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Wednesday, September 08 2010 @ 08:06 AM PDT

Monty the Man

Tuesday, December 02 2008 @ 02:02 PM PST
Contributed by: jamespmenath
Views: 1,206

In case any of you has an hour to kill, here's my diatribe on my first live viewing of the basketball Bears,
men's version. I saw the final in Vegas against Florida State. I didn't return from my holiday travels in
time for the UNLV game. Let's see, we're 5-0 without me in attendance, 0-1 with me. TypiCal me.

At least I had a good view at center court. UNLV played the third-place game, thanks to us, and 99% of
the crowd filed out. This was, as an ESPN dude said decades ago, "An MCI special -- friends and
family only." Maybe they were in the concourse, where they serve drinks and show
sports -- great concept. I took advantage of those features during the UNLV-Cincy game.

The bottom line about the Bears -- and the top line -- is that we're much better-coached. I think that
Braun knows how to coach decent basketball -- we looked pretty good in 1997 -- but he lost
the ability to communicate that knowledge. That reminds me of me, coaching JV ball in the
City, leading Lincoln High to a 1-15 mark. They seldom did what I told them to do in practice and
in timeouts. But hey, we covered 75% of our spreads!

Montgomery knows how to coach while winning or losing. I've always wondered why more coaches
don't do what he did. Trailing by a few possessions in the last few minutes, he was Coach
K-esque (sounds better with his full name, but I don't feel like looking up the spelling). Do you
ever notice that when Duke is losing late -- not often enough for my taste -- it takes about
an hour to play the last five minutes and beat them? That dude doesn't go down easily.
We're trailing by 10 with three minutes to go? Let's see, if we try to force the turnover in the
backcourt and if we can't, then we foul them, we increase the number of remaining
possessions. Hmmm, down by 10 with three minutes to go... which do we prefer, a longer or
shorter game? Even if the opponent hits two free throws, we can hit a 3. We're talking
about basketball, not neurosurgery.

We're taking it to the hole and putting our shooters beyond the 3-line for kick-outs. Oh, you prefer to
stop the clock and foul our 90% foul shooter? OK, thank you. Randle had 15 points in the
last two minutes, almost all of them from the foul line. We trailed by about 12 with 2 and a half
minutes to go, they hit most of their free throws, and we got within two.

Now for some player analysis and thus some reasons why we lost:

Randle -- is this the same guy? Last year: I hate point guards who are out of control. This guy has
quicks, but he knows nothing about basketball. This year: Controlled aggression, solid
shooting, creates good shots for himself and others, money at the line. Free-throws: 39-43, 91%,
better if he didn't need to miss one intentionally at the end of the game (more about that
later). I went from wanting him at the end of the bench last year to this prediction:
First-team all-league this year. Then again, the Pac-10 puts about 25 guys on the all-league
team.

Christopher -- I liked him last year, and I like him even more now. He was also in better control than
last year. He took some low-percentage shots, but we're going to need to do that on
occasion, because we have a bunch of stiffs up front. (See "Stiffs Up Front" section). Christopher can
shoot and create, and at 6'5", he's a matchup problem for others.

Robertson -- I thought he was done? Is he going for the Grigsby award? I'm glad that he's not
done. He looks healthy enough. So far, he's scoring 13 a game on 50% shooting, 54% from 3.
That'll work. He seems like a humble kid and a good team guy. Then again, I don't know who
doesn't. Everyone was really supportive of each other.

That's pretty much it for the guys without major flaws. Braun would go 9-19 with these guys.
Montgomery will take them to the NCAA tournament -- I mean, as a team playing in the tournament.

Boykin -- I liked him from the moment I saw him last year. I'll take guys who play that hard any day.
However, he doesn't seem to have improved much in the skill area. He missed a couple of
cripples. I don't know how he was ever talented enough for Duke. That tells me that they
don't always get blue-chippers anymore -- that and their dismal post-season record of late.
Anyway, he's a bit of a bull in a china shop. He didn't adjust to the tight refereeing and
got into foul trouble. I want him on our team, but if he's a starter, that's not a great sign for
the team's talent level.

Gutierrez -- Initial reaction: Did he win the "Long-Haired Latin Dude Contest to Play a Day with the
Bears?" After watching him: tough, talented guy. He's a little rough around the edges, but
Montgomery will mold him. He has a flopping problem. I'm guessing that he's a fan of Vlade
Divac and/or the soccer guys that I like the least. He flopped early -- no call, and rightly
so. He flopped late, with help from their star's elbow. That would have been a key
offensive foul, and should have been, but they tagged him as the flopper who cried wolf. No call, and
the guy hit a dagger of a 3. I like him, though. He gets into your dish, but he needs to stay there.

Stiffs Up Front, a.k.a. Wilkes-Camp-Zhang -- Oof. We're in trouble up front. I really want Wilkes to

do well, but for the love of God, can't he do one squat in the off-season? He's so weak, it's
painful. He's not strong or healthy enough to play great at this level. He can help us,
though, and he will, with better coaching.

Randle gave Jordan Wilkes a great look once, and Wilkes went up for a half-hearted layup from a foot
away. Some dude breathed on him, he missed the one-footer, and he got one point out of it.
That needs to be a basket-shattering slam, three points and an emotional boost, especially
when we have a crowd behind us. With three seconds to go, down by three, they fouled Randle
-- wisely, I think. He made the first, missed the second beautifully, into the hands of
Wilkes in the paint who! -- had it tipped away by a little guy. We need some muscle in there.

Camp has fit nicely into the traditional Cal role of postman who receives a pass at the top of the key,
passes it to another dude and does nothing else. If he left it at that in this game, he would
have been much more helpful. Instead, he decided to throw a couple of bullets past the feet of
teammates and out of bounds. Guys like that need to defend, bruise, rebound and otherwise
get the f___ out of the way.

Zhang can help us by blocking shots, which he did once against FSU, I believe. Otherwise, he's a stiff
who needs to learn basketball. Here was the end of his half that earned him splinters for
the rest of the night. We're playing for the last shot. We miss, and with three seconds left, he
reaches over a dude on a no-hope rebound and hacks him in the double bonus. They hit two
free throws, he inbounds the ball right to a dude who misses a good look at the buzzer.
Zhee ya later, Zhang. Guys like that -- at 7'3" -- need to get the f___ in the way in the paint
and block or alter shots. Until he develops some offensive skills, that's all that I want to
see from him.

Freshmen Amoke and Seeley saw some minutes, and they'll help us this year, I believe. They'll start
in future years.

I haven't seen much Pac-10 action this year, but the league is way down. We're probably in the
bottom half in talent, but the team attitude looks good, and at worst, we're second in coaching. Ergo,
we'll finish in the top half in the league and go to the dance. Caveat: if Randle, Robertson
or Christopher goes down, we're in deep trouble. However, Monty could take five of
us and compete.

Go Bears

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