UCLA 62 CALIFORNIA 46
A game that looked somewhat winnable in the first half turned into a blowout in the second. This was the worst offensive performance by California in recent memory.
What went right? Not much. Ryan Anderson had a nice first half, and Theo Robertson played well throughout. Cal played very good man defense in the first, drawing several charges and contesting shot after shot. Omar had his second consecutive plus-50% game from the field, though we wish he'd force the issue more. Braun went to Taylor Harrison and Alex Pribble more than usual in the first, perhaps to prepare for a better second half performance.
It wasn't to be. Ayinde Ubaka would probably prefer to forget this - the worst game he's played in a California uniform by a long shot. On defense, Cal played man instead of zone, but it didn't help much on the boards. UCLA had 18 offensive rebounds - many of which were simply hustle rebounds by Aboya, Mata and Mbah a Moute. Cal shot nine free throws in a home game. That's not because the refs screwed us, it's because UCLA plays sound defense and we didn't move the ball well after the first seven or eight minutes. We became a jump shooting team, and not a very good one at that.
On to USC. We'll have a blog exchange up for a game that Cal needs - if for no other reason than to wipe this one from our collective memory. GO BEARS!
posted by Tightwad @ 8:27 PM
5 Comments:
Did it look like Ubaka was having a real hard time with the pick and roll with Anderson? There were times when Anderson would set the pick, his man would jump out on Ubaka and then Ubaka was dribbling near midcourt, unable to find an open Anderson.
This is a scrappy team but imagine if Hardin was healthy and Anderson could shift over to a more natural wing position.
I can't believe that we're that thin that I was mad/sad that freaking Eric Vernisal was out with an ankle injury.
Our bench: two freshman and a guy who was a walk-on. Egads! And to beat UCLA, everyone had to be on point . .. meaning you Ayinde. Our best player. Playing his worst game.
*sigh*
The worst part, was that no one in my section (nor apparently the student section) knew the answer to that eternal question: "What's a bRuin anyways?"
answer: A small dickless bear. Albeit a small dickless bear ranked #3 in the country.
Afflalo is absolutely ridiculous. I have no idea how you defend that guy. He burned us last year at home in the overtime game and put this one out of reach by torching us in the second half. I can't wait until he declares at the end of this season.
afffalo just wait u'll have enough time hating in the pac -10 tourny.
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