Cal knocks off Washington
by John Berkowitz on Feb 5, 2009 10:06 PM PST
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PrintJerome Randle and Theo Robertson both had 21 points and California rallied to beat No. 22 Washington for the second time this season, 86-71 on Thursday night, the Huskies' second loss to an unranked team in eight days. Jordan Wilkes added 14 points and eight rebounds for the Golden Bears (17-6, 6-4 Pac-10 Conference), who beat Washington in triple overtime earlier this season.
Quincy Pondexter matched his season-high with 21 points to lead the Huskies. Jon Brockman was absent offensively tonight even though he was an imposing figure on the boards. The Washington guards were unable to get the ball inside tonight and that was one of the major stories of the game.
Justin Dentmon cooled down and was only 1-7 from three point land. Isaiah Thomas was outplayed by the Cal guards in the second half. He didn't move the ball around very well to create open opportunities for his teammates.
UW jumped out to a quick nine point lead to open the second stanza but Cal rallied and took over the game. Washington had no answer for Cal on defense in the second half. Randle and Roberston were unstoppable.
Washington rebounded to beat No. 14 Arizona State on Saturday but blew a nine-point lead in the second half against Cal and missed an opportunity to move into a first-place tie with idle UCLA in the Pac-10.
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There's no reason
for Romar to ever go stretches with Overton, Gant, Holiday, Thomas and MBA on the floor. Yet he did in this game for some reason. That lineup gives the Huskies virtually no offense, as the only person who can create his own shot is Thomas so defenses can just key on him. MBA can occasionally, but is far to inconsistent to be relied on. The other three offer next to nothing on offense. Sitting your best post player, the conference’s leading scorer and the guy who was the team’s best player last night all at the same time was awful coaching.
I cannot stress enough how much I am looking forward to Abdul Gaddy coming onto campus and destroying Venoy Overton’s career. Overton is not a good enough (read: terrible) scorer or athletic enough a player to be effective at the shooting guard position, and when Gaddy is on the floor he will always be running the point. Playing them together is a terrible match. So assuming that Gaddy replaces Dentmon’s 30 minutes or so a game, Overton would only be able to effectively play 10 minutes a game (for the sole purpose of spelling Abdul). Ideally Turner would surpass him as the teams’ 3rd guard as well. If these things happen it will be a huge step forward for the program. It’s great when young talent takes over for older and less skilled guys (see: Artem Wallace). Unfortunately, Romar has some strange love for Overton and this will likely not happen.
Here are some of Overton’s stats:
ORating: 83.9 (worst on team, all other players are around or over 100 except Gant)
eFG%: 40.9 (second worst on team to Gant)
Turnover Rate: 35.2(!) (worst on team, nearly twice Thomas’s 18.2 and more than twice Dentmon’s 16.8)
FoulsCalled/40: 5.2 (higher than anybody but MBA’s 5.4, but he’s a shot blocker)
Everything else is pretty mediocre. His one good stat:
Steal%: 2.8 (second on the team, lower than Turner’s 3.3)
Yes, he’s a “defensive player”. But the problem with that is that he’s too short and not athletic enough to be an effective defender against most of the players he’s up against. He’s a try hard guy, which would be great if UW played in the WCC, not one of the preeminent conferences in the nation. Even if he is a plus defender, his offensive woes, fouls and turnovers are more than enough to overcome any contribution his defense may make.
Quick Stat Question...
What is ORating, eFG% (I assume just normal FG%??), Turnover Rate (what about turnovers a game?), and why is it Fouls Called/40???
eFG% is (FGM + 0.5*3PM)/FGA.
It’s FC/40 because it’s a rate stat.
Turnover rate is turnovers per possession (a percentage stat, rate stat).
Artem Wallace is a lost cause that has no place in a basketball game.
I don’t have too many complaints about Romar, except he plays Gant and Holiday more than he plays MBA, and he gives Overton too much court time over Turner.
Overton
I see your frustration – but I think you are scapegoating a little bit. Overton has a role and he plays it pretty well – its ball handling, distribution and pressure D. I especially appreciate the fact that he doesn’t try to be someone that the team does not need him to be.
I think what we learned on this night, as we have seen before, is that the UW has a major weakness when they matchup against teams that have length on the wings. Those tall 2’s and 3’s can more easily shut down the dribble drives and, when they play zone, they make shooting much more difficult for our short guards – they need to shoot from longer distance just to get off their normal trajectory shots. Christopher is at least 6’4" or 6’5" and Robertson must be about the same. Guys like that will cause chaos for us on the perimeter until we can get consistent post offense or we can get a taller shooter hot (how good could we be if Turner and Suggs were ready to actually contribute?)
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Sorry
Didn’t mean to sound as if I thought Overton was the reason for the loss or anything – he wasn’t. Wasn’t trying to make him a scapegoat. I just don’t understand why he gets so many minutes when it seems like they would be better served going to to guys like Turner and Holiday.
Sorry but
We need both a Mens and Womens BB coach……………..
Thursday Nights Don't = A Great 2nd Half Effort
I think Washington needs to shore up something that I saw in both the Arizona and Cal losses. That my friends is a consistent effort in the second half. Our 3 in-league losses have resulted from an ill-conceived second half effort, especially the Arizona and this Cal game. What does that translate to? Well for starters you have to play better second half defense. We served up 106 points in Tuscon and 86 points in Berkley. When we give up that type of opposition point total, it is very hard to win the game. I thought in key stretches Cal like Arizona got way too many good looks at the basket and in those key stretches the Wildcats and Bears were able to convert.
Our shots didn’t find the bottom of the hoop again- what do you do when your shot is not falling? High caliber teams like Duke, Carolina, UCon, and Ucla- which we are trying to emmulate will manufacture points when the shots aren’t falling. How do you manufacture points? Well it starts with the defense- you get a stop and you get turnovers. In both the Arizona and Cal losses we haven’t had much sucess in our efforts to manufacture points off stops or turnovers in the 2nd half. And the one notable reason is due to our ill-conceived 2nd half defensive effort. Both of these key losses are attributed to poor second half defense. Both were blow outs and the result is what we’ve seen.
For us to do anything remarkable we’ve got to play better 2nd half defense, especially when our shots are not falling. Want to know the outcome of the Cal loss in a nutshell?
2nd half defensive collapse and our shots don’t fall = 86-71 thrashing
I was a little apprehensive to Romar’s substitution pattern. But that is not the reason we lost this game. Don’t blame Overton for this loss. Heavens NO! Dentmon was cold and Brocky went 0 for everything in FGs. This was a team loss, especially with our 2nd half defensive effort.
All I saw was purple
Effort or just playing smarter?
I think they lost last night because they simply weren’t moving the ball around well enough on offense and they didn’t play very good defense. Brockman only getting four FG attempts is ridiculous.
Another thing...
An amazing number of shots were coming up short. Seems like either the team was practiced too hard or they are just plain losing their legs. If it’s the second, the rest of the season could get ugly. Maybe they just had an off shooting night though.
Losing their legs
I think that is credible and has been present in second half losses to Arizona and California.
by John Berkowitz on Feb 6, 2009 11:37 AM PST up reply actions
Give Cal Credit
I’m almost certain Montgomery has studied Washington and maybe he came up with a good gameplan. Don’t let Dentmon get open looks to the basket and block Brocky out. That’s what I saw anyway. How else do you explain Q having the game of his career? They took the ball out of Brocky and Dentmon’s hands and forced Pondexter and the rest of us to put the ball up.
In regards to Brocky, I’m not quite sure but I think when Jon struggles w/ FGs, he gets a little tight and starts pressing to a point it becomes a mental block. Brockman needs to perform well in order to win that’s no secret. I give Cal and Montgomery credit for this win, but our 2nd half defense allowed too many open looks for the Bears, we didn’t get any stops nor turnovers in the 2nd half and that killed.
All I saw was purple
Cal shot lights out over the last 15 minutes of the second half.
by John Berkowitz on Feb 6, 2009 11:37 AM PST up reply actions
Exactly
Too many open looks nailed down the Cal win. We’ve got to come out and play better ball pressure defense in the second half. This is exactly the same reason I think we lost to Arizona. Our 2nd half defense collapsed. This is the biggest concern Romar has to look at. Not sure how to fix it, but we cannot let teams get hot- especially teams we should beat. I like Overton off the bench for defensive purposes so cutting his minutes is not my answer for what we’ve seen. Romar needs to fix this soon before the LA road trip comes up. We should’ve beaten both Arizona and Cal. Shooting lights out translates to too many open looks. Get it fixed whatever it is…
All I saw was purple
Split on the road and sweep at home
If UW can keep doing that the rest of the season they will be fine.
It needs to be FIXED
Agree. But I think I see a pattern and I don’t like it. I think if this 2nd half thing does not get some attention by the coaching staff it may hurt us later on when the stake are really high.
We should sweep at home, good teams do that. But GREAT teams find wasy to win on the road and we’ve been so-so in that category so far. I’m not trying to be a biased Husky fan, but I firmly beleive the games vs. Arizona and Cal (both games) should’ve resulted as wins.
If we are to climb to the elite status under Lorenzo Romar, then surely teaching sound principles of defense, especially in the 2nd half will get us there. All the best programs stress great 2nd half defense and we’re not quite there yet. I think this team has a chance to do something special in the NCAA tournament, but if we continue to slide defensively now and then in the 2nd half we are teaching and learning very bad habits. Romar needs to evaluate what is going on in the 2nd half and shore this up soon or it could cost us a Pac 10 title, a Pac 10 tournament championship, or a 3-4 seed compared to a 7-8 seed in the NCAAs.
All I saw was purple
2nd Half Trend?
Been reading this blog since September, but just now took the time to register. John, you do a great job, and I love the reasoned debate in this comments section.
I’m not sure if two poor second halves on the road constitutes a trend. It’s something to keep an eye on and hopefully it won’t become a trend. We’ve been a good second half team for the most part —extending close games at the half into double digit wins against WSU, OSU, OU, USC (except for final 1:30), and UCLA off the top of my head. I’ve thought our depth helped us pull away, and hopefully will help carry us through the season. I didn’t get a chance to see both the UA and Cal games on tv, so can’t speak to their energy level.
I believe the comments by Romar after both these recent losses were that our leads going into the half were tenuous due to poor habits. Seems the issue is to gain more game to game consistency in both focus and intensity on D and sharing the basketball on O for a full 40 minutes. All of which is within the team’s control and on the coach’s radar.
Big bounce back game coming up Sunday! Go Dawgs!
Agreed- It's not a trend
But good coaches look at ways to improve. Romar should look for reasons we lost to Arizona and Cal. I’m not saying we should win every game, that would be darn near impossible. But to be blown out in the 2nd half is not acceptable. On the road all you hope for is a chance to win the game at the end or regulation. In both of our last two losses, we didn’t get that chance and to me that is not the making of a great team. You win some and you lose some, but you always play to have a chance to win on the road.
I’m not sure how to fix what we’ve seen with these two losses. Maybe the kids are a little fatigued, maybe we’re not focues come thursdays, maybe it is a substitution issue, maybe we are in the wrong defense, or quite possible we find ourselves a little too over confident coming out after halftime. Great teams don’t get burried in the 2nd half. Great teams lose games but will put themselves in a posiiton to have a chance to win on the road. This is something we’ve got to stress from here on out.
All I saw was purple
That is not a chance to win- that's an EXCUSE
If we’d come out and played better 2nd half defense then surely we wouldn’t have had to climb out of a 15 point deficit. After Zona burried us that is all we could do to dig ourselves out. I give the team credit for fighting back, but you see the damage had already been done.
The sort of “chance to win” I am referring to is having the ability to take a tie it up shot or a go ahead shot. We closed within 3, but that doesn’t get it done now does it? All that says is we found away to lose respectfully. Washington is better then that! We need to generate something after halftime so we don’t run into anymore buzz saws. These two losses are not the making of a good team no matter how you try to slice it and Romar would be the first to tell you that. Did you see the devastation on Ben Howland’s face and how distraught the Ucla players felt after they’d lost to Washington? That was one loss my friends- one single loss and they are upset about it. You guys are making excuses for our team by getting lit up by lesser foes and that is alright??? Not with me it isn’t. Maybe we just aren’t well schooled in what it takes to be a super power on the hardwood floor. Maybe we don’t know what it takes to win day in and day out. Maybe this is all a new experience for us. Maybe we are Husky football fans passing the time away by catching a few Husky basketball games and not taking it very serious. Well if this is you and it surely sounds like it, then we need to drastially raise the bar fellas. The fashion in the way we’ve lost to both Arizona and Cal should not be taken very lightly, that is if we intend on being a contender. Ucla is not taking Washington very serious and they don’t see us as a legit threat of winning the Pac 10 title, mostly because of attitudes like I am reading about on this message board. Washington is better then that and we’d better start playing like that more consistently.
Raise the bar Husky fans! WOOF!!!
All I saw was purple
It's baffling
that you think that somehow you’re a better fan than anyone else you don’t know because you ignorantly expect them to win every game. There’s a difference between between being a great fan and having unreasonable expectations. I want them to win every game too. They aren’t going to. There are going to be growing pains and bad losses. When you play in a power conference every game can go either way. Two road losses to good teams isn’t much cause for concern, especially when they sandwich a road win over one of the better teams in the conference.
What's Baffling?
Tell me fine sir, where did you read that I suggested anything about me being a better fan? And if you reread some of my material I stated that winning every game was darn near impossible.
Unreasonable expectations? Oh well maybe the ACC and the Big East are better in basketball then our league. Maybe the SEC and Big 12 are better in football then our league. If we are to get to that level then surely fans out west need to get a little more enthusiastic about our programs. Do you think Carolina or Duke fans would consider our losses to Arizona and Cal as “unreasonable”?
Again for clarification purposes I don’t think we should win every game, but great teams don’t get burried by lesser foes. I consider this years Arizona squad a lesser foe, likewise for Cal. Ucla was distraught that they lost to Washington- that was one game my friend, where they vowed to not lose another league game from here on out.
Maybe I am on the wrong message board. It’s not hunky dory to me that we get blown out in the 2nd half from lesser foes. Now I’ll bet my house that if we lose to Stanford in the same fashion we’ve lost to Arizona and Cal that your hunky dory attitude will change.
All I’ve stated in regards to this topic is that I see a correlation to how we lost to Arizona and Cal. This isn’t something that Romar has to overhaul. I think he needs to look at why we’ve lost a few games and figure out where we can correct some things or tweak some things so that we don’t find ourselves down by 15 when we’ve dominated the play thus far- that’s it and nothing more. Our 2nd half defense needs to step it up and play more consistent. Be weiry of the TREE!
All I saw was purple
easy on Crazi - he's a respectful fan ...
… that said, I don’t see the whole “we wear down on the second half” as a very compelling point of view. Using the UA game as an example is a case in point. True, UA scored 106 pts – but 25 of those points came when we started fouling in order to keep ourselves in the game … and it almost worked. I didn’t really see us wear down at all.
I would go back to the point I raised before – until Suggs and/or Turner can meaningfully contribute on offensive side, there is no way that Dentmon, Overton and IT can regularly breakdown teams with tall wing players … especially when they play zone. We’ve seen this thrown at us with Florida, USC, Cal, and KU. I think its the “book” on us right now.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Cal
Yeah I mentioned that Cal could be a mismatch. Christopher is a 6-5 3-point shooter who can burry it. If you care to look back I mentioned maybe we needed to go with a taller lineup vs. Cal. Q or Holiday on him. Now that I think about it Gant could’ve stayed with him too. He roams the perimeter very well for a big man.
But Christopher didn’t kill us. It was that pesky Cal point guard that deflated our tires. Sorry if I caused any of my fellow bloggers any grief. I am a very intense Husky fan both on the gridiron and hardwood and I never take a loss very well.
And if we do have a problem matching up w/ taller guards then obviously we’d better figure something out. We get into the tournament, where I am sure we’ll see taller guards. This should be a point of emphasis for the coaching staff to find away to foil the taller guard mismatch concept.
All I saw was purple
This is why I am pumped for Gaddy!
At 6’3 he will cause match up problems for other teams. I.T. and Gaddy together will give us a great young back court. I have read great things about Wilcox too. Athletic and should run up and down like Romar likes.
The Road
I just think the huskies don’t know how to play on the road.
The Road
Split on the road and sweep at home and you win the conference title more years than not.
It is very tough to sweep on the road consistently.
I agree w/ John on this one
But when you lose a couple of games, a coach needs to see if their is a correlation between those two losses. To me the writing in on the wall. In both games to Arizona and Cal it was a hard fought contest up until halftime. Once we stepped on the floor in the 2nd half our defense wasn’t there and both opponents just exploded. This is what has me hearing an alarm. This is too good of a basketball team to get pulverized in the 2nd half like we have lately.
I don’t think it is a road issue, because we were able to sweep in the Beaver State and we dumped on the Cougs in Pullman. Our team should be hitting on all cylinders by now, we aren’t there yet. We’ve got to get a little more consistent effort on defense and I’m sure Romar sees it the same way.
We haven’t done anything yet. On this road trip currently we are sitting at 1-2 w/ Stanford waiting. I don’t want to end this 2 week road trip going 1-3, because the LA trip is nearing. Initially I thought we could go 3-1 w/ the one loss to Arizona State. What we’ve got here is a chance to split these road trips at 2-2, which is good on the road. But if we fail at Stanford then you fellas will begin to hear the same alarm that I’ve been hearing and it’s not good I assure you of that.
Get it done Dawgs! WOOF!!!
All I saw was purple
Not just 2nd half
My point was that it was not just a 2nd half issue in those losses…the 1st half leads were smoke and mirrors. The bad habits that led to the 2nd half collapses were present the entire game. The team needs to fix those issues now before the season starts to turn.
At this point it’s not a huge concern because the team has shown the ability to bounce back. This is a big game tomorrow – 17-6/8-3 looks a lot better than 16-7/7-4. They’re better than Stanford…if they lose it’ll be because they did not play well, which then at that point would be a trend at 3 of 4 poor games and cause for concern.
Go Dawgs!
See, somebody gets it
Don’t hold your breath that we beat Stanford fellas. We haven’t won in Palo Alto since freakin’ 93! This game vs. the trees is a huge “must win”. I don’t want to be the guy that said “I told you so”. Let’s just get the win so I don’t go OFF Sunday night.
All I saw was purple
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