The Notebook: Oregon Schools

It's still a year of looking for improvement for this Cal Men's basketball team. With the youth of the group playing as big of a role as it has, these struggles that they've had are a bit endemic. There's turnover problems, defensive gambles that lead to easy shots, bad fouls, indecision, you name it, they've done it. It lead to one of the worst losing streaks in Cal history, a 9 game skid that was finally broken against Oregon State.

The losing streak was something that the players noted as not being a focus, as head coach Wyking Jones said after the Oregon State game that the coaches never brought it up to them, but the staff brought it up privately among themselves.

Anyhow, it was a two game stretch marked with a number of the problems that they've faced in the Pac-12 schedule, as we look at the homestand that was, this week against the Oregon schools.

First Half

- This week marked the return to the lineup of Don Coleman, which gave the Bears basically a seven or eight man rotation. Depth has been a massive issue, as the Bears faded in both their games at the LA schools. Coleman came back a bit more under control on offense against Oregon, he slowed things down and played in control.

- That being said, Coleman's offensive contributions started almost six and a half minutes in, as Cal committed six turnovers before scoring. Coleman had an and-1 to break the scoring drought, a tough layup attempt in the lane

- Two Justice Sueing fouls landed him on the bench in less than four minutes.

- Traveling violations in the post have been seen this year more than ever, Kingsley Okoroh picked up on early.

- An early issue was pick and roll defense, as the Bears started in man. They let the penetrating guard, in this case, Peyton Pritchard, get in, make an easy feed, and give guys like Troy Brown easy opportunities. It's something they struggled with against Jordan McLaughlin and USC

- Darius McNeill made the next two baskets for the Bears, as he went 3-8 for the half. He finished 3-16 for the game (0-8 from 3s), mired in a shooting slump that lasted four games. Jones said that he'd tell him to keep shooting, and many of these weren't bad attempts.

- Sueing came back with around 12 minutes left in the half with two fouls, played four more minutes, then picked up an egregiously bad foul, as Victor Bailey was rejected by the rim on a dunk attempt, and Sueing was called for his Phil Collins-like Invisible Touch.

- Early foul trouble on Okoroh means that the Bears got the Roman Davis roulette in the first half. Davis plays with a ton of energy, and he'll do something good, then immediately follow up with something bad. In this instance, he drove for a tough layup, then picked up a charging foul on Cal's next possession. Later he drew a foul in the paint, then missed both free throws. He's improved plenty this year, to the point where he's a serviceable player defensively. His offensive game still needs work, but he can rebound and move well.

- Cal moved to utilizing their press, and their timing is improving, as they forced a 10 second violation. They forced 11 turnovers against an Oregon team that's almost as young as they are in the half.

- Free throws were an issue for the game and in the first half. 2-8 for the Bears in the half.

- Juhwan Harris-Dyson, heir to the Dyson vacuum throne, had a fantastic looking Eurostep for an and-1 opportunity (he missed the FT). Juhwan's father came up to media row before the Oregon State game to meet all of the media folk, and one thing he noted to our Ben Parker was that Juhwan's first step was more than enough to take most of the competition down in SoCal, and he's adjusting still to a higher level. His first step is still incredibly quick, he needs to develop a jumpshot off of it to make himself more of a threat offensively

- With Coleman back, he's taking the backup point guard role, in the hopes that moving Darius off the ball will help his shot. McNeill struggled more by missing an open fast break layup. Coleman stepped calmly into a long three as the shot clock wound down.

- Oregon continued to get good looks when they weren't busy turning the ball over, something Jones noted as their defense forcing turnovers into easy offense. A couple easy threes came off gambling on going for passing lanes and leaving both Troy and Elijah Brown open, or not securing an offensive rebound leading to a Pritchard 3.

- Marcus Lee didn't pick up his 2nd foul until 2:52 was left in the half, stayed in for most of the remaining time, had a nice jumper along with a post move spin to draw a foul, something you want to see a lot more from him.

- Cole Welle saw his first action late in the first half due to foul trouble, and Coleman showed some fire, got a deflection to JHD, McNeill got a layup with time expiring as Cal got the deficit down to 8 at the half, after trailing by 15 with just under 4 minutes left.

Key Half Stats

Cal: 26 points on 11-28 shooting, 2-7 on 3s, 2-8 from the line (McNeill and Coleman each with 6 points, Okoroh with 5 rebounds, McNeill with 3 assists), 9 turnovers

Oregon: 34 points on 12-19 shooting, 5-9 on 3s, 5-11 from the line (Troy Brown with 8 points on 3-3 shooting, Mikyle McIntosh with 6 rebounds, Keith Smith with 2 assists), 11 turnovers

Second Half

- Early second half presents the same problems as the first, no scoring until almost 3 minutes in, Coleman breaks the seal.

- Couple forced turnovers early, including a travel, but Lee picks up an early 3rd foul and heads to the bench, as the Bears go four out for the first time.

- Lot of late fouls called, as big men foul trouble strikes again. Okoroh picks up his 3rd with 16:06 left in the game.

- High low game with Okoroh working well enough, gets him an and-1, but then he picks up his 4th with 14:20 left in the half. Lee came back for him, picking up his 4th with 13:05 left.

- Even without two bigs, Cal staying in the game thanks to Oregon turnovers, lots of energy from Coleman, McNeill, Hamilton and JHD to force mistakes, but making shots didn't come for this squad during the half, Oregon still shot right around 50% in the half, including 3 of 6 from distance

- Cole Welle isn't the most fleet of foot, but his positioning on the offensive glass was impressive, getting five offensive rebounds in 10 minutes of play time.

- Cal stayed in it, cutting the Oregon lead to five points with a deep Coleman three. When the Bears got close, they'd either gamble on a steal, get called for a foul, or give up something easy.

- A Marcus Lee foul with 5:44 left, one that came after he'd seemingly been hacked and out of frustration, caused him to foul out. Don Coleman then cut the deficit back to 6 after the FTs, but a McNeill gamble on a steal led to an open three for Oregon, and Sueing couldn't answer back with an open three of his own.

- Okoroh fouled out on what looked like a clean block with 3:36 to go, it was done after that.

- Sueing played the entire half without fouling and keeping his double digit scoring streak alive

Final: Oregon 66, Cal 53

Bears shot 33.3% from the field (23.5% from 3, 9-20 from the line), 16 turnovers

Oregon shot 55.3% from the field (53.3% from 3, 16-25 from the line), 17 turnovers

A lot of inability to deal with foul trouble and make shots, especially from the foul line, in what could've ostensibly been a winnable game. With the scoring drought in the beginning, it looked like it might spiral into some of the early season results we saw from this team. That didn't happen, but it still was far from a win.

- Two key things here. One, coveted 5 star forward Jordan Brown was in the building. I saw him as I was coming into Haas, and you don't really understand how big 6'11" is until you're standing next to someone who has to duck to get through your standard doorway. Kid is big. Signee Andre Kelly was also in attendance.

- Second was that Jones made the team shoot free throws at their Friday practice for 30 minutes straight, in silence, as they tracked their performance. That paid immediate dividends.

- Before getting into it, this was one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen. 51 total fouls. A two and a half hour game. The Pac-12 already has a reputation for having the worst officiating on the planet, and while I think the reputation hurts them even more when things like this happen, it doesn't change the fact that they're objectively awful. Either you need to give incentives for making correct calls, have greater scrutiny of the officials, and figure out a way to make sure that you have competency. This was far from competent. It's surprising only one player fouled out with how whistle happy this crew was.

First Half

- Cal actually scored early, with Sueing hitting a jumper, exaggerating contact, but not getting a call.

- Starting in man, going away from the zone, as the gameplan was to run the shooters off the line and funnel them to Okoroh, who was incredibly active.

- Defense not looking good early, OSU getting whatever they want down low with Tinkle driving, a couple of threes, easy dunks by Eubanks as the Bears can't seem to hold onto the ball

-JHD has a nice reverse layup, but at times he's guilty of not being able to completely bring the ball in when going for a loose ball, like he's a split second too late at times. It seems like a freshman mistake, something he'll figure out the timing of as he plays more.

- Early 16-6 lead for OSU, but Cal closes the half on a 36-12 run, including an 18-2 stretch to end the half.

- They did that through activity on the floor, lot of energy from Hamilton (couple turnovers forced, a big three from the corner to take the lead), JHD (Getting right up on Tinkle on defense), Coleman (a steal and tip to McNeill, who got flagrantly fouled, and a long rebound tip to Lee, who got an and-1 dunk driving in from half court)

- Bears got a lot of breaks with the whistle in the half, though they came back around in the second.

- McNeill broke his slump with a three in the first half, got open for a rhythm jumper.

- Okoroh and Lee combined to go 8-11 from the line in the half, after the team went 9-20 for the game Thursday.

Halftime: Cal 36, Oregon State 28

Best stretch of basketball the Bears have played since the final four minutes against Stanford.

Cal: 11-26 shooting, 2-6 on 3s, 12-18 at the line, 6 turnovers

Oregon State: 10-26 shooting, 2-8 on 3s, 6-8 from the line, 7 turnovers

2nd Half

- Not too much to say about this half due to the 28 fouls called. It got to be incessant at times, but the Bears capitalized on opportunities.

- Sueing, who only played 6 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, gave the Bears a cutting option off their post ups, which they went to a lot more in the half, especially when they have trouble finding scoring.

- Okoroh was 8-8 from the line in the second half, as he was given the ball in the post a ton, making the most of his opportunities there. He isn't the most efficient when given the ball inside, but when Oregon State took a 1 point lead, Okoroh found an open McNeill in the corner, who didn't hesitate to knock down a 3. The Bears never trailed again after that.

- Okoroh also finished with 5 blocks, a result of the Bears playing more man and forcing contested 2s instead of open 3s. There were a couple breakdowns, leaving one of the Thompsons open in the corner for a three and Tres Tinkle getting to the line frequently, but it was still a more palatable result

- It ended with a free throw vs. layup battle as OSU tried to close the gap, Cal made just enough to win, and Sueing got to the line enough to keep his double digit scoring streak alive.

- Oregon State ran some press, Cal didn't panic, and it didn't affect much, as the Bears only had 10 turnovers

Final: Cal 74, Oregon State 70

Cal: 38.5% shooting, 35.7% from 3, 29-39 from the line (74.4%)

OSU: 43.1% shooting, 29.4% from 3, 21-28 from the line (75%)

A needed result for this group, as they head to the mountain schools on Wednesday. Not breaking at the end there was a necessity, even against a team in Oregon State that hasn't won a conference road game in two years. A confidence builder for McNeill (going 5-11 for 16 points, hitting 3 threes) after four straight bad shooting nights. A lot of fire in this team that hasn't always been there. A somewhat ugly win, but a win nonetheless, in front of a top recruiting target. Relief for Jones and staff after.