Nice work CaliforniaCMB.  Email Cal BBall photoshops to: goldenblogs@gmail.com

Saturday found a scene familiar to long suffering Blues - Cal basketball providing a glimmer of hope as Cal football fizzles out.  I went to both the men's and women's basketball games on Saturday, two blowout victories surrounding our predictably unpredictable no show at UW.  RemorsefulBruinBabe called it a "losing sandwich on winning bread."

The women's freshmen and the men's backups performing so well would be the lead story here, but RemorsefulBruinBabe just found this, via BearBallCarrier.  You may not like basketball, or a capella, but the combination is scintillating.  That furd Tiger Woods makes you question humanity, and then Max Zhang and Maestro Randle save the day.  Max swaying in the background puts it over the top.

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First thing's first: BIG, big props to CaliforniaCMB for his great work above.  If you want to submit a (mens or womens) Cal bball photoshop/MS Paint to be featured in this space, email us at goldenblogs@gmail.com.  A couple of football notes before we get to bball:

TwistNHook had the line of the night about the Neuheisel/Carroll D-bag competition: "dude, I bet Neuheezy is happy, because you know that dude bet the fucking over."  Well put, Twist

I turned on the Stanford/Notre Dame game just in time to see Condi Rice administer the coin flip as this week's Stanfurd honorary captain.  I'm hoping they drag out Donny Rumsfeld for the Emerald Bowl

And to basketball:  About 40 minutes into one of our podcasts (so nobody heard it), Ragnarok predicted that Jamal Boykin would have a 20 point game sometime this season.  I was skeptical, because I didn't think there'd be enough points to go around with Randle, Christopher, and Robertson.  On Sunday, Roberston was not in the lineup due to his mysterious foot injury and Christopher continued his uneven play, chipping in only 5 points.  It was the perfect opportunity for Boykin to contribute, and he matched his career high with 22 points.  Ragnarok 1, CBKWit 0.

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Maybe debuting this picture last week was a mistake.  Maybe P-Chris saw it and it went to his head.  Maybe he just felt its presence in the atmosphere.  In any case, he had a pretty terrible showing in New York: 11-34 shooting, 2-12 on threes, only 7 boards, 6 assists/5 turnovers in two games.  Yeah, he struggled.  But you know what?  I stand by this graphic, mostly because it took me 2 hours to make.  I also think Christopher is going to be a lot better than 12 points, 3 boards, and 33% shooting per game this year.  So let's stick with this picture for now in the hope that P-Chris lights up Jacksonville and Princeton this week.  And if you don't like it...email me a different one: goldenblogs@gmail.com.

Christopher also struggled last year in the NCAA tournament loss to Maryland, shooting 4-14 and 0-7 on threes.  Does he get rattled by the big stage?  Maybe.  If so, I'm glad that we scheduled this early season tournament, and the game at Kansas.  Hopefully Christopher will got the jitters out early and redeem himself in March.

It's also possible that he struggles against long, athletic defenders.  We all know that Christoper is not great at creating his own shot, which may be exacerbated when he goes up against a very athletic team like Syracuse.  I can't remember if Maryland's stud Grevis Vasquez guarded him in last year's tournament game, but I wouldn't be surprised.

It's probably a little unfair to single out Christopher, as virtually the entire team struggled in New York.  If you were lucky enough to miss these games, Cal lost by 22 to Syracuse and was down 24 to Ohio State before losing by 6.  The Syracuse game was a complete beat down, made slightly better by the Cuse dominating defending champ North Carolina in the second half the following night.  Cal was actually in worse shape the next night versus Ohio State when Monty got T'd up for yapping about Jorge.  Cal responded with a 17-2 run and it was moderately close (6-10 points) the rest of the way, but not nearly close enough that you actually felt the Bears had a chance.

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by Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP

Serious Reveling

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The Wall Street Journal poses the question: Stanford's Jim Harbaugh: The Perfect Football Coach?

4th and 8 at STAN 23 Andrew Luck pass incomplete to Jim Dray

Guess not.

This picture proves what I've felt all along: Syd is divine.  I thought only I could see the beam of light which follows him everywhere, but now I have photographic proof.  And yes, standing this close to Syd, on Standfurd's field, after this game, was INCREDIBLE!

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With only 3 more chances to Revel in Victory and with Avinash completing basketball recaps before I can even exit Haas, I am running out of my extremely limited usefulness around here.  If I don't start contributing, I'll probably miss out on that internet money which is coming to us any day now.  So for the 5 basketball fans around here (including 3 mods), I give you CBKWitness, a weekly compilation of what I witnessed from Cal Basketball. 

Most important observation so far?  Go to the games, people!  Haas was about half full for the two men's games, which is embarrassing for a team this good, this entertaining, and this easy to root for.  Show up and support our team!

The men won their two preliminary Coaches Vs Cancer games last week, 75-70 over Murray St and 95-61 over Detroit.  From the Murray State game:

 - The referees respect Montgomery much more than Braun.  The lead official called an absolutely horrendous charge on Boykin midway through the first half, and Monty completely dressed him down at the time out as 4,000 Cal fans looked on.  Not surprisingly, the refs didn't call much on Cal for the rest of the half and all of the close calls went the Bears' way.

 - From my friend Mike Montgomery: "Murray St is playing some good d".  They were, for almost the entire game.  Murray State is a good team and they challenged Cal for the first half before mounting a serious comeback to close the game.  It was a little tense in the final minutes as Randle nearly turned it over a couple times and Murray State hit some improbable threes.  Don't be surprised to see the Racers in the NCAA tournament.

 - Randle put on 10 or 15 pounds in the off-season to improve his defense (sick of Jorge hounding him in practice, perhaps?) and it looks to have paid off.  He was strong on the ball and did not let Murray State's point guard break him down on the dribble.

 - The downside to Randle's new bulk?  He did not look as explosive offensively and struggled to shake his man.  I hope the extra pounds haven't slowed him down, because his speed is one of his chief assets, and at his height he needs defenders to respect his quickness in order to get enough space to get his shot off.

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More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Cal players prematurely revel in victory

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Short Answer. Yes. I think we will make the Rose Bowl.

 - AZ Desert Swarm, Friday, November 13, 2009

Ah Arizona Desert Swarm.  So young, so naive.  So unused to heartbreaking losses with so much on the line.  Welcome to our world.  I say this with a whole lot of empathy and a touch of sympathy, but just a touch.  Cal has owed Arizona some serious payback for the 2006 game (find the recap on ESPN if you want - it's too depressing for a link in Reveling in Victory), and it looks like we have it.  Arizona has to run the table against Oregon and Usc, (and ASU, but they don't really count) to make it to Pasadena now.  I hope they win at least one against Oregon or sc, so they can look back at our loss as the one that kept them out of the Rose Bowl.  "If only we had beaten Cal," they will say, just as we said "If only DeSean was wearing a smaller shoe, or if only a ghost hadn't tackled the Hawk at the 1 yard line, or if only the refs hadn't called that ATROCIOUS pass interference on Hughes."  The blood blister I got on my hand from slamming a pizza prong after that PI healed long ago; maybe now they blood blister on my heart can heal as well.

Luke Walton, may you haunt my dreams no more.

via onthebuzzer.files.wordpress.com

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More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

about 1 month ago: California players lock arms as they watch their place kicker, Giorgio Tavecchio, kick the game-winning field goal against Arizona State in the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, in Tempe, Ariz. California won 23-21. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

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I'm still shaking from this one, or perhaps from Cephalexin.  Cal football - same side effects as 2000 mgs of antibiotics!  A novice Cal fan may have seen the first two touchdowns and concluded that we win in a walk.  David Norrie and Terry Gannon sure wanted us to believe that the rout was on, but we knew better.  Hell, even if you've only been a Cal fan for the last 2 months, you've seen Cal jump way, way up on Minnesota, ucla, and WSU only to let all of them back into the game in various degrees.  The 14 point lead was great, but just like at Minnesota, we blew the chance to go up by three scores and before you knew it, the game was tied.  Cal deserves a ton of credit for coming out and carrying the play early in basically every game this year (Oregon for the opening kickoff, USC up until the interception in the endzone), but it seems that we need this early cushion to maintain the lead during the opposition's inevitable comeback.  If we don't build this lead (Oregon and USC, obviously), we are in deep, deep trouble.  Of course, most teams are not going to simply roll over and fail to score for the entire game, but Cal lets opponents back into games with startling efficiency and predictability.

More so than any game this year, this one reminded me of Cal's trip to Tempe in 2007.  Cal led 13-0 early, but our penchant for field goal attempts instead of touchdowns put us up by only 6 at half.  Cal's offense stalled and the defense was unable to stop ASU in the second half.  With a few minor modifications, that was the story yesterday, at least until the final drive.  Cal's inability to control the line of scrimmage throughout the game but especially in the second half was particularly troubling.  And yet, unlike in 2007, Cal came up with a big stop on defense to get the ball back after Little Italy's second shank and a big drive to win the game.  After a largely frustrating game, Cal displayed the poise and execution they often lacked to escape with the win.

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More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Best 1, Jones 0

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This one was over early.  Just before kickoff, I called a TD on the return.  Jeremy Ross only returned it to the WSU 29.  Stupid me.  Two plays later, with less than a minute gone from the game, Best ran a basic "Go" route and Riley hit him with a nice throw on the outside shoulder for Cal's first touchdown. 

Best beat former Cal corner Brandon Jones on the play.  Here's what Jones had to say earlier this week: "Jahvid is good and he’s fast," Jones said. "I do want to see him one-on-one. Somebody’s got to win. If I lose, then I’ll come on top the next time."  Whoops.  No word on whether Jones came on top next time, but Best finished with 186 yards and three touchdowns on only 14 touches, so we'll put a couple tallies in Jahvid's column.


Cal would score three more touchdowns in the quarter and another early in the second to take a 35-3 lead.  Riley finished the first quarter with some pretty solid numbers: 3-3, 85 yards, 3 touchdowns.  Yes, that is one touchdown per pass attempt.

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More photos » by Reed Saxon - AP

As Chris Berman would say, you're off the Schneid, coach

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I started writing for the Golden Blogs two years ago, following another heartbreaking loss to the bruins in the rose bowl.  That made three horrible, painful, soul crushing road losses against the bruins in a row.  I vowed never to return to LA, unless Cal was playing in the Rose Bowl on January 1.

When the pain from the 07 loss subsided (so, about 3 months ago), I reconsidered; I would go if Cal was very good and ucla very bad.  After watching Cal score less than my amateur hockey team over the last 4 weeks, I decided to play it safe and stay home.  We should probably give some credit to the team and the coaches, but how about some for me?  I went in '03, '05, and '07, Cal loses in miserable fashion.  I stay home, Cal wins.  You're welcome.

I ended up watching, and subsequently reveling, alone on my couch, because RemorsefulBruinBabe hid the car keys, left the house, and turned her phone off for 5 hours.  It was a devious plan, bruin, but while you may have stopped me, you and Brian Price can only do so much.

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