Tag: Jeremiah Wilkinson

By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–The Cal Bears season has added a measure of intrigue that isn’t exactly ideal.

The Bears loss to SMU on Wednesday puts them in the undesirable position of possibly missing the ACC Tournament, if they fall behind Boston College in the league standings and finish among the bottom three teams.

What didn’t seem likely was marred by what is now a five-game losing streak after SMU had their way in a wire-to-wire 81-77 win at Haas Pavilion. Cal now has three regular season games meeting with their one shot at Boston College coming up first on Saturday.

Chuck Harris led the Mustangs with 21 points and B.J. Edwards added 18 in the visitors win in which they led with the exception of a moment with 5:33 remaining where the score was tied at 66. Samet Yigitoglu’s free throw gave SMU the lead again, then his dunk 30 seconds after that extended the lead to 69-66.

The Bears’ poor shooting doomed their evening with just 39 percent shooting from the floor. In addition, they missed 10 free throws. All the misfiring hurt a positive defensive effort that saw them force 18 turnovers.

Jeremiah Wilkinson led Cal with 20 points, but he missed 11 of his 18 shots from the floor. Mady Sissoko added 16 points and eight rebounds.

The Mustangs won for the sixth consecutive time on the road to give their NCAA Tournament hopes a major boost. Currently, they appear to be outside the field of 68 but have only one or two teams to jump to get into the field. For them, that’s quite a turn as they began January with a pair of decisive losses to Duke and North Carolina.

By Morris Phillips

SAN JOSE, CA–Fifteen ACC basketball teams hit the hardwood on Saturday, and one–Cal–had a particularly difficult time gaining a feel for holiday hoops.

The Bears made 14 baskets in 40 minutes of play and were drubbed by No. 23 San Diego State, 71-50 at the San Jose Tip-Off in the SAP Center.

During a lengthy run by the Aztecs late in the first half, and immediately after another missed shot by Cal, coach Mark Madsen lost it for nearly 45 seconds, yelling at the officials, drawing a technical, and needing three, different staff members to provide physical restraint.

“Mad Dog at Midnight* (in the East)” probably drew big numbers for ESPN. But this game in a quiet, cavernous Shark Tank did not.

“San Diego State took us completely out of our offense,” Madsen said. “Our defense in the first half was OK. Our defense in the second half was poor.”

Only one made 3-pointer highlighted the first half, and when the Aztecs’ Nick Boyd hit two threes in the first minute of the second half, the game was essentially over with Cal trailing 31-16. The Bears slumped even further, trailing by as many as 27 before falling by 19.

“We stuck in the game with our defense,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “We started making some threes, and that opened up the game for us.”

“We couldn’t find a rhythm,” Madsen said. “They played with so much physicality, got us off our spots.”

Boyd led SDSU with 17 points, Miles Byrd and BJ Davis each scored 12.

Cal shot 25 percent for the game, and leading scorer Andrej Stojakovic missed his first nine shots from the floor, and was limited to 10 points. Jeremiah Wilkinson led Cal with 13 points.

The SAP Center provided Cal the floor earlier in the day, but that session was canceled when the rims appeared six inches too low, and the 3-point line was set at an improper distance.

The Aztecs couldn’t get to San Jose after a couple of canceled flights on Friday, and they ended up driving to Ontario to fly from there. That change completely severed the traveling party, all of whom outside the players and coaches ended up on busses that arrived less than an hour before game time.

All the upheaval was brushed off by both coaches, but Cal’s play obviously suffered. Dutcher, who has more than two decades coaching at San Diego State alone, was more effusive about what his Aztecs have accomplished despite challenging logistics.

“We had as good a non-conference we could have with the schedule we played. A loss to Gonzaga and a loss to Oregon is nothing to hang your head over. Wins obviously over Creighton, Houston and Cal, UC San Diego was 9-2. We put together a good non-conference resume,” Dutcher said.

Cal’s 50 points on Saturday were easily the fewest scored by a team on the ACC scoreboard. Stanford, with 61 points, and Georgia Tech with 65 were also challenged to score, and both lost as well. The Bears resume ACC play in Pittsburgh on New Years Day.

Oh, not to muddle Cal’s holiday cheer, but the Pitt Panthers scored 110 points on Saturday in dusting Sam Houston State to improve to 10-2.

Merry Christmas.