There's not much left to say about Cal's basketball season that hasn't already been said, other than it'll soon be over. They've got a trip to the Arizona schools in a week, and there's not much development that can happen in the final two weeks of the season.
They are what they are at this point, this team has figured out how to play with effort, but effort alone can't make up for a number of critical factors. Experience, depth, and consistency all have had a hand in Cal's worst season since a 10th place Pac-10 finish in 1979-80.
There were a couple surprises during the games against the Washington schools, though the end result was still the same. There was growth, but there were still the mistakes that have led the Bears to their now 8-21 record on the season.
Washington State, Thursday
First Half
(Cal was without Nick Hamilton and Cole Welle in this game)
- After a 25 point loss to Wazzu in Pullman where the Bears played almost exclusively in zone, they started in man and stayed in man for the majority of this contest. Robert Franks, who broke Klay Thompson's record for most 3s in a game the last time the schools played, was kept from making a three in this contest.
- Early, the Bears got off to a solid start, with a couple easy post bucket by Marcus Lee, followed by layups by the wings in Sueing and Harris-Dyson, easy buckets which Washington State adjusted to not give up as often.
- After that initial 10-5 lead, the poor defensive effort began. Lee gambled on a double team, which led to a Drick Bernstine layup that was as open as anything you'll ever see. Combined with a couple 3s, McNeill leaving Viont'e Daniels open for one in the corner, Cal went from up 5 to down 5 in less than 3 minutes.
- Bernstine got two more layups before the biggest surprise of the game happened. Whether it's an awakening or a high point, Roman Davis came in and had the best game of his career, almost immediately getting a steal, hitting a couple short jumpers (staring down the Wazzu bench for the second one of those)
- Juhwan Harris-Dyson had a productive first half, throwing a number of nice passes for assists (he'd finish with 6 in the first half), getting up for offensive rebounds and generally knowing where to be to receive passes under the basket. He needs a jumper to really accentuate how good he is on the interior, but that can be developed. I'd be hard pressed to remember him making a jump shot in a game this year, though his form looks solid in pregame drills and shooting free throws.
- Roman Davis putback on a JHD dunk attempt, called for a technical for hanging on the rim. The truest Roman Davis giveth, then taketh to see. One usually comes right after the other, but this is the game where the giveth was more than the taketh.
- Coleman played out of control in the 1st half, leading Deschon Winston on to get some minutes at the end of the half. Winston made a mistake on a switch, leading to a wide open Wazzu 3, which got him back to the bench. Lee also gambled on a play, but left Franks open underneath for a layup.
- Cal went down 6 because of those errors, but two Harris-Dyson layups and a Marcus Lee bucket closed the gap to two at the half.
The stretch where Bernstine got a number of open layups was, according to Wyking Jones, something that decided the game. Combined with the Bears still not playing the pick and roll effectively (the big often gets in the no man's land of half going up to the ball handler, half staying back while the other defender tries to fight through the pick), there's still teaching that needs to be done. The worst decision is indecision, and that's what is happening on a lot of those plays.
First Half: Wazzu 38, Cal 36
Cal: 16-35 from the field, 2-8 from 3, 2-5 from FT line
Wazzu: 15-30 from the field, 4-10 from 3, 4-5 from the line
JHD: 8 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists
Bernstine: 10 points on 5-7 shooting
Second Half
- Wazzu starts the half in a 1-3-1, which Cal tries to take advantage of with their bigs. They only muster an Okoroh FT, while Wazzu goes on a 7-1 run
- Justice Sueing gets some of his mojo back, with a layup then a three, but Wazzu immediately went back up by six after this, which is when Davis started playing a bigger role. He hit a 3 with the shot clock winding down, then gave up an open one to Daniels.
- A lot of two steps forward, two steps back, Sueing gets an and one, followed by an Okoroh turnover to Wazzu layup
- Some of the inside out game actually working, with Lee hitting an open McNeill for a three, then Lee hitting another one inside to tie the game up.
- The freshmen started to come alive here, with Sueing hitting two straight threes and Harris-Dyson getting to the line, giving the Bears a four point lead. When they got the lead, they couldn't add to it, with turnovers and misses continuing to hamper them. Winston played more in the second half (Coleman didn't play in the second half due to his turnovers in the first, and due to matchups), and had a smart play out of an out of bounds situation, getting open in the corner for a 3 that didn't go.
- Harris-Dyson went down late in the game, which allowed an open Wazzu 3, as play didn't stop.
- The lead passed back and forth late, with Davis being a key catalyst, making a deep two, drawing a foul and knocking down the FTs, and getting his own rebound for a layup. The Bears couldn't keep from fouling, as Wazzu got back into it with makes at the line.
- Smart play from Sueing to draw contact on a three point attempt, though he made only two of the FTs.
- Biggest disaster of the game, Bears up one with 54 seconds to go, McNeill looks to throw a pass to Lee inside, Lee goes one way, the ball goes the other, turnover to Wazzu 3.
- Sueing finds Lee for a key layup to tie it with seven seconds left, and a gamble to try and cause havoc on the perimeter leads to no one guarding Bernstine, who has a very easy layup to win the game for the Cougars. Cal had timeouts that could have been used right after the basket, but that didn't happen.
Final: Wazzu 78, Cal 76
Sueing: 25 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Davis: 15 points and 6 rebounds on 6-9 shooting
Franks 15 points on 5-13 shooting
This was winnable. Multiple easy mistakes doomed this Cal team in the beginning, middle, and end of this game. Fix any of those areas and you have a win.
Washington, Saturday
1st Half:
- It's senior day, so Nick Hamilton gets a start. All the Bears' seniors got into the game.
- UW runs a lot of what Cal wants to run, as far as the zone goes. A 2-3 with length, Thybulle having a 7 foot wing span. Tim O'Toole and UW coach Mike Hopkins both come from the Jim Boeheim school of zones, but Cal doesn't have the length to do that at the moment. Jacobi Gordon will likely see time in that role when he gets to Berkeley.
- Early foul trouble for Darius McNeill, as foul trouble will eventually decide the game. Coleman comes in for him and almost immediately gets a steal
- Big block from Kingsley here, but after a Coleman trip to the line, the Bears have a customary lull where they struggle to score after about 4 minutes in and taking an early lead.
- Davis gets to the line to give Thybulle his second foul, knocks down both shots to break the drought.
- Bears run a set against the UW zone, a pass from McNeill to Coleman on the right wing, McNeill drifts left as a big comes up to screen. Coleman drives, draws the other defender at the top of the zone, throws out to an open McNeill, who has a rhythm 3 from the wing. This worked multiple times for McNeill in the first half.
- Another Coleman steal, this one to a McNeill dunk. While Coleman got at least three of his shots blocked on the afternoon, he got on the floor more than anybody to make steals.
- Juhwan Harris-Dyson was a lot quieter in this game, not getting the start and picking up two fouls in about two minutes of play
- A small flurry of offense from Lee, on a tip in and a post move, but he was also quiet in the first half, despite not being in foul trouble.
- McNeill played most of the first half with two fouls, ending up with his highest output on points in conference play, with 17 points in the half on 6-8 shooting, 3-4 from deep, including one to tie the game at 35 going into halftime
- Despite being tied at the half, Cal was still sloppy, with 9 turnovers as the Bears could not hang onto the ball. Washington also had 9, as Coleman had 4 steals at the half.'
- Jaylen Nowell played an extremely clean half, hitting two threes and showing some general smoothness that allowed him to penetrate well
Half: Cal 35, Washington 35
McNeill: 17 points, 2 rebounds
Nowell: 12 points on 3-6 shooting
Cal: 12-27 from the field, 4-8 from 3, 7-9 from the FT line
UW: 11-27 from the field, 6-11 from 3, 7-9 from the line
Cal played great interior defense, but couldn't stop UW from deep. That flipped in the second half.
Second Half
- Immediately the most emblematic play of Harris-Dyson's growth below, an emphatic putback dunk to give the Bears a lead. He'd tried to do this before, but this was his first one to go in.
- The turning point came shortly after, as Okoroh picked up his 3rd and 4th fouls about a minute apart, Davis comes in for him. Lee picks up his 3rd, goes out with the game tied at 43, Welle comes in for him. From there, UW goes on a 28-8 run to close out the game
- Why does this happen? Three big reasons.
1. No inside presence means no inside out game, Welle and Davis don't provide much of one. Perimeter defenders clamp down, Bears can't find an opening, are forcing bad shots at the end of the clock
2. A lineup that hasn't played together in Coleman, McNeill, Sueing, Davis and Welle (later Anticevich for a hot second)
3. No one to combat Dickerson inside, as he overpowers the defenders the Bears have inside.
- This is punctuated by Naz Carter murdering Welle with a massive dunk
- From here there's not much to analyze, even when the Bears get something inside, it doesn't go. UW gets just about whatever they want even when the bigs come back in. That stretch deflated them as the UW lead grew to 10 before Cal made another field goal, then proceeded not to make one for the last 7:35 of the game.
Final: Washington 68, Cal 51
McNeill didn't score a point in the second half, something he blamed on his own lack of aggressiveness, and Cal shot 24%, including 0-8 from 3, in the second frame.
Again, two results that show that much more is needed from this Cal team. The margin of error for them is so low, something that was always a problem with Dykes's team on the football side. Basketball is a sport where more talent can make a much bigger difference than in football however, and the Bears will have more talent in next year, it's a matter of having the right talent in the right place going from there.
