Cal postgame « Cliff Kirkpatrick

category: OSU Sports

Cal postgame 736CommentsCal+postgame2009-02-22+02%3A23%3A55Cliff+Kirkpatrick

[myspace][/myspace]
The final scheduled home game of the season for the Oregon State men’s basketball team was Saturday afternoon with a 66-54 Pacific-10 Conference victory over California.

Read more about it and where the team is at for the postseason in Sunday’s GT here. The above video is of the final seconds of the game. It starts with C Roeland Schaftenaar at the free-throw line.

The middle video is of coach Craig Robinson with the media after the game. The bottom video is of players Lathen Wallace and Calvin Haynes.

Hampton breaks out
C Calvin Hampton received some quality minutes. He usually get a minute or two in the first half to give Schaftenaar a break. And that’s it for him.

Hampton was used in the second half for nine minutes, and he even scored four points. He was 2-for-2 with strong moves to the basket and had a in-your-face block.

“It was great to see Calvin Hampton,” Haynes said. “We all feel bad that he can’t play as much as he wants to because of his bad hip. Any time he gets out there it’s exciting to see him running up and down the court. He wants to play like we do, and he’s one of us as equal. Today, was a great feeling for him to have a breakout game like that.”
[myspace][/myspace]

Big men lineup
There was a time in the middle of the second half that Schaftenaar, Hampton, F Daniel Deane and F Kevin McShane were on the court. I believe the guard was Haynes or Seth Tarver.

That’s as big as OSU can get. And it worked.

“I’ve been dying to try that all year long,” Robinson said. “When you have a (center) like Roeland who is comfortable on the outside you can try that. We were getting clobbered on the boards I said let’s try (Hampton) in there. And they went with their smaller lineup. Then I wanted a mismatch. And then it worked so well that I can’t believe we can get to the next timeout like this. And now it gives us more options.”

Fun offense secret to success
The motion, Princeton-style offense the Beavers use gets a lot of ink. However, it’s their defense that wins games. And here’s why.

“This is by far the funnest offense I’ve played in,” Haynes said. “I’m not saying that because we are winning. I’m saying that because everything you get is easy. You don’t have to work for anything. You can basically leave everything out on the defensive end. It’s fun because the defense doesn’t know where it’s coming from. It’s shocking to see a team you already played, thinking they know what you are going to do, and they don’t.”
[myspace][/myspace]

Jay John returns
Here’s a link to my story on former coach Jay John returning to Gill Coliseum for the first time since being fired. You my have missed it since it ran in Saturday’s edition.

G Calvin Haynes shoot against Cal. PHOTO: AP

Tweet This Post

subscribe to comments RSS

736CommentsCal+postgame2009-02-22+02%3A23%3A55Cliff+Kirkpatrick

JuneauJim says:

February 21, 2009 at 8:35 pm

The game really turned around when Coach went with all the big guys. What a great adjustment because we were getting hammered on the boards in the first half.

It was great to see Calvin Hampton have a great game today. What a great accomplishment for these guys….beating your former coach twice.

Perhaps JJ just couldn’t coach. His recruits are playing pretty darn well…..

Reply
Vic says:

February 21, 2009 at 8:51 pm

What a fun game to be at. Gill was rocking and Beavs shot the lights out! I liked the fact Coach Rob put in all the guys we never see play there at the end, classy.

I also thought Jay John was treated very well by the fans, except for one knucklehead who had to pop off, and his voice was loud. I was sitting four rows up directly behind the Cal bench and I heard every rude word that man said loud and clear, so I know Jay did. Jay John might not have been successful in Corvallis, but he is a nice guy. There was no call for such rude behavior.

It’s a long drive back to Sac but well worth the trip to see this team. Great effort Beavs!

Reply
Rian says:

February 21, 2009 at 11:49 pm

F Jay John, he threw the current team under the bus time and time again…you can’t tell me that both Calvin’s wanted to win this game and show up both JJ and Monty. Couldn’t happen to a bunch of “nicer” guys.

Jay John might be a nice guy but boy can he not take responsibility for his own lack of leadership.

Reply
tasker says:

February 22, 2009 at 3:31 am

Rian,

It was only a few weeks ago that some other knucklehead Beaver fans were livid about Coach Rob throwing players under the bus. Get off your stupid horse and figure out that class is not something we turn on and off. Hopefully, there aren’t more than a handful of beaver fans with your myopia. If so, we have a chance for Coach Rob to stay around awhile.

Reply
Coach says:

February 22, 2009 at 9:30 am

Let’s chill it; we have a very difficult game coming up in Eugene. Real easy one to lose.

Reply
Jeremy says:

February 22, 2009 at 12:15 pm

Jay John stole money from the university by not resigning his post. His team quit on him (2 years in a row). He was, by many accounts, not pleasant to be around. He repeatedly blamed players without shouldering any blame. I have absolutely no compassion for him. It only seems fitting that he is now the right hand to one of the biggest pompous asses in the modern world- Mike Montgomery.

Reply
Tommie T. says:

February 22, 2009 at 3:38 pm

Jeremy, that is a ridiculous statement and slanderous as well. Let’s say for instance a man, any man, has a job as school principal, or postmaster, or any other common job out there, and he has a one year contract. He is let go for poor job performance mid contract, but is fairly due to receive the rest of the money agreed upon in his employment contract. You expect him to say,”No, it’s cool, go ahead and keep it.”? Hell no, none of us would do that. So why is Jay John a thief? Would you have told OSU “never mind keep the money”? I doubt it, so what makes JJ different, because he’s a basketball coach? What’s up with your line of thought, it makes no rational sense.

Reply
Jeremy says:

February 22, 2009 at 5:17 pm

Tommie-

99% of us would be terminated if our job performance was as poor as JJ’s up to the point where he was allowed to coach last season. He should have been fired prior too, however, DeCarolis was hoping JJ could fix his drastic error of extending his contract.

I was being slightly fecetious when I said he “stole” money from the university. Outside of that, I think the guy has no class, leadership qualities, or really any redeeming values as a person. Sorry if you disagree.

Reply
Rian says:

February 22, 2009 at 8:10 pm

tasker, much different between a guy who recruited NONE of these players compared to a guy who recruited EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE PLAYERS.

BTW, do you have Jay John’s voicemail?

Reply
MikeK says:

February 22, 2009 at 10:14 pm

Mike Montgomery outcoached! Totally befuddled by the “big Beaver” line-up. The story is truly becoming surreal. When the players are the same, you have to look at coaching. I’m starting to get concerned about breaking up the chemistry of the team with the new talent coming in!

Reply
Cliff Kirkpatrick says:

February 23, 2009 at 12:17 pm

I have to chime in on the Jay John stuff. 99 percent of you out there don’t know him. I do, professionally.

1. He’s a good guy like people say. Very honest, up front and tries hard. That what what you would want from an friend. So I don’t get the hate toward him.

2. His players did quit on him the last two seasons. That’s a fact. He admitted recruiting who he calls bad people who didn’t fit into OSU. That’s his fault 100 percent.

3. Did he turn them into bad people? He might have. Did he lose them because he was a bad coach? Possible.

4. What made him bad was he didn’t know how to get the most of his players, or inspire them. So it’s really the chicken-and-egg situation. They made him bad, he made them bad. The cycle had to be broken.

4. My point is he tried the best he could, and couldn’t do it. With that, you let him try until you get to the point of realizing he can’t. Bob De Carolis wanted him to do well, and waited until the right time to make a move.

Move made, life went on for both sides and it worked out.

Reply
Rian says:

February 23, 2009 at 5:23 pm

Nobody cares that you know him professionally Cliff. He is Jimmy Anderson Jr, a much better assistant coach (and a good cop) than a head coach where there was no bad cop to keep everyone in check like Lute and Ralph.

And if he recruited bad people into the program the past two years, then they’re doing one helluva job responding to bad cop Robinson who’s not afraid to yell at a player if they screw up.

Reply
Cliff Kirkpatrick says:

February 23, 2009 at 5:40 pm

The good cop-bad cop deal is a good way to put it. There was no bad cop back then.

Jay John did run off the people he thought were bad, but the good guys on the roster, who make up this team, were too young last year.

And Robinson isn’t a bad cop. He’s firm, if that’s what you are getting at. But not a bad cop. if you are firm you don’t need a bad cop.

My point is I don’t know where the personal hate for Jay John comes from. The guy tried hard, and couldn’t get it done. He was fired because of it. He knows that. The players know that. Life goes on.

And me saying I know him professionally, which I should since it’s my job, is to show I have first-hand knowledge of what I’m saying.

Reply
Cliff Kirkpatrick says:

February 23, 2009 at 5:45 pm

By the way, I’m not saying he shouldn’t have been let go. The results speak for themseleves. It’s sports. If you can’t get it done, you let someone go.

Reply
Ted says:

February 23, 2009 at 6:59 pm

Hey cliff basketball reruiting just recieved a 5th verbal from Rhys Murphy who is Austrailian like Brandt. I guess no Boyd.

Reply
JuneauJim says:

February 23, 2009 at 7:10 pm

Thanks for the perspective Cliff.

Just like in any business, looking back isn’t very productive and stops the enterprise from moving forward. Learn what you can from the past and then leave it.

I don’t think the bad recruits included anyone who is still on the team. But CJ “just give me one more chance” Giles and Sasa “I will not rebound” Cuic became cancers on the team.

One guy I wish he could have kept was Jack McGillis. He is averaging 8 points a game at Montana this year. With his hustle, I think he would have really excelled in Coach Robinson’s style of play.

Reply
MikeK says:

February 23, 2009 at 10:51 pm

Hey, my take is that Jay John was the coach who got us off of that god-awful losing season streak, so I give him a little credit there. He was smart enough to notice and utilize the talents of David Lucas, who I think was fairly lightly recruited. Coach Rob has done an amazing job of getting this group to believe in a system and play defense, but the Pac-10 is down this year. Stanford,WSU and UO are not the same teams. Beat UCLA in Pauly and I will fall to the floor!

Reply
tasker says:

February 24, 2009 at 12:48 am

Cliff, you have such patience.

There are some fans that “hate” any coach or player that doesn’t satisfy their expectations. Their attitude leads to booing their own teams when they are not satisfied. They have booed Mike Riley, Matt Moore, Derek Anderson, Sean Canfield, last years basketball players and coaches. They are Duck fans and Cleveland Browns fans. Booing Jay John is just an extension of the behavior exhibited by that brand of fan. Most OSU fans have learned from unfortunate past episodes bad behavior. Either Rian is unable to learn or he is simply a new generation of fan starting the cycle all over again.

Reply
Rian says:

February 24, 2009 at 3:58 pm

Glad you approve of Jay John’s coaching ability, I assume you’ll be back on the John’s Christmas card list this year?

Just politely clap from your seat tasker, any sort of booing from you would just be hypocritical.

Reply
Rian says:

February 24, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Jay John can’t claim David Lucas, he was a walk-on when he started. And Pac-10 being down this year means you should be beating the teams that you SHOULD be able to beat like Stanford and Oregon…along with WSU and USC. Cal is simply a matchup problem for them vs OSU.

Reply
tasker says:

February 24, 2009 at 6:28 pm

Rian,

Very cute of you to keep counting me among Jay John’s friends as your form of argument

I have never argued that Jay John was a good coach. I have simply railed against ugly fan behavior. And pointed out, that once you make that acceptable, it has no limits.

The firing of a coach is the ultimate rejection. To heap public insults at that former coach at a basketball game on top of that is simply obnoxious and classless.

For your information, I was furious at the AD for granting John that last aborted year. I also get frustrated when any player misses a layup or has a turnover from a sloppy pass. I will even join the rain of boos on a horrible call by a referee. But I will never, ever boo my own teams coaches or players. If you want our players to think they have the best fans in the Pac 10, then give them reason to think that!

Reply