Day: Saturday
Date: December 22th, 2018
Time: 3:00
Location: Berkeley, CA
HAAS Pavilion
TV: PAC-12 Network
HAAS Pavilion
TV: PAC-12 Network
No. 1 UConn Huskies California Golden Bears 10-0 4-2
Prior Meetings
CALIFORNIA | UCONN LEADS 4-1
H: 2-0 | A: 0-1 | N: 2-0
11/24/91 Cal 76, #15 UConn 60 Berkeley, Calif.
12/28/94 #2 UConn 99, Cal 52 Storrs, Conn.
03/29/09 #1 UConn 77, #13 Cal 53 Trenton, N.J.
12/22/13 #1 UConn 95, #22 Cal 51 New York, N.Y.
11/17/17 #1 UConn 82, #20 Cal 47 Storrs, Conn.
Last year UConn looked to be at mid-season form defensively in beating up on No. 20 California, 82-47 on November 17th in Storrs.
The offense was sporadic after a 30 point first period, and the loss of Samuelson late in the first half didn't help. Katie Lou stepped on someone's foot and has a mid-foot sprain of her left foot. We can hope we don't get a repeat on that situation!
Dangerfield was terrific making the long three pointers look like layups. She was 4-5 on threes helping her score 14 points. Collier was solid in this game scoring 14 points, but only shot 6-13 from the field.
Players from last year were excellent in this game and UConn will have to make up for their stats.
Gabby was Gabby. She scored, rebounds, assisted and defended with gusto. 13 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Nurse had 14 points and was 2-2 on threes. Stevens played lousy in the first half. But in her starting effort in the second half she scored all of her 11 points and hit her first three pointer.
Team Overviews
California
No. 1 UConn is now 10-0 after beating Oklahoma 72-63 in a game that tested the meddle of even the most optimistic UConn fan (me!). Prior to that they hammered Seton Hall 99-61 and before that St. Louis 98-42 in the game after their destruction of Notre Dame where they won 89-71.
UConn opened the season with a solid 85-53 win over Ohio State. They followed that with another very good win against Vanderbilt 80-42. In winning the Paradise Jam, the Huskies beat Ole Miss 90-50, St. John's 65-55 and Purdue 86-40. After that they put the hammer to DePaul winning 99-63.
California
California is 9-0 on the season, still hanging on to it's undefeated season coming into this game. They opened the season with a tough 80-79 win over the AAC's Houston team. They beat Penn State 75-58, BYU 70-52, and Pacific 81-69 before meeting another AAC team Tulane. The Green Wave played them tough before getting beaten by the Golden Bears 65-57. They handled San Diego 70-53 and CSU Northridge 67-42. They then had their closest game of the season, losing to Saint Mary's 81-78 in overtime. In their last game they hammered UC Santa-Barbara 69-45.
California has done just enough to stay undefeated. I'm not sure they are even a top 25 team but they keep on winning and moving up.
California has done just enough to stay undefeated. I'm not sure they are even a top 25 team but they keep on winning and moving up.
UConn
No. 1 UConn is now 10-0 after beating Oklahoma 72-63 in a game that tested the meddle of even the most optimistic UConn fan (me!). Prior to that they hammered Seton Hall 99-61 and before that St. Louis 98-42 in the game after their destruction of Notre Dame where they won 89-71.
UConn opened the season with a solid 85-53 win over Ohio State. They followed that with another very good win against Vanderbilt 80-42. In winning the Paradise Jam, the Huskies beat Ole Miss 90-50, St. John's 65-55 and Purdue 86-40. After that they put the hammer to DePaul winning 99-63.
Comparative Team Statistics
UConn California
86.3 PPG 73.1
54.0 Defensive PPG 59.2
32.3 Scoring Margin 13.9
50.6 Field Goal % 45.2
32.8 Defensive FG% 35.4
38.6 Three Point % 30.0
25.1 Defensive 3PT% 28.2
74.6 Free Throw % 72.3
43.7 Rebounds/game 43.9
10.0 Rebounding Margin 9.6
19.6 Assists per game 16.1
10.9 Turnover per game 15.2
1.8 Assists/TO ratio 1.1
7.0 Steals per game 5.0
3.2 Blocks per game 4.6
UCONN
UConn Starters
24 Napheesa Collier
6'1" Senior Forward
3 Megan Walker
6'1" Sophomore Guard/Forward
5'11" Freshman Guard
UConn Bench
10 Kyra Irwin
6'2" Junior Forward
25 Molly Bent
5'9" Junior Guard
32 Batouly Camara
6'2" RS Junior Forward
4 Mykala Coombs
5'8" Sophomore Guard
20 Olivia Nelson-Ododa
6'4" Freshman Forward
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California
Head Coach
Lindsay Gottlieb
138-65 (66-42 Pac-12) record at Cal; 174-90 record as a head coach
2012-13 Naismith National Coach of the Year Finalist
Selected by the media as the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2012-13
Helped Cal to its first Pac-12 Regular-Season Championship (2012-13)
Took Cal to the program's first-ever Elite Eight and Final Four (2012-13)
Most wins in a six-year period of any Golden Bear women's basketball coach
Coached five players to eight All-America seasons: Kristine Anigwe (2016, 2017), Brittany Boyd (2015, 2014); Reshanda Gray (2015); Layshia Clarendon (2013, 2012); Gennifer Brandon (2013)
Four WNBA Draft selections since 2012-13
"When Geno reached out and asked if I wanted to start a series with UConn, I agreed with no hesitation. They are the best and we want to be the best. I want to give our players every possible opportunity to compete, to stretch themselves, and to play on the biggest stage."
California Starters
31 Kristine Anigwe
6'4" Senior Forward/Center
14 Kianna Smith
6' Sophomore Guard
1 Asha Thomas
5'4" Senior Guard
33 Jaelyn Brown
6'1" Junior Guard
Recee Caldwell
5'9" Grad Student Guard
California Bench
4 Alaysia Styles
6'3" Sophomore Forward
McKenzie Forbes
6' Freshman Guard
CJ West
6'4" Junior Center
Cal started the season as the 24th ranked team the pre-season poll. By virtue of winning all their games to date, they have slowly moved up in the rankings to 13 at one point before dropping one spot to 14 coming into this game.
The Golden Bears are led by 6'4" Senior center Kristine Anigwe, a three-time honorable mention All-American. Anigwe entered the season with 1,849 career points, the fourth-most in California history and second among all active players in Division I women’s basketball. She reminds me of Alana Coates, the powerful center who played for South Carolina. Anigwe can finish with either hand, does a great job availing herself for entry post passes and has terrific footwork. UConn will have to work really hard to limit her production.
Their point guard is 5'4" Senior Asha Thomas. She is a little dynamo! She has a really nice pull up jumper and her change of pace dribble is tough to defend.
6'1" Junior Jaelyn Brown wing and 6' sophomore Kianna Smith guard return from last year and are in the starting lineup. They are solid players but I'm not sure how much they can contribute in this game.
5'9" Recee Caldwell, a grad student transfer from Texas Tech adds some experience and stability to the back court acting like a second point guard to compliment the play of Thomas.
The Golden Bear can rest Anigwe with 6'4" Junior CJ West and they play 6'3" Sophomore Alalisa Styles and 6' Freshmen McKenzie Forbes off the bench in limited minutes.
UConn is going to pressure a ton in this game. Cal's point guard will be hard pressed (pun intended) to run any offense and when the ball goes down low to Anigwe you can bet the Huskies will be doubling quickly. Cal will have to hit a high percentage of kick out threes to do any damage and they only shoot 30% on long range attempts.
On offense, Cal doesn't appear to be quick enough in a few positions to stay with UConn. I would look for a lot of transition baskets for UConn against the slower Golden Bears.
I'm really expecting a big bounce back game from long range with Samuelson, Dangerfield and Williams all hitting a good percentage. I expect the entire team to play better and pull away early.
Final Prediction
I've been talking about California being over rated and over ranked all season. We will see how true that is in this game!
I think UConn is just too talented to not put the hammer to the Golden Bears.
UConn by 30+
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