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Stanford 82, California 68: "Cal lost the turnover battle 16-11, they got to the line less often than Stanford, and then shot them at a lower percentage, something that should be really hard to do. More generally, this game illustrated how very fragile Cal's offense is. For the Bears to compete against a team scoring efficiently they have to get above average games from their three main contributors - Harper, MSF and Jorge. Harper and Markhuri were both efficient, but Cal just can't get them enough touches. Gary Franklin again took more shots than both, something that needs to stop happening, and Jorge made too many mistakes to offset all of the good things he does. Simply losing the ball for no reason on a fast break or missing wide open three pointers is, unfortunately, the type of thing Cal can't get away with. It's not remotely fair to our veteran threesome, but that's how thin the margin for error is on offense.
I'm not sure what to make of Cal's defensive effort. We have a collection of convincing evidence to suggest that Cal plays good defense and Stanford plays bad offense, and as I mentioned earlier that implies that this game screams fluke. But watching Jeremy Green come open off a series of screens to nail a three, or watching Dwight Powell, Jack Trotter and Josh Owens go a combined 13-20 with good look after good look makes me wonder if this game was really all that fluky." (Recap via California Golden Blogs)
Oregon State 76, Arizona 75: "The second half was the reverse of the first half, in that the Beavers never led before the break, and never trailed after it. Arizona could never pull away in the early going, but responded each time Oregon St. would catch up, until Omari Johnson was able to tie it at 28, and the Beaver defense prevented the Wildcats from getting up a last shot." (Recap via Building the Dam)
Updated Pac-10 Standings after the break
1. Washington, 10-3 (2-0)
2. Oregon State, 7-6 (2-0)
3. Stanford, 8-4 (1-0)
4. Arizona, 12-3 (1-1)
5. UCLA, 9-5 (1-1)
6. Arizona State, 8-5 (1-1)
7. USC, 9-6 (1-1)
8. California, 7-6 (0-1)
9. Washington State, 10-4 (0-2)
10. Oregon, 7-7 (0-2)
Once again, if you would like an excerpt from your blog's game recap, please let me know at ConnorOSU@gmail.com.
--Connor