SB Nation Bay Area: All Posts by Nicolas Kranz

Remembering The Seniors: Layshia Clarendon

2013-04-30T20:46:24Z

This was hard to write. When I first attempted to collect my thoughts on Layshia Clarendon, I feared that I had already written everything I could possibly have to say about her as a player. But then I started and wrote 600 words in about a half hour. As it turns out, I was having the opposite problems: How do you succinctly distill the impact Layshia Clarendon had on Cal basketball? She started 133 games of a possible 142, played 4,522 minutes and scored 1,820 points. That's . . . a lot of big numbers.

Layshia Clarendon will be remembered for many things, most of which will have to do with what she accomplished as a senior. But it's been a long journey since Layshia arrived on campus in 2009 as the 67^th ranked prospect according to ESPN, which if I remember correctly, placed her as the 6^th highest rated of Cal's 7 recruits.

Layshia was immediately a valuable player and quickly jumped into the starting lineup, but the first two years were something of a struggle for her as she was frequently asked to play out of position as a point guard. Much of her freshman year was spent deferring to Alexis Gray-Lawson, and she spent even more time at point as a sophomore.

And then Brittany Boyd stepped in at point guard, Layshia was able to stay at her natural position, and everything fell into place. But saying that Layshia's success as a junior and senior relates to her full time switch to shooting guard undersells her consistent improvement as a scorer over her four year career.

Perhaps the simplest way to illustrate her growth as a player is with two simple stats:

Year	Shots attempted per game	eFG%
Freshman	9.6	40.0
Sophomore	12.0	43.7
Junior	11.5	45.8
Senior	13.5	49.4

Every year her shooting got better despite generally having to carry a bigger offensive burden as time went by. And the way she went about getting her points is what makes her so unique.

The mid-range jumper is a dying art, and for good reason. It's an inefficient shot. Why is it inefficient? Because shots closer to the basket go in more frequently, and shots further away are worth more points. Even worse, mid-range shots rarely result in fouls. Lay-ups are low-risk, 3 pointers are high reward. Two point jumpers are neither.

In a weird way, I almost wonder if Layshia unintentionally managed to exploit an inefficiency in the game. If nobody is shooting mid-range jumpers any more, perhaps defenses aren't spending a ton of time preparing to stop teams from getting that shot off? In any case, in the face of conventional wisdom arguing against her, Layshia made the mid-range jumper the cornerstone of her offensive game and thrived.

As a junior, and early in the year as a senior, I think she took advantage of the attention most teams gave to Cal's post players to find open looks. But by the 2^nd half of the season word was out: Layshia has been punishing everybody, and you have to stop her if you want to stop the Bears. Suddenly teams were designing defenses to stop her, trying desperately to funnel her drives away from the key where she loved to pull up and sink a jumper.

And she still kept scoring. Her entire game was built around the most inefficient shot in basketball, and elite defenses in the Pac-12 and the NCAA tournament were planning specifically to stop her, and she was still scoring. It was that late season display that likely propelled Layshia all the way to the first round of the WNBA draft.

There are so many individual moments and games that represent the type of player she was for the Bears. Her 29 point outburst against UC Davis in the WNIT when Alexis Gray-Lawson was out injured gave us a glimpse of what she would do later in her career.

But it was her performance down the stretch of her senior season that she will be most remembered for. Layshia carried Cal to a Pac-12 title by scoring nearly half of Cal's points in a 2 point thriller over Oregon State. She dominated the second half and finished with 27 points against South Florida despite facing a defense specifically designed to slow her down. Her baskets against Georgia kept Cal afloat when nobody else was scoring, and then she hit the big shots in OT. Without Layshia, at least two of Cal's four NCAA tournament wins don't happen.

Of course, we've only discussed Layshia's on-court exploits. I haven't mentioned her achievements as a student, her volunteer work, or that she has had zero interest in self-promotion. Between her quiet style of play and subdued leadership, it was easy for her to fly under the radar nationally, or really even on the west coast. When you're surrounded by exciting, exceptional players like Gennifer Brandon and Brittany Boyd, it can be easy to avoid the spotlight. And that's part of the reason the ‘Layshia Facts' campaign was so much fun - because Cal fans worked to make sure a deserving player received the recognition she refused to demand for herself.

If Layshia has made one concession to personal expression it's her Mohawk, which became something of a calling card during her scoring explosion during March Madness, and to a certain extent a symbol of Cal basketball. We're fun, we're loose, we're different - but we're still very, very serious about beating you on the basketball court.

Us fans will remember the on-court exploits, but it's the impact she and her fellow seniors have had on the personality of the program that could be the longest lasting.

The 2013 NFL Draft And The Pac-12: Breaking Down Numbers

2013-04-29T17:30:04Z

The NFL Draft is over, and in case you were curious, here's how the Pac-12 fared:

Total draft picks: 28

Arizona: No picks
Arizona State: No picks
California: 4 picks (3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th)
Colorado: 2 picks (4th, 6th)
Oregon: 5 picks (1st, 1st, 2nd, 6th, 6th)
Oregon State: 2 picks (3rd, 7th)
Stanford: 3 picks (2nd, 4th, 5th)
UCLA: 4 picks (1st, 4th, 5th, 6th)
>USC: 4 picks (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th)
Utah: 2 picks (1st, 7th)
Washington: 1 pick (1st)
Washington State: 1 pick (7th)

Now is the time to laugh at all of those pathetic teams that had fewer players drafted than Cal. Utah, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, Arizona State? Lame teams, and Cal beat them all when it mattered!

But Arizona, Arizona State, Washington and Oregon State all ranged from solid to pretty good last year. Perhaps their lack of draft picks indicates that most of their talent is returning this fall? Well, Ted Miller took a stab at it and found that Cal, UCLA and Utah are a bit below the rest of the conference, who all are returning between 15 and 18 of the 22 starters on offense or defense. Make of that what you will.

What did we learn? Probably a bunch of stuff that we learn most years. The high end talent is typically stays in the state of California (or, at least lately, heads to Eugene) and everybody else can struggle to recruit the type of talent that frequently results in NFL interest. Of the 28 players from Pac-12 schools selected in the draft, 20 came from Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA, or Oregon.

Ah, but does NFL talent correlate with team success at the collegiate level? Obviously it does to some degree. Stanford, Oregon and UCLA were by far the three best teams in the conference last year, and USC would likely have joined them if the impacts of scholarship restrictions and the impacts of Lane Kiffin's coaching hadn't handicapped them.

But what about our Bears? Many teams would be thrilled with four draft picks, but 2013 was the worst showing since 2006 when you evaluate by looking at both the amount of players drafted and how highly they were picked:

2013: 4
2012: 6
2011: 4 (1 first round)
2010: 3 (2 first round)
2009: 3 (1 first round)
2008: 6
2007: 4 (1 first round)
2006: 3
2005: 5 (1 first round)
2004: 2
2003: 4 (2 first round)

Broken record department: The Tedford era sure was great at producing pro talent. If Keenan Allen hadn't sprained his knee, Cal very likely ~~might have had a player drafted in the 1st round for a 5th straight year~~ would have had the 9th first round pick of the Tedford era. But you might be surprised to learn that the Holmoe era wasn't so bad at producing NFL talent either:

2002: 2
2001: 2 (1 first round)
2000: 4 (1 first round)
1999: 4
1998: 4

The lesson? Thanks to reputation and location, Cal will ALWAYS have at least some NFL level talent on the roster. Just look: in the last 16 years, Cal has always had at least two players drafted, something that four Pac-12 teams couldn't even manage this year. I have no doubt that Sonny Dykes will be able to continue that trend. The more important question: Can he either up the volume of NFL-type talents or combine what he has into a cohesive, well coached unit?

Steve Williams To Join Keenan In San Diego

2013-04-27T18:54:31Z

Steve Williams has parlayed an early entry into the NFL and an eye-popping 40 yard dash time into a 5th round selection. And his reward? The Texas native will get to stay in California in beautiful San Diego. Bad news for Raiders fans, but good news for Steve!

Bolts From the Blue see Steve immediately slotting in as San Diego's nickel cornerback, a role I think he could fill easily. San Diego had an average pass defense last year, so they might not be looking to find immediate starters. In any case, Cal fans might see Steve and Keenan lining up across from each other in practice. The Golden Chargers?

Best of luck Steve!

Brian Schwenke Drafted In 4th Round By Tennessee Titans

2013-04-27T17:22:41Z

Brian Schwenke wasn't lucky enough to rise into the second day of the NFL draft, but he didn't have to wait long on the 3rd day, as he was selected with the 10th pick of the 4th round by the Tennessee Titans.

Schwenke is listed as a center, but as we Cal fans are all aware, he's fully capable of competing and filling in at any interior line position. It's that versatility that should be very helpful, and was likely a major plus for the Titans:

Titans now have remade their interior OL: C Brian Schwenke, G Chance Warmack, G Andy Levitre.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 27, 2013

It looks to me like the competition for snaps in the interior of the line is wide open, so it looks like Schwenke should have every opportunity to make an impact as a rookie. He'll be blocking for Jake Locker (ewww) and Chris Johnson (cool!) in the NFL.

Good luck Brian!

Cal Women's Basketball: What's Next?

2013-04-19T17:30:05Z

So, that was pretty great, wasn't it? Pretty much the most fun basketball season ever. Can we do it again please?

I'm not sure how far fan expectations will rise. For programs not named Stanford and UConn, or not blessed with once-in-a-generation talents like Brittany Griner or Skylar Diggins, a Final Four can be a singularly rare achievement. It's not a realistic goal every year. But it's also true that the trajectory of the Cal program under Lindsay Gottlieb has been consistently skyward, and some will perhaps expect her to continue that.

In terms of crafting realistic expectations, it all starts with what the Bears are losing. Eliza Pierre has been a dependable back-up point guard and the best on-ball defender on the team. Talia Caldwell is a four year starter and will leave a bigger void than her numbers indicate. And Layshia Clarendon is one of a handful of players in the argument for best in program history.

I've seen a few Cal fans posit that the Bears will be just as good, and perhaps better, next year in part because of a four player freshman class and two new transfer students. It's certainly true that talented reinforcements are coming. But that is a challenge in itself, to replace program stalwarts with long defined roles with a group of new players with less defined skill sets and limited experience. For whatever it's worth, ESPN pegs the Bears at #11:

11. California: The Bears should once again rule the backboards with Gennifer Brandon and Reshanda Gray, but Brittany Boyd will absorb plenty of pressure as the go-to perimeter scorer with the graduation of Layshia Clarendon.

That's a legitimate concern - Clarendon's ability to score outside of the paint was absolutely necessary against teams determined to prevent the Bears from scoring at will inside.

The bottom line is that to assume that the Bears won't take a step back next year is to perhaps diminish how important the seniors have been over the last two years.

Layshia Clarendon was an absolutely indispensible player for the Bears, because she was the one player who could consistently hit a shot from anywhere, who could punish teams for packing the paint and sagging off the perimeter. Consider that there are many players on the roster who can create their own shot, and there are players on the roster who are good shooters. Clarendon might be the only player who combined both skills. There were times when she carried Cal through offensive droughts. That and she frequently guarded the opponent's best guard. All that and she played more than 35 minutes a game.

Talia Caldwell may not have the same gaudy stats as other players, but her role cannot be diminished. I've talked frequently about all of the little things she does to make players around her better. Her interior defense, her screens for Boyd and Clarendon, her boxing out on the defensive glass . . . all skills that will be very, very hard to replace. And above all else, she's one of the most gifted offensive rebounders you'll ever see, and we don't need to be reminded how important that was for Cal's offense.

And while Eliza Pierre's offensive contributions are perhaps replaceable, it should be noted that none of Cal's new recruits are pure point guards. It's hard to scout defense, so it's impossible to know if there will be an impact defender ready to come off the bench at a moment's notice next year.

So, who will Coach Gottlieb call on to replace those skills? Here's a quick run through the newest six players ready to take the court:

Brittany Shine, 5'10'' guard: A native California and transfer from Florida, Shine is one of the prime contenders to replace Layshia's minutes at shooting guard. Her biggest advantage will be in terms of experience, both on the court in two years at Florida, and in practice over the last year in Berkeley. She knows her teammates and her teammates and the coaching staff should know her pretty well. She's a combo guard, and thus could potentially see time at the point as well.

Kyra Dunn, 6'3'' forward: Dunn will have to sit out most of the non-conference schedule as a transfer until becoming eligible during the spring semester, but she figures to fill the role as backup forward/center. Reshanda Gray will presumably start now, but if she remains as foul prone as she has been over her first two years, Dunn will have ample opportunities to make an impact.

Kendall Waters, 6'1'' forward: Waters will be competing with Justine Hartman and Dunn to find minutes as the first post player off the bench. She's a little undersized, but the Bay Area product has proven herself by leading Bishop O'Dowd on some deep playoff runs, and comes in with impressive recruiting rankings.

Courtney Range, 6'3'' wing: Range is the top ranked prospect in Cal's class, and she is the type of player the Bears have never had: a guard with the size of a post player. She could push Afure over to the shooting guard spot and start at the wing, or she could slide into the 4 and create mismatches for post players trying to guard her on the perimeter. She adds a level of flexibility the Bears haven't really had under Gottlieb, and she's the player I'm most excited to see in the fall.

Hind Ben Abdelkader, 5'7'' guard: A mystery recruit from Belgium. I'm not sure exactly what position HBA might play - Gottlieb describes her as a combo guard, but it wouldn't shock me if she ends up competing with Avigiel Cohen for the backup point guard spot. At the very least, we can be reasonably confident in her shooting ability, a skill always in need.

Mercedes Jefflo, 5'10'' guard: Jefflo might not make a huge impact this year with Mikayla Lyles and Afure Jemerigbe ahead of her. Gottlieb noted her defense, so perhaps she will fill some of the role Eliza Pierre left behind in terms of instant defense off the bench.

So, how will this team be different? Well, Cal will have 12 eligible players next year rather than just 10, so if all or most of the new players are ready to contribute, the team could be a bit deeper. Cal might be able to press more often and more effectively. But stylistically, not much should change. When you have players like Gennifer Brandon and Brittany Boyd, you still run, you still rebound, and you still take care of the ball.

Lindsay Gottlieb has lots of pieces at her disposal, but they are inexperienced and she is losing exceptional talent. I'm very much looking forward to watching players develop and the team gel and potentially move in different directions based on the skill sets of the new players. But expecting more conference championships and more deep tourney runs might be premature.

Women's basketball posts will be fewer and further in between as we enter the dark depths of the off-season. But over the next few months we'll have posts to say goodbye to Cal's seniors as well as more in-depth profiles of the new Bears, hopefully including video highlights so that we can make evaluations based on 3-5 minutes of youtube highlights!

WNBA Draft Open Thread: Where Will Layshia Go?

2013-04-15T22:30:05Z

When: 5:00-6:00 pm PT (Round 1), 6:00 pm (Rounds 2 & 3)
TV: ESPN (Round 1), ESPNU (Rounds 2 &3)

So, let's start with a caveat: I know nothing about the WNBA. I was totally prepared to start following the league, but then Ashley Walker never got much of a chance, getting cut and taking her game to Europe. I don't know anything about any of these franchises. I don't know which would be a good fit, or which team Layshia would have the best shot of making the roster. But she's one of 12 players invited to the draft, so she's going to get her name called and she'll have a great shot at making an impact. There's also the (slim? I dunno) possibility that Talia Caldwell will get drafted. So I'm going to watch!

Luckily, there are plenty of smart people out there to provide information! Like, say, the fine folks at Swish Appeal! Here's a run-down of their Cal-specific content!

Layshia's Draft Profile
Talia Caldwell's Draft Profile
Swish Appeal Draft Board

While you're at it, you should just check in on their front page as they are likely to have instant analysis that's significantly more informed than anything I can provide.

Meanwhile, ESPN has a few items worth reading:

Layshia profile- with a bonus cute draft event story!
Mock Draft

So: GO (get paid) BEARS!

2012-13 Cal Women's Basketball: Building A Legacy

2013-04-10T10:00:08Z

The 2012-13 Cal women's basketball team will have many legacies. I hope that this is one of them:

Or this:

That first video was shot by CalBear81 at Pappy's on Sunday afternoon. The second video was shot by myself, as the Bears clinched their overtime win over Georgia. I had just attended the Tiny Bates Banquet in Sacramento, attended by Coach Dykes. When the dinner wrapped up, about half of the crowd piled into the bar to cheer on the Bears in overtime. I managed to capture the moment when the clock hit zero, though as you might imagine, it's a little shaky, what with my nonexistent filming skills and the rush of victory adrenaline.

Layshia Clarendon, Talia Caldwell, Eliza Pierre and Tierra Rogers will be leaving, but they will leave with a Pac-12 championship, a Final Four banner, and the knowledge that they galvanized the Cal community behind a women's basketball team to an unprecedented degree. I never thought I would see the day that the Bears could fill multiple bars with rabid Cal fans, or that die-hard football fans would all be desperately checking their blackberries for the score of a women's basketball game.

Maybe all of the attention this team has received won't mean anything next year. Maybe season ticket purchases and attendance numbers will stay the same, and maybe everybody will wait until the post-season to tune in. But maybe, thousands of Cal fans were exposed to a fun team with a charismatic young coach, and maybe some will stick around for the entire ride next year. Maybe this is the start of something really special, the start of Cal transforming itself into a pillar program in the world of women's basketball, with the fan support to match.

We've talked many times about how Lindsay Gottlieb made no effort to hide the goals for this season: Cut down nets. Be elite. The Bears did that, in spades. Stanford was again the worthiest of adversaries, and their excellence prevented the Bears from cutting down nets when they clinched a share of the title on the last day of the regular season on the road up in Seattle. That didn't stop the Bears from celebrating with a trophy. And in the end, they still got their nets, cutting them down in Spokane instead.

A key aspect to the entire story? A Final Four appearance seemed downright impossible just two years ago. Viet Nguyen at Bear Insider did a great job reminding us just how far the Bears had to come:

Cal played out the string, even returning to the WNIT for an embarrassing second-round blow-out loss to future Pac-12 opponent Colorado.

The fallout was immediate. Leading scorer DeNesha Stallworth, the top recruit from that heralded 2009 class, transferred to Kentucky. Soon after, head coach Joanne Boyle also exited, moving to take over Virginia. Rumors swirled about who would transfer next.

The Cal program, which Boyle and company had built into relevance, was on a precipice and barely hanging on.

From there, all the way to the Final Four. Incredible.

There are lots of banners and history up in the rafters of Haas Pavilion. But two of them have stand out: Pete Newell's 1959 NCAA championship, and Cal's Pac-10 title in 2010. The Cal women will add the first Pac-12 title to the rafters, and they will add the first Final Four banner as well. Every time I go to Haas for the rest of my life, I'll be able to look up and remember moments from the 2012-13 season, the greatest season a Cal basketball team has had since 1959.

I don't know if this year will be a high water mark or the foundation of something even bigger. The potential is obviously there. Whatever happens next, this team's legacy is firmly cemented in Cal history already.

Louisville 64, Cal 57: A Tale Of Two Halves

2013-04-08T10:00:06Z

So what style of game will it be? Which team will have the more successful transition offense? Can Cal stop Louisville from getting off high percentage looks? Can Louisville keep Cal off the glass? Even though these teams are evenly matched, I think the chances of a double digit win for somebody are fairly high because of the chances of one team imposing their type of game on the other.

For 20 minutes, Cal and Louisville played basketball exactly how the Bears wanted. When Cal wanted to run, they ran. When Cal wanted to rebound, they got a rebound. Louisville couldn't get good shots off, and they were throwing the ball away.

For 20 minutes, Cal and Louisville played basketball exactly how the Cardinals wanted. Cal never had the chance to run. The Cardinals were getting good looks from behind the arc and getting players free to drive off of screens and ball movement. Their trapping zones bogged Cal down in the half court set and forced turnovers.

During those first 20 minutes, the Bears looked like world beaters, and they built a 10 point lead that perhaps didn't fully do justice to how well they played. During those second 20 minutes, the Cardinals looked like world beaters, and it was enough for them to roar back and advance to the title game.

And while I'm quoting myself, here's another one:

The team that wins the turnover battle will have a significant advantage.

Louisville won the turnover battle, 19-14. And it's not so much those extra five possessions that matters - it's what the numbers say about the style of game that was played.

When Cal got a shot off, it went in 44% of the time, and when Cal missed, they got the rebound 47% of the time. When Cal didn't turn the ball over, there was a very, very good chance of points. The bottom line is that Cal's point guards didn't have a great game, and that difference was pretty decisive.

If you listened to ESPN's announcers, you'd think that Cal has had this problem all year long. Hardly. Why did Cal struggle with turnovers today? I don't know. Some of it was careless - a silly over-the-back, or miscommunication on passes. Some of it was Louisville traps. Some of it was over aggressiveness on offense.

But perhaps the biggest reason Cal lost was the free throw line. Cal made one free throw to Louisville's 14. That's a huge advantage, a difference that I can't recall in any other Cal game this year. And despite another random, unpredictable reffing experience, I can't say that it was totally undeserved. Cal and Louisville were more or less equally aggressive in the first half, but in the 2nd half Cal was much more passive in terms of pushing tempo and attacking Louisville's zone, and the fouls dried up as a result. If there's one thing that buoyed the Bears in the tournament, it was a new-found ability to constantly get to the line. That aggression just wasn't there against the Cardinals, and it hurt.

Defensively, I thought the Bears mostly did quite well, with one obvious exception: getting out on Antonita Slaughter. The Schimmel sisters were largely silent. Bria Smith scored efficiently, but turned it over 8 times. It was Slaughter who did the damage, and she did it by essentially just camping at the three point line and waiting for the Bears to forget about her. She attempted 11 shots. 10 of them were threes, and the other was a long 2. When a player is that one-dimensional, it shouldn't be hard to prevent her from doing her thing. But Cal was so focused (perhaps rightly) on Schimmel and Smith, and Louisville was so good at setting screens and penetrating before kicking it out, that she still managed 6 three pointers.

Individually, Layshia Clarendon was the stand-out player for the Bears, and her entire post-season tournament will likely be a spring board to the WNBA draft. She scored 17 and seemingly hit every shot when Cal needed an answer. She will be sorely, sorely missed next year.

And thus, the season came to a close. It feels weird analyzing this game, without talking about what it means for the next one. There will be a next game, but it won't be until next October, and it will be a very different Cal team on the court come 2013-14. Over the next few days we'll have some articles out talking about this team's legacy and looking forward to the next season of Cal basketball.

This group has raised the bar very, very high.