While Stanford Cardinal fans C&R wondered why the California Golden Bears didn't press more in Tuesday's game at Haas Pavilion, Cal fan Nick from SB Nation's California Golden Blogs suggested Cal do the exact opposite in his preview of Sunday's game two.
I'll be honest - against elite teams, I don't think Cal's press is a very effective strategy. The Bears have the athletes to completely overwhelm teams that aren't capable of matching up. Stanford is capable. People have rightly made much of how UConn disrupted Stanford's offense with pressure. But over the last two years I've seen Stanford score a transition basket because they broke down the press much more often than I recall Cal slowing down the Cardinal. Granted, a decent amount of the press Cal played came at the end of the game, when the Bears were losing and were forced to make something happen. If the game is close, I don't want to see the press more often than once or twice as a surprise.
Will it happen again? No, because I have a feeling we'll only see the press once or twice, if at all.
For more on the first game - which could certainly be used as a preview for the second - check out our Battle of the Bay storystream.