Wednesday v Cal

Looking at Cal's stats, they shoot only 20% from 3 point range.  In the Pac-12, their team has the most turnovers and fewest assists.  Against Stanford, Cal shot 6% from 3-pt range.  Stanford's starters were on the floor about 25% less time against Cal than their season average.  Freshman Dalayah Daniels appears to be their best player.

Looks like Cal and ASU are the two worst shooting teams in the conference.  However ASU did shoot a crazy 55% from 3 against Arizona so anything can happen in a single game.  Thanks for pointing out some of the team stats. 

That must be the kind of in depth analysis ASU did...before losing to Cal.

I've seen Cal many times this year. They were hit by so many injuries (3 players out for the season plus several mid-season injuries of shorter duration) that they probably would have shut down for the season had it not been for their two walk-ons. With those walk-ons, Cal chose to play many games with only 6 scholarship players available even though they would have been allowed by the Pac-12 to cancel the games. (Those walk-ons were eventually converted to scholarship status later in the season.)

Anyway, that was earlier in the season, so Cal's season-long stats are meaningless because they had to play so many games with a haphazard lineup (for a couple of games, they used a walk-on small forward at point guard). The best comparison that can be made to today's Cal team is that at first glance they look like USC, with some similarly impressive talent and speed. The difference is that while USC looks cohesive on defense and can occasionally have hot outside-shooting streaks, Cal is not cohesive on either end of the floor due to inexperience and is usually a poor-shooting team. That's a BIG difference. But on a decent-shooting day they can match up with ASU or hang with Stanford for a half, so DON'T assume they'll look as bad as their win-loss record.

Here's their starters' matchup with the Beavs. Inside, Onyiah can be very impressive at times, with a very quick and high hop so she might have some o-boards and some putbacks even against Taylor and Jelena. And she will get some blocks as well but eventually Taylor should have her share of scoring opportunities.

Daniels has been very uneven, obviously a great talent but so far has been unable to develop enough versatility on the offensive end. At the start of the season she either drove to the basket or simply jacked up an off-target 3. She was extremely easy to scout so opponents started cutting off her drives. She just kept driving to the basket anyway with bad results and jacked up some more 3's. The Cal staff didn't know what to do with all her talent other than urging her to do the same thing. Daniels eventually has found some success on occasion but the Beavs should have a very good game plan (and Taya and Ellie) to try to limit her damage.

Lutje Schipholt is like a smaller Onyiah, and will surprise opponents with some persistent work on the glass and defense, but mostly she's been crowded out of the picture on both ends of the floor by the other posts. She may do some more damage when one of the other starting posts are on the bench.

The high-schooler lefty Mastrov can handle and pass the ball, work hard on defense, and shoot from the outside as well. She's a fun player to watch but being on a disorganized Cal team doesn't put her in the best light.

Macintosh has tremendous speed, quick hands (look out Aleah and Talia), is a good ball-handler and shoots OK. But she can be out of control on both ends of the floor so that limits her effectiveness as a playmaker and as a team defender. I assume Sasha will guard her at times, creating a very strange and entertaining mismatch in terms of height and speed.

Unfortunately without good teamwork and enough experience, Cal's whole is LESS than the sum of their parts. Players are so busy scrambling and improvising on defense that they will often leave outside shooters wide open (really bad idea vs. the Beavs of late).

For the backups, Samb has talent but hasn't yet meshed with her teammates so she frequently looks out-of-sync, and is usually a big drop-off from Onyiah. Richey isn't very quick but has some savvy and can shoot a little from the outside. Olson and Muca (a very quick and decent ballhandler) haven't played many minutes of late, and Heide has been injured for much of the second half of the season and I would be surprised if she played much if at all tomorrow. The other players listed on the roster are injured and out for the season.

fmpol - thanks for the interesting and informative overview of Cal's team....Much of what you say helps to make sense out of their dismal 1- 15 season. Sounds like whatever could go wrong, did go wrong for their first year coach....

So, yes, there are insights to be gained from a closer look at a 1-15 team that has a losing margin of 22.5 points.

I, for one, appreciate information rich posts like you posted. Adds to the quality of content of the board. Thanks.
GO BEAVS!!

By now, you should know better than to take Thickhead seriously.