside the arc and backed that dominance with 11 of 14 shooting from the foul line. The result was a wire-to-wire 82-58 win for the visitors that they at one point led by as many as 30 points.

“This is the first time I think that we weren’t able to saddle back up and play a style of defense that gave us a chance,” Coach Mark Fox said. “We just could never get a stop.”

“Our team, as offensively challenged as we are, has to be very good defensively, and tonight we were not.”

Cal’s only highlight was a 9-2 run that interrupted Butler’s fast start and pulled the Bears to within 24-20 with 8:11 remaining before halftime. But Cal couldn’t back it up, scoring just six more points and trailing 41-26 at the break.

Butler coach Thad Matta pointed out the dilemma Cal faces in regard to their less than talented roster. The Bears struggle to score, given their lack of depth and inability to make shots. But when their opponent shows up defensively, things can get ugly in a hurry.

“Our activity was really good off the ball, and then we closed down quick,” Matta said of the Bulldogs’ defense. “(Cal) is not a quote, unquote, great shooting team. But I felt we did a much better job of making them miss. They never got a lot of open looks against us, which is just our guys being active.”

Sam Alajiki was Cal’s only bench contributor with five points as Cal failed to take advantage of Butler’s unusually heavy reliance on their starters. No team other than Notre Dame gives heavier minutes to their starters than Butler, but they made it work against Cal as all five scored at least 12 points while playing at least 25 minutes.

“We wanted to try to move them and get the ball inside via pass or the drive,” Matta said. “I thought our guys really did a good job of that.”

Simas Lukosius and Jayden Taylor both had 16 points for Butler. Guard Chuck Harris had 14 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

Freshman Grant Newell had his best game for Cal with 17 points, three rebounds. Devin Askew returned after a one-game absence due to health and safety protocols and also put up 17 points, but Askew needed 20 shots, missing 13, to get to 17.

The Bears are now one of just two teams in Division I without win as Louisville also lost Saturday to fall to 0-9. The Bears get their next opportunity to capture an initial win a week from Sunday at Santa Clara.

Meeting Them At The Top: Cal fearless and competitive in 81-68 loss at No. 4 Arizona

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By Morris Phillips

Marsalis Roberson, like a lot of his teammates, hasn’t had the impact on the Cal basketball program his coaches and fans had hoped for. In seven game appearances in this his sophomore season, all with double-digit minutes off the bench, Roberson had scored just 13 points.

But with Cal enjoying as much of a breakout performance as any in their season-opening streak of nine losses, the 6’6″ forward attempted a full-flight, soaring dunk on 7’0″ Oumar Ballo, Arizona’s ascendant center, a legitimate NBA prospect, and not a dude to back down from a challenge.

Just how did that go, Marsalis–with Cal trailing by 51-39 early in the second half and looking to make a move?

Not well, but the attitude was spot on. Right now, Cal needs as much of that as they can muster and then some. Mark Fox noticed, and on Sunday afternoon in the desert, the team’s embattled coach was encouraged by Roberson, and an 81-68 loss that was far less lopsided than anyone could have imagined.

“We made one less basket than Arizona made. They just murdered us at the foul line,” said Fox, eluding to a disparity of 18 free throw attempts between the two teams. “We’ve played really hard. We’ve had some challenges just trying to get enough healthy guys on the floor to build a cohesive team.”

The Bears are still without Jalen Celestine and DeJuan Clayton, absences that continue to leave the team’s bench thin in versatility and production. One minute before Roberson had his bold, dunk attempt thrown by Ballo, the Oakland native cut Cal’s deficit to 10 with a short jump shot. But that was the only two points Cal’s bench scored all afternoon–after they went scoreless in Wednesday’s home loss to USC.

That lack of bench production didn’t diminish the scoring of Lars Thiemann, Kuany Kuany and Devin Askew, who combined for 54 of Cal’s 68 points on better than 50 percent shooting. But again, Askew was spent after 35 minutes of battling taller Wildcats, who came in greater numbers. Consequently, the visitors didn’t finish well. After getting as close as 59-52 with 10:51 remaining, Cal never got closer.

“I thought we kept the game where we needed to until that little spurt,” Fox said of his squad’s lethargic finish.

Azoulas Tubelis led Arizona with 25 points. Ballo was just as impressive with 17 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks. The Wildcats’ perimeter game wasn’t as complimentary, missing 16 of 20 attempts from distance, which allowed Cal to hang around.

Arizona enjoyed an 8-2 run in the closing minutes before the half to lead 42-30, but Cal got a kind whistle, and three made free throws from Askew pulled Cal within 42-33 at the break.

“I knew (Cal was) going to come in here and fight,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I knew it was going to be a grindy game.”

The Bears are 0-9 for the first time ever. Eastern Washington visits Haas Pavilion on Wednesday as Cal needs a win to avoid the worst start by a team in the Power 5 Era, dating back to 1975.

Rough Times, Dealing With Adversity: Cal remains winless after 66-51 loss to USC

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Against the USC Trojans, the first pass was difficult, and the second pass nearly impossible.

Cal’s deliberate pace didn’t move the defense an inch but instead left the Trojans more rooted in the paint. Devin Askew, the Bears’ nearest thing to a catalyst, was then left to put up a bunch of difficult shots.

And that was the opening half, and Cal’s best 20 minutes of the evening, after which they trailed 27-22.

To recap, the hosts, buoyed by their most enthusiastic crowd of the season, totaled one assist, 28 missed shots, and one made three in the first half.

The Bears got as close as 46-43 in the second half, only to see the Trojans score 20 consecutive points to turn a close game into a rout.

The lengthy USC run to close the game exposed the Cal bench, which had four guys play a combined 35 minutes, but shoot 0 for 8 and go scoreless. The quartet of ND Okafor, Obinna Anyanwu, Marsalis Roberson, and Monty Bowser could be an area of growth going forward for Cal, but none have the experience or breadth to impose their will at this point. Sam Alijiki, Cal’s most impactful frontcourt reserve missed the game due to concussion protocols.

Askew once again led Cal in scoring with 23 points, but missed 14 of his 21 shot attempts and committed three turnovers as Cal never gave USC a reason to veer its attention in other directions.

“You have to finish… you get a chance to lay the ball off the backboard, you have to finish it.” coach Mark Fox said.

Lars Thiemann had 10 for Cal, but he too was harassed by a collapsing Trojan defense.

Reese Dixon-Waters led USC with 17, Drew Peterson and Joshua Morgan added 14 each.

The Bears are 0-8 for the first time ever with a visit to Arizona up next. Among Power 5 teams, Cal surprisingly has company: the Louisville Cardinals are 0-7, and no team in the Power 5 Era has started 0-10.

Fox, in his 18th year as head coach at the Division I level, cited the miraculous rise of Bill Snyder’s Kansas State football teams from his youthful days in Kansas. Fox said he told his team the K-State story the other day in an attempt to get them to tap into the mindset needed to turn around their daunting circumstances.

“This team’s going to have to earn their right to win, and that’s going to be difficult,” Fox said.

“He’s been the most positive on the whole team. He refuses to let us quit,” Kuany Kuany said of Fox. “I feel like we’re all picking up from that. He’s very consistent with his energy. We look at him and don’t want to quit because we’ll let our coach down.”

Bears lose Emerald Coast Classic consolation game to Clemson, 67-59; fall to 0-7 on the season

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By Morris Phillips

The parallels between the head coaching careers of Brad Brownell and Mark Fox are remarkable. The dissimilarities, well, they all come in Fox’s three plus seasons at Cal.

Both coaches have long track records as Division I head coaches, Brownell now in his 21st season, and Fox in his 18th. Brownell has made NCAA Tournament appearances at all three of his stops: UNC-Wilmington, Wright State and now Clemson. Brownell hasn’t had a lot of success winning NCAA Tournament games, winning two in 2018 and getting the Tigers to the Sweet 16. Brownell’s other five tournament appearances all resulted in Round of 64 losses.

Fox’s head coaching career began with immediate success at Nevada where he won the WAC regular season championship in each of his first, four years and punctuated that with noise-making NCAA Tournament upsets over Mike Montgomery’s Stanford team and Mark Few’s Gonzaga team. That success led Fox to Georgia where he posted winning records in six of his nine seasons in the SEC. The richest, athletic conference in the U.S. proved to be a tougher nut to crack for Fox as he posted just four winning, regular season conference records and never won the SEC regular season title or reached the SEC Tournament championship game.

Neither coach has been blessed with top line talent, in fact, the list of NBA players to play for either coach is uneventful headlined by Fox’s Nick Fazekas, Kirk Snyder, Luke Babbitt and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, along with Brownell’s Trevor Booker.

Oh, the final parallel? Parker Fox, Mark’s son just concluded a four-year run as a walk-on under Brownell at Clemson, where he participated in 22 games.

Given all that background, the playing field was hardly even on Saturday afternoon at the Emerald Coast Classic consolation game meeting between Fox’s Bears and Brownell’s Tigers.

Clemson never trailed in bottling up the Bears for a 67-59 win. The Tigers shot 53 percent from the field and rebounded from a narrow 74-71 loss to Iowa on Friday.

Cal’s efforts were poisoned by a miserable 3 for 20 shooting effort from distance that negated their stellar 18 of 20 effort from the free throw line. The Bears trailed 31-28 at the half and closed to within one after Joel Brown’s first made basket of the second half. But that triggered Clemson to 15-0 run that culminated with Brevin Galloway’s 3-pointer with 14:15 remaining.

The closest the Bears came after that was a 63-57 deficit with 28 seconds remaining, but the Tigers closed it out with a 4 for 4 performance from the line in the final seconds.

Sound familiar? Well, that’s because it is.

The Bears fell to 0-7 on the season with the loss, easily the most disappointing start to a season in the history of California basketball. Mark Fox has now coached 100 games at Cal and won just 35 of them, easily the least successful stretch of his 18 years as a Division I head coach.

The Bears host USC on Wednesday at Haas Pavilion in their Pac-12 conference opener, before they visit conference favorite Arizona on Sunday.

0-5 For The First Time: Bears suffer unprecedented 59-55 loss to Texas State

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–This is the low point for California basketball. They can only go up from here.

Or can they?

The Bears suffered a fifth straight loss to start the season at Haas Pavilion on Monday against a smaller opponent from a lesser conference. It’s a reoccurring theme for sure, one the Bears can’t seem to escape.

This is the first time in the history of the program–115 years and counting–that the Bears have been 0-5.

Texas State blew in to Berkeley on Monday, frustrated the they couldn’t close the deal at UT-San Antonio on Thursday, when they were logically unable to make their meager 56 points stand up on the road.

The answer? Stop through Berkeley on the way to Hawaii for Thanksgiving and do a just a little more than they did at UTSA.

Guess what? That strategy worked.

Cal committed 16 turnovers and the Bobcats from the Southland Conference took a 23-22 lead four minutes before halftime and never relinquished it in their 59-55 win.

Again, the hosts didn’t execute anything with force, and went the final five minutes before halftime with scoring. Coach Mark Fox cited his limited options at both guard spots and last minute role changes that left his team less than prepared.

“We’re so disjointed with the lineups we’ve been forced to play,” Fox said.

Once again, only two, traditional guards played for Cal as Devin Askew led the Bears with 17 points, but missed 10 of his 15 shots, and Joel Brown went scoreless off the bench with five turnovers.

Overall, the hosts weren’t a mess statistically, but their deliberate pace produced 55 points, which is more often than not just enough to get you beat at the Division I level. After leading for much of the first half the Bears trailed by as many as 11 points after the break.

Senior guard, and two-time, All-Conference selection Mason Harrell led Texas State with 21 points and all the heady plays down the stretch as Cal got within two points of the lead with 26 seconds remaining.

Brandon Davis added 14 for the Bobcats.

“It’s how you respond, I’m so proud of all those guys in the locker room. They truly responded.” associate head coach Benny Seltzer said.

The win was the first for Texas State over a Power 5 school since 1998, and their first ever over a Pac-12 opponent. Earlier this season, the Bobcats also won at Rhode Island.

The Bears travel to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday where they will face TCU on Friday, and either Iowa or Clemson on Saturday.

Southern Discomfort: Bears start slow, never settle in, and fall at home to Southern U. 74-66

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–A slow start and tentative play doomed the Cal Bears again in a 74-66 home loss to Southern.

The Bears trailed 9-1 and 31-15 as the Jaquars, from the SWAC conference, came out hot, then gained confidence on a night they would shoot a blistering 52 percent from three. A dejected coach Mark Fox started with perimeter defense when trying to dissect how his team fell to 0-4.

“I can’t put a defense together that gives us a chance to win,” Fox admitted. “Twelve 3-point makes, and we repeatedly failed to guard the 3-point line.”

The visitors, coached by former Kentucky Sean Woods, weren’t necessarily brimming with confidence after starting their season with double-digit losses at UNLV, Arizona and St. Mary’s, but they did gain some traction with their competitive, first half against the Gaels on Wednesday. Their emphasis on exploiting their quickness advantage at the guard spots was spot on as their screens designed to free up shooters gave Cal fits.

“No doubt,” Woods declared when told Fox said SU’s fleet guards were problems. “We can shoot, dribble and pass and we did it tonight.”

Brion Whitley led Southern with 18 points, and P.J. Byrd and Dre’Shawn Allen each scored 13. The trio was a combined 12 for 12 from the foul stripe as Cal was made to pay when they resorted to reaching when trying to defend.

The Bears never led, but they did shoot better in the second half after trailing 38-26 at the break. After making just seven field goals in the first 20 minutes, Cal improved to 50 percent shooting the rest of the way, including 7 of 16 from three. But throughout they never appeared confident, and Southern’s defense retreated to the painted area, daring Cal to make some outside shots.

Lars Thiemann, who finished with 15 points, saw his impact lessened when Southern packed it in. Cal was left to hoist perimeter shots, some which fell, but the process kept them from gaining any rhythm offensively. Devin Askew led the Bears with 21 points, but the transfer guard had a rough evening with seven missed shots and seven turnovers.

“I’m asking Devin Askew to do everything,” Fox said. “He’s having to do too much. We’re asking him to do more than is probably fair.”

Fox wanting to put emphasis on his belief that his team’s winless start falls squarely on his shoulders, declined to make any of his players available to the media after the game.

Cal last started a season with four, consecutive losses in 1998. The Bears are 35-64 in their first 99 games under Fox, who could suffer an, unprecedented fourth, consecutive losing season with stops at Nevada and Georgia prior to coming to Cal in his 17 seasons as a head coach.

Could help be arriving soon? That’s to be determined as Cal is still without transfer DeJuan Clayton, who Fox says has yet to practice due to a lower body injury. Guard Jarred Hyder is also out, and leading, returning scorer Jalen Celestine isn’t expected to see action for another three to four weeks after off-season surgery.

“It’s going to be a work in progress until we get another shooter on the floor,” Fox said.

The Bears host Texas State on Monday before traveling to Florida for two games over the Thanksgiving break.

Still Searching For A Win: Bears Fall to 0-3 with 64-62 loss at UC San Diego

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By Morris Phillips

The Golden Bears now have surprising losses to Division I newcomer UC San Diego in consecutive seasons.

And not only that: only four UCSD players returned from the 80-67 win in the season opener for both teams in Berkeley a year ago, so essentially Cal has fallen to two, different groups of Tritons.

The one constant? 6’3″ junior guard Bryce Pope.

Pope spearheaded the host’s first half surge that saw UCSD lead by as many as 18 points, then hold on for a 64-62 win. Last season, Pope laced Cal with 18 points on four threes. On Tuesday in front of a raucous, sellout crowd in La Jolla, Pope led the Tritons with 19 points including five 3-pointers, and the back breaker with 12 seconds remaining.

Coach Mark Fox didn’t like what he saw from his Bears early, as they dug themselves into a 28-10 hole, and in his opinion, didn’t follow the game plan.

“We did nothing that we wanted to do in the first half defensively,” Fox said.

At halftime, Fox admitted that he eschewed making changes, but simply asked his guys to play with greater attention to the original plan. And they did, cutting a 37-27 halftime deficit to one point twice in the game’s last three minutes. But the Bears never grabbed a lead, and they were sent home with a defeat when Pope connected from distance, increasing UC San Diego’s lead to 64-60 with 12 seconds left.

Devin Askew, who led Cal with 13 points, cut the lead in half with a driving layup, but he couldn’t connect on a desperation runner at the buzzer from 30 feet that would have given Cal the win.

Fox, beginning his fourth season as head coach, saw his record drop to 35-61, and he certainly didn’t come to Berkeley to be a conduit energizing other UC system schools. But that’s where he stands with an 0-5 record against UCLA, 0-2 against UC San Diego and a 2019 win against UC Davis, as well as an eye-opening loss 75-65 to the Aggies in this season’s opener.

His frustration was evident in post-game remarks on the Cal radio network.

“Does the bus have to run over you before you concentrate?” Fox said. “We played with much more purpose in the second half than we did in half number one.”

The Bears missed seven of their first eight shots, and committed eight turnovers in the game’s first eight minutes. Again, they played better approaching halftime, and during frantic, second half rally, but the desired result didn’t materialize.

Starters Lars Thiemann, Kuany Kuany and Grant Newell also scored in double figures for Cal, as that trio had an exemplary 18 of 21 performance from the foul line. But the Bears didn’t fare well defensively on the perimeter and they certainly missed Jalen Celestine, Jarred Hyder and DeJuan Clayton–all out with injuries–in that regard.

The Bears return home for a Friday night meeting with the Southern Jaquars from the SWAC conference in search of their first win.