Plus/minus - Cal vs. UCLA

Harper Kamp and Jerome Randle topped the plus/minus charts for California in their 70-58 loss to UCLA at Haas Pavilion on Saturday. Although the Bears showed a lot of grit in fighting back against a tough, physical UCLA team, there was one unusual lineup decision by head coach Ben Braun.

The Bears did a terrific job in narrowing an 36-25 halftime deficit down to two at 38-36. The Bears had gone with their starting lineup of Jerome Randle, Nikola Knezevic, Patrick Christopher, Ryan Anderson, and DeVon Hardin. Even though the starting lineup was -6 (plus 12, minus 18) in the first half, they found their rhythm late in the first half and helped the Bears go on an 11-2 run to open the second half.

Following a substitution where Nican Robinson gave Randle a breather, Randle came back in and played until the 12:36 mark, when he was replaced by Robinson with the Bears trailing 42-38. That would be the last time that Cal's starting lineup would be in together.

For most of the rest of the game the Bears swapped Randle with Knezevic while keeping Christopher in with a grouping of three out of Anderson, Hardin, Boykin, Kamp, and Vierneisel. While Cal certainly had a challenge in matching up with the bigger Bruins and had been outrebounded by nine in the first half, it would also seem that after having had their first prolonged success against UCLA, Cal would try to cycle through their substitutions and get back to that combination.

Following the 12:36 mark, the Bears deficit was in the five to seven point range for much of the second half until UCLA extended their lead late.

In the first half, the Bears' starting lineup played until the 14:14 mark, then the Bears went through a series of substitutions and came back to their starting lineup at the 8:44 mark. By comparison, against USC, Cal didn't go back to its starting lineup in the second half after the 16:39 mark, but once they found a lineup that was having success against the Trojans (Randle, Vierneisel, Christopher, Anderson, and Hardin) they found a way to go back to them, and that unit played the final 7:59.

Player	Min	+Pts	-Pts	Pts	Reb	Ast	Diff
Peter Liss	1	3	2	0	0	0	+1
Harper Kamp	11	18	18	8	3	1	0
Jerome Randle	30	49	51	7	4	2	-2
Eric Vierneisel	13	19	22	1	1	1	-3
Nican Robinson	2	0	6	0	0	0	-6
Patrick Christopher	37	56	64	11	3	2	-8
Ryan Anderson	32	47	57	12	8	2	-10
Nikola Knezevic	30	39	49	3	1	3	-10
Jamal Boykin	15	19	29	8	1	0	-10
DeVon Hardin	29	40	52	8	8	1	-12

First vs. Second Half (minimum 2 minutes)

First Half Top - Harper Kamp - 10-10, 0 
Second Half Top - Jerome Randle - 24-18, +6

First Half Bottom - Nikola Knezevic - 19-31, -12
Second Half Bottom - Nican Robinson - 0-6, -6

Difference Makers

With Harper Kamp in 11 minutes - 10-10, 0
Without Kamp in 29 minutes - 48-60, -12

With Jerome Randle in 30 minutes - 49-51, -2
Without Randle in 10 minutes - 9-19, -10

With Jamal Boykin in 15 minutes - 19-29, -10
Without Boykin in 25 minutes - 39-41, -2

With DeVon Hardin in 29 minutes - 40-52, -12
Without Hardin in 11 minutes - 18-18, 0

Lineups

Starting lineup
Randle, Knezevic, Christopher, Anderson, Hardin in 15:19 - 25-20, +5
All other lineups in 24:41 - 33-50, -17

Lineups with three guards:

Randle, Knezevic, Christopher	20:37	33-30, +3
Robinson, Knezevic, Christopher	2:27	0-6, -6
Knezevic, Liss, Christopher	0:48	3-2, +1
TOTAL	23:52	36-38, -2

Lineups with two guards:

Randle, Christopher	9:29	18-21, -3
Knezevic, Christopher	3:35	2-5, -3
TOTAL	13:04	20-26, -6

Lineup with one guard:

Knezevic (w/Boykin, Vierneisel)	3:04	2-6, -4
TOTAL	3:04	2-6, -4

Other notes

Defensively, the Bears allowed 1.81 points/minute (72.4 pts/40 minutes) with Hardin in the game, but gave up points at the rate of  2.89 points/minute (115.6 pts/40 minutes) when he was out.

Offensively, Cal averaged 2.65 points/minute (106 pts/40 minutes) with Vierneisel in the game, but just 1.82 points/minute (72.8 pts/40 minutes when he was out).

The lineup of Randle, Vierneisel, Christopher, Anderson and Hardin averaged 2.88 points/minute (115.2 pts/40 minutes) on offense, while the starting lineup of Randle, Knezevic, Christopher, Anderson, and Hardin averaged just 1.46 points/minute (58.4 pts/40 minutes).  All other lineups averaged 2.11 points/minute (84.4 pts/40 minutes.

Contribution Evaluation

Player	Minutes	Expected	Actual	Difference
Randle	30	-9.00	-2	+7.00
Kamp	11	-3.30	0	+3.30
Christopher	37	-11.10	-8	+3.10
Liss	1	-0.30	+1	+1.30
Vierneisel	13	-3.90	-3	+0.90
Anderson	32	-9.60	-10	-0.40
Knezevic	30	-9.00	-10	-1.00
Hardin	29	-8.70	-12	-3.30
Robinson	2	-0.60	-6	-5.40
Boykin	15	-4.50	-10	-5.50

Description: This stat measures the significance of a player's contribution to the team's effort. If a team wins by 10 points, and a player plays in half of the team's minutes, his expected contribution would be a +5. For example, when Cal defeated Grambling by 19 points. Brian Wethers played 28 minutes or 70% of the game. If we multiply 70% x +19, Wethers' expected contribution would be a +13.30. But for the game he was a +26, so his net for the game for a +12.70. In a perfect team situation, if everyone contributed equally, the difference column would consist of a row of zeros.

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