Cal and Syracuse meet in a revenge spot considering the Bears fell to the Cuse in the 2nd round of last season’s NCAA tournament.
Many of the important pieces from that game are gone, but there is more than enough talent to talk about when this game tips off from Maui around 7 PM.
Minnesota had chances to knock off the Orange yesterday. Young Rich Pitino insisted on sticking with a full court man to man press. Tyler Ennis was able to handle it, and he often found C.J. Fair in the middle of the floor for easy buckets during a second half that saw the Gophers struggle to keep pace.
Fair was a matchup problem for a Minnesota team that tried to play a lot of zone in the second half after Eliott Eliason found himself in serious foul trouble. The soft rims that have been such a revelation in Maui also helped the Orange as they took a ton of mid range shots with the obvious intention of putting the ball on a soft rim, both for the scoring chance and the rebounding potential.
They should be able to do the same sort of thing here, but Cal has a good front court. Richard Solomon and David Kravish are both really good players, but depth once again becomes a massive concern. 7’0 freshman Kameron Rooks has logged, on average, only 5 minutes a game during this young season, and that is going to be a problem here.
The Cal guards should be fine in a game like this one. They struggled at times with the Arkansas pressure, but they have a plethora of guys who can shoot it. Additionally, Kravish is the sort of big body who understands how to play the high post in the 2-3.
While Syracuse doesn’t have as much length on top of their zone this season as compared to last (when the 6’6 Michael Carter-Williams manned one of the top positions), they are very active with their hands. Ennis and Trevor Cooney appear very willing to extend and pressure the ball, and that leaves the high post open.
I fully believe in the Bears’ ability to score against this zone. They did it last year and, while they did lose Allen Crabbe from that team, Jabari Bird is a nice fill in.
The real ability for them to cover this 3.5 point spread and potentially win the game will be determined by their efforts on the glass. They like playing the 2-3 because it helps to keep their limited number of bigs out of foul trouble. That should be a better alternative than Pitino’s desire to push the pace as shown yesterday, but it will levee them disadvantaged on the defensive boards.
California sports the best two point defensive field goal percentage in the nation, which should help them here. In the Arkansas game, we saw the guards for the Razorbacks get into the lane and beat the zone, but they were unable to score the ball effectively as a result of Cal’s excellent interior defense.
Syracuse will be a challenge unlike anything they have seen given their bodies inside and the length they bring. I am waiting for an opportunity to fade the Orange as I do think they are a tad overrated right now, but I’m just not sure Cal has the inside depth necessary to do it here. I have this game something like Syracuse -2, but the soft rims in Maui benefit the Orange and it looks like jim Boeheim is very determined to make his team’s first tournament trip in years a successful one.
