Anatomy of a Loss

After trailing by as much as 16 points in the first half, the Bears clawed their way back to draw within 1 or 2 points 10 times in the second half. Then, with 4:36 left, it all came apart.

As painful as it might be for Cal fans, perhaps it would be useful to recount exactly what happened in those next three minutes.

In summary, a 10-2 run by the Cardinal pushed a 64-62 lead to 74-64 with 1:33 left, and put the outcome beyond doubt.

In that stretch Cal committed 4 fouls, 2 by Randle, 1 by Hardin (his 5th) and 1 by Boykin. They committed 2 turnovers, one by Boykin and one by Randle. Cal scored no points from the field: Randle missed 2 layups, Christopher 1. Anderson, Knesevic and Randle all missed threes. That's a lot of miscues for three minutes of play.

One player crops up in all 4 categories: Jerome Randle.

Randle was 1-5 from beyond the arc for the game, 3-9 from the field, but committed 4 (official) turnovers as against his (decent) 7 assists. This was not a productive night for Randle, nor was it for Ryan Anderson.

Some of Cal's misfortune in the critical three minutes was simply a result of the way the ball bounces, the ordinary good or bad luck that happens to all basketball teams. In one instance, with Stanford on offense, the ball was headed out of bounds. It bounced off Robin Lopez' hand on the way out, but was snagged by the long arm of Brook Robinson who flicked it back into the waiting hands of Anthony Goods for a short jumper. A bang-bang oddity that put another nail into the Bear's coffin.

One of Boykin's turnovers happened when he came down with a rebound and a defender's hand flicked the ball away - before Boykin even knew a defender was there. Moments later, with Cal on offense, Boykin contested a rebound - two guys went straight up in the air with minor body contact - and Boykin got the foul. These are just the things that happen on a court.

Bit there were bad calls, too. We offer no excuses here; bad calls are a part of the game that every team has to fight past. Still, in the spirit of looking closely at what exactly happened during this stretch, we'll note that Hardin's fifth foul was questionable; even the Stanford announcers saw it that way.

The ball was lose on the floor and both Hardin and Brook Lopez went after it. Hardin leaned way down to try to reach the ball and so was off balance - and Lopez' body (he had already fallen) on the floor tripped Hardin - who fell over Lopez for the foul. This was just two guys going after a ball, not one with the ball being hit by another.

Bad mistakes were made too. The worst was by Jerome Randle who circled in toward the hoop on a drive, saw three big Stanford defenders in front of him, but tried for the hoop anyway, perhaps hoping to draw a foul. With the heavy body contact in the paint, the ball never did actually head for the hoop. Taj Finger came down with it, Randle blatantly hacked Finger's arm, and the damage was done. A "frustration foul," the TV announcers called it.

Another bad one was an aggressive but risky drive by Randle that resulted in a turnover. Not as bad, but still equally fatal to Cal's chances, was an error made on defense by Harper Kamp when he lost Brook Lopez in the paint - and allowed him to take a pass for an easy two. Kamp simply stepped over to help guard another player; losing Lopez in the paint is not generally recommended.

The issues were several, but center on these: turnovers, fouls and missed layups did the Bears in. (A couple of threes would have helped but a missed shot doesn't make the "error list" here.) All three are correctable with poise and patience, qualities this team has lacked at critical junctures. As Coach Braun said after the game - paraphrasing here - "at least we have to get a foul out of those layups."

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