This will be long so bare w me.
There are some obvious answers already listed so I’ll go w the less obvious that I believe created some of Cals sticking points now.
2010 WVU: Yep, year 1…going 4-32 (2 of which came late in desperation) when you had Cousins, Wall, Bledsoe, Patterson. 2 guards that could blow by anyone and finish through contact and 2 elite big men. Since then we rarely shoot more than 15ish threes…especially in March. 2015 shot 5 total (3 for 5) against Wisconsin.
2014 Tweak: that season was an early peak of what we’ve witnessed the majority of the time since 2015 (exclude 2017 and some of 2020). Cal once again tighten led the reigns and went all in are Bully ball. Twins putting their head down and getting to the rim combined w Randal bulldozing from short corner and post. We shot a tonnn of freethrows (but the game isn’t called that way anymore) and we had that miraculous tournament run.
That run essentially was confirmation for Cal that a strategy of forcing it to the rim at all cost and playing as big a lineup as possible was the way to play. It’s an extreme version of the cliche “when you go to the rim 4 things can happen and 3 are good. Get fouled, score, get an offensive rebound, change of possession” but we happened to have a strong as an ox NBA all star and 2 6’6 strong guards. CBB also emphasized changing how they called the game in the following years and stopped bailing out of control players out w fouls. You rarely see teams shoot 30+ freethrows now. It was the really common then.
2015 was a superteam so it worked again, same 6’6 bully guards and KAT, Trey Lyels, but the strategy was the same once he abandoned the platoon. End of the year we were only playing through KAT every possession. 3-5 from 3 when we got knocked out. Might as well not have had the 3pt line. They were +12 from 3. And w all that pounding we shot 10 freethrows.
2016 we lacked size and had an early exit…further Cal confirmation.
2017 guard oriented but still played through our bigs fairly often…prob too much w the elite guards we had (our best team since). Ended in a screw job. But we got bullied in the paint a little. “I NEaeD SiZE” - Cal probably….The last season we haven’t spent half a season trying to tinker w lineups and force big basketball
Since then we’ve watched the same oversized lineups. Tinkering w 5s at the 4 and 4s at the 3…waste half the season…force it inside stagnant on the perimeter basketball.
It stems from the 2010 failure and the over correction on the 2014 and 2015 success. But 6’6 guards and NBA all star big men don’t grow on trees.
Think about it..pre 2014 Cal was known for elite guards and his teams attacked from the perimeter. Wagner, Evans, Rose, Wall, Bledsoe, Knight…… 2 peak years dominating w bully ball w 6’6 guards and elite big men just bigger and stronger at every position….followed by 2 years where Cal likely felt not having size was a downfall…since then he’s been trying to recreate the 2014-2015 success and not shoot yourself out of a game like 2010
lesson learned.
