[81alum]

Gonzaga, playing at Cal, has gone to overtime tied 65-65.  Cal must have figured out how to defend them, holding them 30 points under what we did.

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Gonzaga dominates in overtime and defeats Cal 78-70.  They were helped by sinking 17 free throws, but they shot only 36%, 29% from three.  Either our game with them was some sort of freak game, or Cal's defense is a whole lot better than it has been in the past.

There's another plausible possibility: that our defense against Gonzaga was truly horrible, resulting in many more open looks and much high shooting percentages.

That is not "another" possibility.  I agree with you that our defense against Gonzaga was horrible, but having a horrible defense against Gonzaga does not preclude my interest in how Cal was able to do 31 points better.  I'd love to know what Cal did, partly so we can learn from it, and partly because we are about to play Cal.  Washington State held Gonzaga to 72, Louisville to 70, so other teams did something on defense we did not do and I'd like to know why we weren't able to do as well and how they did it.

I or others will certainly be asking the chalk talk coach about that defense.  Hopefully it will be Tempie, who answers questions and is always good natured about it.  She jokes that they always send her in after a loss.  It almost looked like the whole team, and not just Brink, was playing sick.  But that might be wishful thinking on our part.  We have had problems with perimeter defense all year, and the absence of Brink and Iriafen gave us new problems with interior defense and rebounding.  Having problems with exterior defense, interior defense, and rebounding--that is a very bad combo.  That is more likely the explanation.

[81alum]

Gonzaga, playing at Cal, has gone to overtime tied 65-65.  Cal must have figured out how to defend them, holding them 30 points under what we did.

---

Gonzaga dominates in overtime and defeats Cal 78-70.  They were helped by sinking 17 free throws, but they shot only 36%, 29% from three.  Either our game with them was some sort of freak game, or Cal's defense is a whole lot better than it has been in the past.

There's another plausible possibility: that our defense against Gonzaga was truly horrible, resulting in many more open looks and much high shooting percentages.

That is not "another" possibility.  I agree with you that our defense against Gonzaga was horrible, but having a horrible defense against Gonzaga does not preclude my interest in how Cal was able to do 31 points better.  I'd love to know what Cal did, partly so we can learn from it, and partly because we are about to play Cal.  Washington State held Gonzaga to 72, Louisville to 70, so other teams did something on defense we did not do and I'd like to know why we weren't able to do as well and how they did it.

I or others will certainly be asking the chalk talk coach about that defense.  Hopefully it will be Tempie, who answers questions and is always good natured about it.  She jokes that they always send her in after a loss.  It almost looked like the whole team, and not just Brink, was playing sick.  But that might be wishful thinking on our part.  We have had problems with perimeter defense all year, and the absence of Brink and Iriafen gave us new problems with interior defense and rebounding.  Having problems with exterior defense, interior defense, and rebounding--that is a very bad combo.  That is more likely the explanation.