Cal MBB falls to Oregon in regular season finale
On Saturday, Cal men’s basketball fell to Oregon by a final score of 74-63. Eugene Omoruyi and LJ Figueroa each had 20 points for the Ducks while Chris Duarte was right behind them with 18 points. Figueroa also had 14 rebounds, doing a nice job on the glass. Ryan Betley (13 points), Matt Bradley (12 points), and Andre Kelly (12 points) paced the Bears. Oregon improves to 16-5 overall and 11-4 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 8-19 overall and 3-17 in the Pac-12.
“Oregon’s obviously got a really good team and a team that I think will represent our league well in the NCAA tournament and we competed super hard,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “I thought in the early part of the game it took us a minute to find a rhythm but we found one offensively and I think for the most part we gave ourselves a chance to finish a lot of plays…I thought our half court defensively finally looked like it did a year ago, but the turnovers that led to easy baskets were really the difference in the game.
“I thought our defense looked like it did a year ago and we have to develop the consistency to play that way in Vegas…We need to continue to find scoring across the board. It can’t be one or two guys. We need multiple guys…We’re going to need multiple people to score and they’re going to know where they’re going to score and that’s what we’re going to focus on for sure.”
Oregon got out to an 8-2 lead with 17:07 to go in the half. Omoruyi had 4 points early for the Ducks, who were shooting 4-5 from the field. It was just the type of start the Ducks were hoping for. Cal would quickly respond to make it an 8-4 game with 15:45 to go in the half as Andre Kelly and Grant Anticevich were both on the board with 2 points each.
With 11:54 to go in the half, Oregon led 11-8. Jarred Hyder was set to go to the foul line for the Bears to attempt three foul shots and he went 2-3, making it an 11-10 game. Shortly after that, Oregon went on a 7-0 run over the last 3:34 to make it an 18-10 lead with 7:23 to go in the half. Omoruyi was leading the Ducks with 6 points, continuing his strong performance.
To Cal’s credit, they got back in the game rather quickly as it was a 25-20 Oregon lead with 3:38 to go in the half. Betley was starting to get going for the Bears with 5 points and 2 rebounds while Hyder was up to 7 points. Bradley had 0 points for Cal on 0-5 shooting from the field. He needed to get going. Lars Thiemann also missed a couple of easy baskets inside. He needed to do a better job of finishing around the rim.
At halftime, Oregon led 34-27. Omoruyi had 11 points for the Ducks while Hyder’s 7 points led the Bears. Bradley finally got on the board with 3 points thanks to a hoop plus the harm. Cal was hoping that would get him going.
“I think you have to credit Oregon’s defense today,” Fox said. “I thought they were starting in a zone then went to man halfway through the possession and it caused us to be a little out of rhythm, but I thought we adjusted quickly to it…We need to get more consistent play from the point guard play and I think that will help. It’s really for us, we knew it was going to be somewhat of a challenge really all year long ad that’s why we were hopeful our defense would be as good as it was last year and it just hasn’t.”
Cal got off to a really solid start in the second half, making it a 34-33 lead for the Ducks after a 6-0 run. Unfortunately, the Ducks responded with a 5-0 run of their own to make it a 39-33 lead with 15:13 to go. Kelly was out there hustling for the Bears with 10 points and 4 rebounds after taking the ball coast to coast for the finish through traffic. Figueroa was doing a nice job on the glass for the Ducks with his 7 points and 12 rebounds.
Shortly thereafter, the Ducks would find another gear as Duarte hit back-to-back triples and was up to 13 points on 3-5 shooting from deep. He was unleashing his inner Jimmer Fredette. Oregon now was up 49-38 with 12:28 to go.
Oregon’s lead continued to grow as they were up 51-38 with 11:06 to go. Cal was starting to fade away. They needed to regroup and get back in the game. Rather than getting back in the game, Cal continued to fade as Oregon led 61-45 with 7:41 to go. Figueroa was going wild: He got a bucket inside, deflected one of Hyder’s passes, and stepped back to hit a triple. He was up to 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“Well, I don’t know if there was an inbounds that sticks out to me,” Fox said. “There were a couple after the inbound pass where we were soft with the ball, got a little lazy with our fundamentals. That comes down to being fundamentally sound. It’s a boring way to practice and play. But we tell our team when you learn the consequences of little things, you learn there’s no such things as little things…That’s an area where our point guards need to improve. We did have some costly turnovers. There’s no way around it.”
With 6:05 left in the game, Oregon was up 65-50. Bradley knocked down a much needed triple to keep Cal sort of within striking distance, but things were still not good for the Bears. Unless Cal made a heroic run and Oregon collapsed like London Bridge, this game was pretty much over.
With 3:13 to go, the game got semi-interesting as Oregon led 70-58 with 3:13 to go. Cal was on a 7-0 run over the last 1:02. Betley was up to 10 points for the Bears after knocking down a much needed triple. After being in a slump for much of the Pac-12 season, Betley played some of his best basketball of the season today, showing that he’s capable of playing better than he has.
“Just thinking about it less,” Betley said of his slump. “I think it’s no secret I’ve been in a slump for the greater portion of the Pac-12 play and I know that. When you’re going through that it’s way more mental than form and stuff like that. I’ve been there before. Today I just wanted to play a little freer. Just worry about missing and making shots less…You should play that way every day. That’s how I was today.”
In the end, Cal wasn’t able to close the gap much more than that, as they lost 74-63. While they made a valiant effort and gave it all they got, the Ducks' length, athleticism, talent, and veteran play made the difference. Oregon is fundamentally a better basketball team in every facet of the game and it showed in the final result.
For Cal, this loss is disappointing. After their surprise win over Colorado a couple of weeks back, there was hope that they might finish the regular season on a bit of a high note and win a couple more games. Instead, they finished the regular season on a four-game losing skid, finishing dead last in the Pac-12 with an abysmal 3-17 record. A record that is worse than Wyking Jones’ 3-15 mark of two years ago.
Some of the teams’ struggles are due to not having the type of offseason they would have liked to have due to COVID-19, but that can’t be used as a total excuse for the way the season has gone. After all, Stanford, who wasn’t even allowed to play at Maples Pavilion until around a month ago due to the pandemic, whipped on Cal both times. They’ve had an even tougher go of things and have had a much better season.
As for Oregon, this was a much-needed win purely because a loss would have been horrible for their tournament resume. They had to win this game so as to not stub their toe and to their credit, they found a way to get the job done. Mark Fox is right that they have an opportunity to represent the Pac-12 well in the NCAA tournament.
A couple of major storylines from this game is whether or not Matt Bradley and Ryan Betley will be back for the Bears next season now that there are no more games left to be played at Haas Pavilion. There is talk of Bradley possibly going pro a year early and Betley is yet to make a decision of as to whether or not he’ll come back next season.
On Bradley, if he does go pro after this season, there is an outside chance he gets drafted late in the 2nd round of the NBA draft. At 6’4”, 220 pounds, he has a great physical profile and has shown he can score at an elite level in college. He obviously needs to work on his playmaking abilities, but he has physical gifts and a scoring ability that you cannot teach. Ideally, he’ll come back for one more year of college, but I certainly wouldn’t blame him for feeling the urge to get a jump on his pro career.
As for Betley, he is still in the mode of feeling things out and making the decision that is best for him. Mark Fox said he’d love to have Betley back and that if he doesn’t come back, he will be honored next season on Senior Day so as to have the experience of meeting all the Cal fans.
“I don’t know what Ryan’s going to do,” Fox said. “To be totally honest with you, I don’t think he’s ever been in my office. I know he’s never been in our locker room; he’s never been in our film room; it’s been a hard year for a guy to come in. I love the kid. We’d love to have him back if he wants to come back. He’s got a degree from Penn and a certificate from Cal…He’s going to be extremely successful. The reason we didn’t have a senior day is if he decides to not to come back, I want to introduce him to our fans because he never met them and they never met him…He deserves all the time to make his decision and whatever one he’ll makes, we’ll obviously be very supportive of.”
“Yeah, definitely thought about it,” Betley said when asked if he thought if this might be his last game at Haas. “Definitely in the back of my mind. I’m not sure right now. I want to take some time right now like I said. Wanna see what makes sense for me going forward.
“I just wanna take some time off. Just decompress from the season. Obviously we want to finish hard. It’s been a grind; it’s been a tough year as everyone knows. I just want to take some time off basketball, play a little golf. Just figure it out. Just take some time. Being 23 years old, having gone through my five years, I want to see what makes sense for my next step.
“It’s been weird. If it was a new program or the same program. I think having experienced four years of normal basketball and normal fans. It’s been weird, gotten used to it throughout the season. But I don’t think it’s affected by preparation…As far as preparations differences, nothings really changed there.”
While there is already a lot of attention being focused on next season, the Bears still have postseason play in front of them. Due to moving up the Stanford game to accommodate Pac-12 scheduling needs, Cal will not play a game next week, making the week before the Pac-12 tournament a BYE week of sorts. Fox said it would be nice to play one more game before the Pac-12 tournament, but acknowledged that it will also be nice to get some time off and regroup as a team.
“We have a 11 days because we volunteered to move a game,” Fox explained. “Not beneficial for us, but it was the right thing to do. With no offseason, we’re a little more banged up and not in the elite shape...We’ll give them a couple of days to heal up and then we’ll hit it hard on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then play a mock game amongst ourselves, and then give them another break.”
Currently at 12th place in the Pac-12, Cal will play in the 11-6 matchup in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament by virtue of Arizona voluntarily forfeiting post-season play due to ethical issues within their program. If the Pac-12 tournament started today, Cal would face Oregon State. But that obviously could change pending on what happens next week. We’ll keep you posted on tipoff times for the Pac-12 tournament and who Cal ends up facing when the final standings shake out.