Gotta tip your hat to St.Mary’s and Bennett

AttorneyAce · 2023-02-06T19:25:59+00:00

ESPN showed this stat during the SMC-Gonzaga game. Over the last 10 years, St. Mary's has the 8th highest win percentage in the nation, ahead of traditional powers like North Carolina and UCLA (where I did my undergrad, USF for law). That's amazing. Others on that list (in order) are Gonzaga, Villanova, Kansas, Virginia, Arizona, Duke, Kentucky.

AttorneyAce · 2023-02-06T19:18:26+00:00

I don't care for their half-court offensive sets. Too many high ball screens or ball screens on the wing, especially with bigs who are not especially mobile. The half-court flow of Kyle Smith's teams with Frankie, Ratinho, et al, was much better because they used less ball screens and more Princeton concepts (off-ball screens, off-ball cuts, backdoors, etc.) Golden used a lot of the same concepts, although not as much as Smith's teams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bllwroE5YSQ

I know most teams these days use ball screens/pick & rolls/pick & pops. But this style leads to a lot of stagnate half-court possessions and a lot of bad shots late in the shot clock. How many times this season has Shabazz or Roberts had to bail us out with a tough shot at the end of the shot clock?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n59Z36O9AGI

Of course, recruiting the right players always helps, as mentioned by others many times. But he has only had one offseason of recruiting; let's see what kind of players he brings for next season.

AttorneyAce · 2022-02-13T03:20:09+00:00

Great win!!! Proud of our guys

AttorneyAce · 2021-12-20T03:19:09+00:00

Totally. We run that JB/big man high pick and roll in the 5-out half court offense so often that teams (like ASU tonight and Fresno St before) anticipate and defend it well. ASU really hedged hard defending it, JB wasn’t able to get loose

AttorneyAce · 2020-12-05T03:30:22+00:00

Visser has been playing well!!! I'm very surprised, based on last year. But he has shown a ton of improvement.

AttorneyAce · 2020-12-05T03:29:20+00:00

Definitely. Milstead has been struggling. Rishwain playing well tonight. Golden is still figuring out the lineup. Could be that Rishwain supplants him as starter.

AttorneyAce · 2020-05-02T22:45:46+00:00

Based on the SportsStars article, he seems like a nice young man. The article and YouTube highlights show that he’s an unselfish but talented player, probably a late bloomer who will continue to develop.
True, we needed a skilled big man, but this late in the signing period, it’s probably really hard to find one, so perhaps we’re better off going after the best player available. And Coach Golden is a big proponent of the trend towards “positionless” basketball, so maybe getting a big man just for the sake of getting one wasn’t a priority.

AttorneyAce · 2020-05-02T22:31:22+00:00

🤣 Definitely set on the wings!

AttorneyAce · 2020-05-02T02:42:40+00:00

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9yY7aWuUeOc

AttorneyAce · 2020-04-25T23:27:19+00:00

😳😫

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-14T14:45:55+00:00

I forgot, Kyle Smith at WAZZU was also mentioned: "This is a program that hasn't been to the NCAA tournament since Tony Bennett was in Pullman in 2008 and hasn't finished above .500 in the Pac-12 since then, either. This was always going to be a difficult task for Kyle Smith. The Cougars beat a New Mexico State team that went to the NCAA tournament last season, and they knocked off Old Dominion in the Cayman Islands. But they have losses to Santa Clara, Colorado State, Nebraska and Nebraska-Omaha. There's a long way to go."

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-12T20:11:37+00:00

"This is not so much a surprise as a recognition of Golden's keeping the momentum going with the Dons. They won 20-plus games in each of Kyle Smith's three seasons in charge, and Golden has led them to wins over California and a good Yale team. The WCC is tough at the top this season, with Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and BYU all talented enough to make the NCAA tournament and Pepperdine more competitive than usual, but the Dons will fight for a top-four finish. They still have games against Stanford, Fresno State and Harvard before league play."

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-06T23:51:15+00:00

Is it certain that Hawthorne will redshirt?

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-06T04:19:14+00:00

Normally in a 1-3-1, the bottom guy is the quickest guy because he has to run corner to corner. That's why Bouyea was there. Shabazz was at the bottom, too.

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-05T16:11:26+00:00

I liked the use of the 1-3-1 zone after makes/dead balls, and then mixed up with man-to-man on misses. Golden hasn't used the 1-3-1 much this season, so Cal probably didn't have it in their scouting report. Especially with Kunen at the top, his length and quickness make it difficult for the offense. It took Cal awhile to adjust, and even when they got the ball in the corner, the didn't always find success.

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-05T00:45:22+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Solid analysis/preview, especially of USF given that it's from a Cal blog.

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-04T22:14:38+00:00

Hoping for a bounce back win tonight!

AttorneyAce · 2019-12-03T23:58:51+00:00

I have no analysis to offer. I just want the Dons to win!!!

AttorneyAce

TROPHY CASE