who is nervous for a true road game?

[AZOrange]

Man oh man--we just beat a team by 47 that many here were wringing their hands about, and some people are still panicking.

Oh Lord

I'd guess most have not seen a cal game all year. They were pretty ugly last night

 

[OrangeFoo]

If we play like we did last night there are three teams that worry me... Louisville, Marquette and Ohio State... not saying that there aren't others out in the draw that can't beat us but those are the only thee teams I don't want to play.

 

[Alsacs]

Last time I checked this game isn't being played at Haas Pavilion. Will Cal have the crowd on its side? Yes, but calm down this game will rest on the shoulders of MCW and BT. If BT plays 75% as well as he did today we win. The crowd can't help Cal if we play well. This team won @Arkansas and @Louisville. James Southerland needs to find space in the Cal zone and be ready to catch and shoot. Cal will dare us to be them from the outside. Crabbe and Cobbs are good players, but if we play Syracuse defense this game could be played in Haas Pavilion and I would expect a win. If we were told 2 weeks ago we would have to beat California to reach the sweet 16 everyone would have said yes please. Dan Dakich on Gamenight last night said about Syracuse fans they are always so pessimistic and have no confidence that all the ESPN SU grads were scared and weren't confident and yet Indiana fans always saying this is the year for banner 6 even when they are high digit seeds. Syracuse fans need to be more confident. Cal is a decent team, but they just lost to USC, Stanford, and Utah at the end of the season not exactly Louisville, Georgetown or Marquette.

 

[SouthernCuse]

Drexel?

 

[Orangezoo]

big thing last night is unlv played zero interior defense and didnt hustle hardly at all.. against us a so so shooting cal team will struggle to get good looks. crabbe worries me with his ability to find the open man but i think it was really deceiving last night given unlv's porous d.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Last time JB faced Cal, it was MSG in Nov 2009 and it was a complete thrashing, 95-73. That Cal team was #12 at the time, a better team than this one. No way the Cuse lose this game, it is another gift, get your tickets for DC.

Was at that game and we beat them like a drum. This team is playing better then they have in two months. Enjoy it and lets see if we can make a very deep run. I like Rock's play and DC getting some floor time. It is all coming together now just like JB wants it to.

 

[ImperialOrange]

I might be. When do we play a true road game next? @ Duke or @ UNC?

 

[armory]

we win by 20. easily. matchup nightmare for cal.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

Man oh man--we just beat a team by 47 that many here were wringing their hands about, and some people are still panicking.

Oh Lord

Never panic but I am nervous before every game in every tournament.

It just takes one poor performance by us and/or one lights-out performance by the other team to be going home.

Nature of the one-and-done.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

James Southerland needs to find space in the Cal zone.

Homer Simpson says.."MMMMMM calzone..."

 

[dollarbill44]

Never panic but I am nervous before every game in every tournament.

It just takes one poor performance by us and/or one lights-out performance by the other team to be going home.

Nature of the one-and-done.

Exactly. Although, after 1:00 of last night's game, I was not worried at all about that one.

 

[Eric15]

Homer Simpson says.."MMMMMM calzone..."

No one will post anything better than this all day - may as well close the board down.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

I'll say this much. Crabbe looks like exactly the kind of guy who was meant to catch the ball at the foul line against the zone. He's a very good player and is going to be a handful.

Their interior defense and rebounding is also very good. We won't get to the rim with ease tomorrow night, and we had better be able to get to the offensive glass. Our ability to do that will probably decide the game.

In our favor, though - their guard play is not that good. Cobbs hit some 3's last night, but his handle didn't look that great, and on the year, although he's a "scorer", he's not such a shooter. Apart from him and Crabbe, they get their offense on the low block. Thurman played out of his mind last night for them against UNLV - he's ordinarily only about their third best big man. They'll need him to do that again on Saturday night.\

All of that said, I'm really much happier playing Cal than UNLV, even with their home court advantage. The Rebels' athleticism had me a bit worried, as did the fact that they went up against a 2-3 zone last night, which would have taken some of the surprise factor away from our defense. The Rebs have no chemistry and don't play like a team, though. That's why they went down.

Agreed. Getting the ball at the foul line to a 6'6" guard who can shoot, pass or penetrate is going to cause issues.

We really need to deny him the ball if they flash him and I will be interested to see how JB does that.

I'm not sure I agree with you about their guard play being a weakness. I think Crabbe and Cobbs are their two best players. I looked at the stats and I agree that, other than Crabbe, they really don't shoot it well from three.

 

[Alsacs]

Homer Simpson says.."MMMMMM calzone..."

The words of your father Steve

 

[Flora'cuse]

What worries me is people can get behind our D in the zone. The Grizz didn't exploit it, probably because we were so much bigger than them. Cal's good and Baye, Rak and DC2 need to keep and eye on that, they go 6'9", 610" & 6'10", that's more than The GRizz. Other than that, their 6'6" guard got 19 last night. So.. we should win but let's watch our backs and their front.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Agreed. Getting the ball at the foul line to a 6'6" guard who can shoot, pass or penetrate is going to cause issues.

We really need to deny him the ball if they flash him and I will be interested to see how JB does that.

I'm not sure I agree with you about their guard play being a weakness. I think Crabbe and Cobbs are their two best players. I looked at the stats and I agree that, other than Crabbe, they really don't shoot it well from three.

Well, for them, Crabbe is a SF, not a guard. The only other guard who is in their top 5 or 6 scorers is Cobbs.

 

[mantonio]

Homer Simpson says.."MMMMMM calzone..."

Now you'll have me craving this Italian delicacy every time Southy makes a play!

 

[manleyzoo]

Well, for them, Crabbe is a SF, not a guard. The only other guard who is in their top 5 or 6 scorers is Cobbs.

Crabbe is a guard for them.

 

[Niastri]

Please calm me down and tell me this is a better matchup tahn unlv, please, someone

Cal is 21-11 after beating UNLV yesterday.

At home, Cal has lost to (with margin of defeat in parentheses) UNLV (1), Creighton (10), Harvard (5), UCLA (14), Washington (15), and Stanford (13), all at home. Stanford beat them on the road as well, also by double digits. Stanford lost 14 times and could only muster a .500 record in the Pac12. A home game for Cal doesn't make it a sure thing.

It took Cal a late seven game winning streak mostly against the weaker teams in the Pac 12 to even get to a 12th seed in the dance.

Cal's best wins (by ranking at the time) are against Arizona (#7) and Oregon (#10 and #23). They have only played 5 ranked teams all year. Syracuse played 7 ranked teams in our most recent 10 game stretch.

Cal relies heavily on two perimeter players, Crabbe and Cobbs, for their scoring. Their third best scorer, Kravish, is a 6'9 center who weighs only 225 and is foul prone. They have two bigger guys
(at 6'10" 235 and 6'10" 265), but they get many fewer minutes. Their forwards are all perimeter type players. Our worst problems come from dump and chase type rebounding teams who block shots. Cal is not that team.

Both of Cal's best rebounders play the same position. Crabbe is their third best rebounder, and plays every minute unless he is in foul trouble.

Crabbe is a bit foul prone at times, and will have to guard CJ Fair, who is taller and heavier.

The three best 3 point shooters for Cal (Crabbe, Cobbs and Wallace) combine for 10.75 three point attempts per game but only make 3.4 per game (31.4%). As we know, our zone encourages bad shooters to shoot more often, and Cal doesn't have anybody good enough to be afraid of. Wallace should probably be told to shoot less, as he averages 22% and takes almost 3 a game.

Syracuse is coming off a cakewalk victory where our minutes leaders were Triche and MCW at 29. Each of them average at least 33 mpg. Cal is coming of a stress filled nail biter where only 7 people played and their top four players all played 34 plus. Crabbe only played 34 because he was in foul trouble.

UNLV, not a world beater team, missed 16 shots in a row at one point, and Cal beat them by 3 points.

These are the reasons that Syracuse will win by 15 tomorrow, in spite of the horrible "protection" granted the "protected seed" Syracuse and UNLV teams.

 

[brandokc]

The great Niastri has spoken!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Niastri]

lol, just taking a minute to break down the Cal team a bit.

 

[Bortukal]

Nothing to see here...

 

[Niastri]

Fittingly enough, an anti Georgetown thread knocks this one off the top view perch.

10:10 and

Georgetown still sucks.

 

[Chris02M]

its not a true road game to me unless they moved the game to cal berkley,im actually not that worried about cal if you watched the unlv/cal game neither looked even decent we should win by double digits (whats vegas say?)

 

[Niastri]

I am sure you see that the OP is being metaphorical. We are 3000 miles away from home, and Cal is closer to San Jose than a Cuse to an MSG!