Last season The Golden Bears were perhaps one of the more pleasant surprises in the Pac-12, tying for eighth place in the standings. Is this Cal squad, who faces ASU in its season opener, ready to take the next step this year? GoldenBearReport.com Publisher Trace Travers shares his thoughts on the Sun Devils’ next opponent.
DevilsDigest: Standing now at 2-1, what’s your overall feeling on Cal’s performance throughout the first three games?
Trace Travers: “I think the biggest thing is that this team most definitely needs more practice, just with the regulations that have been here in California…once they got back to school one, they couldn’t go inside and practice in the gym. And two, they couldn’t even have a ball at the beginning. And that was honestly just a couple of months ago. So, it’s been uneven as far as what they’ve been able to get accomplished as opposed to some of the other schools. They were practicing out on the tennis courts on the Cal campus that are right near where they normally practice.
“As far as the actual on-court product, it’s been a bit sloppy so far. But the big thing that stands out is that they have more guys who can shoot from outside, which was a weakness of theirs a year ago. They’re nearly taking half of their attempts from beyond the arc, which if you’re a team that has some pretty clear flaws like Cal, then the three pointers are the great equalizer. They’ve added a couple of guys in grad transfers in Ryan Betley and Makale Foreman, who can both shoot from outside, in addition to the two guys last year who were shooters in Matt Bradley and Grant Anticevich.”
DevilsDigest: Matt Bradley is a Pac-12 Preseason Media All-Conference First Team selection, who is coming off a great 2019-20 season. What improvements have you seen out of him this year?
Trace Travers: “Well, the big focus from when we’ve talked to him that has been on him being more of an all-around player. Whether that comes from rebounding, passing, ball handling since Cal brought in a transfer in Jared Hyder who had is waiver denied for some reason; I’m not sure in this year where everybody is eligible…but Bradley is looking to be more of a complete player where in past years he plays a bit like, and this is sacrilegious to kind of say it but because they’re both left-handed, but the James Harden comparison comes up in that he’s a guy who you can run off the pick and roll and drive and get to the line a lot and do all that sort of stuff.
“But now, he’s added a post-up game which he’s obviously big enough to do that. He’s a good passer. He can be a secondary ball-handler when they need him to. He can obviously shoot. He can obviously get steals, make plays in transition. And they’re looking for him to do more of it now that he has a bit more help on the perimeter.”
DevilsDigest: Are there going to be any Robins to Bradley’s Batman, so to speak, this year?
Trace Travers: “So the two grad transfers Foreman and Betley have been solid shooters so far. I think Foreman was ninth in the country last year in three-point makes last at Stony Brook, whereas Betley was injured, but he’s around a 38 percent career three-point shooter. So, they’ve added those two pieces around him. Grant Anticevich, who’s the sole senior who’s been with the team for four years, he can provide some stuff from the outside. Andre Kelly who emerged at the end of last year with a handle of good performances, but he hasn’t quite gotten up to speed. I’d say those guys in particular.
“It’s been a bit disjointed early on because we haven’t seen too much from guys like Joel Brown, who’s set to make a bigger jump, but he hasn’t shown it yet. But it’s again, a small sample size of three games. Then you have other guys who are a local true freshman kid but got hurt last night. He went to the hospital, and we haven’t had an update on him since. And then, D.J. Thorpe, son of Otis Thorpe, who played for a long time for the Houston Rockets, he had also been limited recently along with Kuany Kuany, Lars Thiemann. It’s been such a small sample size, as I said, the only thing you can tell is that this team needs a lot more practice.”
DevilsDigest: Have the three games demonstrated the struggles Cal will go through the entire season, in your opinion?
Trace Travers: “I think to a certain extent, you got to see what their issues were against Oregon State (a 73-61 loss). They’re going to have issues with longer, athletic wings, which Oregon State had a couple of. You see that they can have 20 turnovers against Nicholls State, and that can get cleaned up as the season goes on. And as you have more practice, you figure things out a bit, but it’s the stuff that you have to improve upon. But even guys like Anticevich, who didn’t make a three in the first two games, and he finally made one last night (versus Nicholls State), those are the things you have to look for, and this Cal team still has their fair share of struggles scoring consistently. They shot under 30 percent in the first half against Nicholls, and they’re going to have to find ways to figure it out as the season goes on. And to their credit last year, they did get better as the season went on.”
DevilsDigest: Would you say that Cal holding teams to 60 points per game so far has been a pleasant surprise?
Trace Travers: “That’s been (head coach) Mark Fox’s M.O. since he’s been coaching, everywhere is just defense first, and you see could see it in short doses a year ago. But another year understanding the system, especially with most of the guys who played last year coming back, that’s incredibly important. They’ve done a good job. They run teams off the three-point line, as far as I know. Teams are only shooting a quarter of their attempts from beyond the arc, which speaks to that. They’re not fouling. They’re not allowing teams to shoot well in the paint. They’ve got obvious things that they need to work on, like their rebounding, but they are doing kind of what was advertised when Mark Fox was brought in to fix their defense as a whole.”
DevilsDigest: For Cal to be successful against Arizona State, what do they need to accomplish?
Trace Travers: “Obviously not turning the ball over. (ASU’s) got a handful of talented wings, like everybody’s familiar with Josh Christopher because his brother played for Cal back in the day. Marcus Bagley...Cal recruited the hell out of him, but he went to Arizona State at the end of the day because Bobby Hurley has built something. It’s fair to say this is the best an Arizona State program has been built up in basketball, isn’t it? Remy Martin has gone off the last couple of times he’s played Cal, and it’s a matter of keeping him contained as far as with the point guard battle, whether that’s going to be Makale Foreman starting at the point like he has the last two games or Joel Brown, who has been pretty good at forcing turnovers.
“And it’s going to be about containing on the defensive glass. They got smacked on that against Oregon State over and over again. Being able to shoot and create those outside opportunities for themselves. One big change from last year to this one is that Mark Fox is willing to let his guys shoot in transition or earlier in the shot clock in general, especially Foreman. He likes to shoot the transition three. I think he had the most three-point attempts in the country last year by a good margin. So, he’s willing to bomb away, and if they can start hitting more of those, Bradley can become more consistent. Anticevich down low, and they can get something from their interior play in Andre Kelly, who honestly, aside from rebounding, hasn’t done too much the first few games. Who knows? They might have a shot. It just depends on how complete of a game they can play.”
DevilsDigest: What is your score prediction?
Trace Travers: “Give me a 70-63 ASU win.”
(Jesse Morrison contributed to this article)
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