SB Nation User Blog: CBKWit

Max Talbot

CBKWit — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:47:21 -0000

Max Talbot Max Talbot. Yes it is 1:45 out here on the west coast, 4:45 where most of you are, but I have just purchased my "Hockey 25 Maxime Talbot Blue Vintage Jersey" and if you are awake, I suggest you do the same. "Will I wear this under my beer league jersey?" you ask. Oh yes. "Only $65?" you ask. Yes. Only $65. You are welcome: http://www.ioffer.com/i/Hockey-25-Maxime-Talbot-Blue-Vintage-Jersey-48-50-52-54--90916386

No Gonchar tonight

CBKWit — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:21:26 -0000

No Gonchar tonight

Somewhat surprised that it will be Goligoski instead of Boucher - baptism by fire I suppose.

NHL Playoffs Open Thread

CBKWit — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:27:54 -0000

I know we have a number of hockey fans hanging around, so here's a place where we can talk privately, away from the inanity of everything else. My Pens go for a 2-0 series lead tonight against the chippy Flyers (ok, that is being redundant). Tough loss for the Sharks last night, Ehrhoff's shot off the crossbar was a beauty that just missed. And nice win for the Blackhawks in the first OT game of the playoffs.

via a.espncdn.com

Go Pens!

Breaking News : Christopher To Return To Cal

CBKWit — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:13:59 -0000

We're not known as the CNN of the Cal Blogosphere (for nothing). Last April, we were the first organization to break the removal of Ben Braun as the Cal Men's Basketball Coach. This year, we are the first organization (to my knowledge) to break this year's news: Patrick Christopher will return for his senior season. Sources VERY close to Christopher confirm that he will be back in blue and gold next year. While this may have been expected, stranger things have happened and it's great to get confirmation that one of our big guns is coming back. Christopher and Randle are Cal's best and most important players and will give Cal a chance to improve on this year's surprisingly good showing. I for one am excited to see what they can do next year.

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

GO BEARS!!

The More Things Change...

CBKWit — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:30:53 -0000

the more they stay the same. Ragnarok and I attended Friday night's Alumni Basketball Game at Haas, and the overwhelming theme was how little these "vintage" players (as Eddie Kleinhans, the Haas announcer, referred to them) had changed. I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly, but perhaps I had envisioned a 255 lb Alex Pribble destroying Rod Benson in the paint, or maybe Omar Wilkes draining threes from 25 feet. Well, that did not remotely happen, but I can't say I'm disappointed. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that, while so much in the world has changed since he graduated, Ayinde Ubaka still dribbles around aimlessly for 10 seconds at the top of the key.

Unfortunately, Roy Fisher (he of the dreads - when interviewed, he called them a mid-life crisis) did not get the blue team memo on running the classic Braun offense. Here he attempts to set a screen for a confused Ayinde Ubaka, who is in the midst of unnecessary dribbling and is undoubtedly preparing to pass the ball harmlessly around the perimeter.

In celebrity/charity exhibition games, there is always one guy who takes things way too seriously and exerts twice as much effort as everyone else. Last Friday night, Roy Fisher was that guy.

Fisher was throwing his body around and, unlike everyone not named Lamond Murray (who was that guy for the Gold Team), actually making a concerted effort to win the game. Here, not so much, but a nice shot all the same.

The Blue team was down one with only three seconds left in overtime (the only thing better than 40 minutes of Pribble is 42 minutes of Pribble) when Fisher head faked behind the 3 point line and drew a foul on an overzealous Murray. After missing the first and making the second, the gold team called a timeout to ice him. Would Fisher succumb to the pressure??

Fisher hits it! And spares the vintage players from 2 more minutes of slow jogging. Ironically, 71-70 was the final score of the 1959 NCAA final, with Darrell Imhoff and Pete Newell's Golden Bears beating Jerry West and West Virginia for the title. Darrell Imhoff, Jerry West...Roy Fisher?

Lamond Murray still put on an impressive show, even in defeat.

Your leading scorer, however, was not Roy Fisher, but rather Mr. Boom Tho himself, Rod Benson. Sure, most of his 18 points were on dunks, and yeah, he still has hands of stone when you try an entry pass into the low post, and yeah, he's still a goofball out on the court, and OK...wait, where was I going with this? Oh yeah, same ol' Rod Benson.

He sure is fun to watch, though. And however much fun you're having, he's having more. Why, just check out his dance moves during one of the timeouts:

Probably the star of the evening, however, the guy who made this event truly awesome, was the announcer, Eddie Kleinhans. With a completely partial and informal crowd, Kleinhans was free to let loose, from referring to Rod Benson as "Boom Tho!" when he slammed home a dunk (Roxy Bernstein, the Cal radio broadcaster, very awkwardly exclaimed "Boom got THEM tho", after another Benson dunk), to chiding Conor Famulener for his lazy defense in not getting out on shooters. (He did this as the game was going on!)

Get out on those open shooters, Conor!

Kleinhans finest moment, however, came at the expense of Christian Prelle and this embarrassing attempt at a dunk:

You can hear Kleinhans make fun of Prelle over the video, but his best line of the night came later in the game, when Prelle stole the ball himself and (foregoing the dunk) took it in for an easy layup, to which Eddie responded, "Somehow we all knew that was always just going to be a layup." Again, the best part was that this retort was over the loudspeaker, and during the game.

There was also a fair amount of Pribble Time, for those who've missed Cal Basketball's very own Rudy. (You'll notice he was the one with the nice steal to set up Prelle in the video above. Personally, I think if Alex Pribble (now a high school basketball coach) were to grow a chinstrap, he'd be a more-than-passable double for Turtle on Entourage.

Am I wrong?

Of course, none of Cal's current NBA stars were playing in this game, but that's only understandable: if you had millions of dollars invested in these guys, would you let them risk injury in a just-for-fun alumni game? Still, Ryan Anderson was cool enough to drop by for the game and give a little interview during one of the "media" timeouts. If you ignore the terrible video from my digital camera, you can clearly hear Ryan give standard, uninteresting answers to Eddie's softball questions.

After the game was over, we were allowed down on the floor for photos, autographs, and meaningful conversations with our favorite players. Kittwin, BearBallCarrier, and OskiWeeWee took approximately 400 pictures of Randy Duck, and I look forward to their FanPost on the subject. I spoke briefly with Taylor Harrison, who informed me that there's a fair amount of cartilage damage in his knee ("more than there should be"), and that he's cleared to play so long as there isn't any pain. Unfortunately for him and our frontcourt, he's still experiencing pain and isn't sure if he'll be able to play again. I told him that I missed watching him get under opponents' skin, to the point that they threw punches or elbowed him. He misses it too: "No one has punched me in a while," he said with a smile.

A couple more nice shots that I couldn't fit anywhere else in this post.

So what did we learn?

- Conor can't do much on the court, as evidenced by his early 15 foot brick and lack of defense on Lamond Murray. The girls still think he's hot.

- Pribble...uh, he's got hustle!

- Ubaka runs the Braun offense to perfection.

- Benson has LaShaun Ward's hands.

- Lamond Murray is a man among boys, when he wants to be.

- Randy Duck stands around after the game looking into the crowd for (according to zoonews) "poon".

We already knew all of this, so we learned nothing. Aside from everyone being a little older and a little slower, they hadn't changed a bit. And with all the uncertainty surrounding the economy, the war, and the offensive coordinator, I think that's just way I like it.

After the game, the players shake hands. We're all winners here! Except for the Gold Team, who are, in another, more important sense, losers.

Basketball is simply awesome

CBKWit — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:41:42 -0000

Last month's loss to the Cardinal was a simple case of Stanford hitting an inordinate amount of shots (try 55%) despite passable defense from the Bears. Throw in a little home cooking from the refs (17 free throws to 3??) and you have the formula for a 6 point Cal loss.

I didn't think Stanford could shoot much better than that, and I was painfully wrong. According to BearTalk, Stanford shot a preposterous 67.9% in the first half, including 75% (75%!!) on 12 three-point shots, and I'm not sure it wasn't higher - BearBallCarrier's sources said it was 74% (with 8-10 on threes) in the half. I pegged it at about 70%, a terribly disheartening figure if you're on the other side. To make matters worse, it wasn't that Stanford was hitting difficult, contested, or lucky shots - most of them were open jumpers that the Bears simply failed to close out. 70% is absolutely ridiculous in any situation, but 60% would have been understandable against the Bear's lackadaisical defense. If you feel fortunate to be down only 14 points at half, as I did, your team played a pretty terrible half. With Valentine's Day rapidly slipping away, Cal needed a hero, preferably one with long, flowing hair and eyes like fire. And good perimeter defense.

Who, me?

via extras.mnginteractive.com

Today is the day that Jorge saved basketball for me

My good friend Zoonews is not what you'd call a basketball fan ("they should just start the game with 2 minutes left"), but even he was helpless to resist the glory that was Jorge Gutierrez. He sent me that text about midway through the second half, perhaps after Jorge raced down the court, intercepted a pass, and threw it off Landry Fields to save possession, or maybe when he fouled Anthony Goods' elbow with his nose and stared him down from the ground. Jorge had such a consistent, unwavering impact on the game that it was difficult to elevate one particular moment - the final 24 minutes were one giant Jorge extravaganza. After the game, I called my friend Zack on the east coast and tried to explain how a true freshman averaging 17 minutes, 4 points, 3 boards, and more turnovers than assists brought Cal back from 22 points down to beat our snobby archrival. I couldn't do it. "I wish I could describe how good Jorge was", I said, and I wish I could describe it in this space. I watched a replay of the game (free on on-demand until the end of the month!), and Jorge looked good, but it wasn't the phenomenal, intense, dominant performance that I witnessed at Haas. If you were one of the people in the sort-of almost sellout crowd, you know exactly what I'm talking about, and if you weren't, no replay or highlight reel or recap can accurately recreate what happened in Berkeley on Saturday.

Jorge's stat line was more unique than spectacular, fitting for a guy who isn't really a point guard or a shooting guard, a perimeter player without a great handle or a particularly good jump shot. In thirty minutes, Jorge went for 10 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals, 0 assists (?), 1 turnover, and 4 fouls. If you saw the WSU game, the rebounds shouldn't surprise you; he grabbed most of the tough defensive boards down the stretch against the Cougs, and now has led the team in rebounding for two games in a row. Ten points ties his season (and career) high, a nice bonus but probably not enough, by themself, to win a high scoring game. Zero assists is puzzling and probably a bit disingenuous, as Jorge had a number of quasi-assists, including the outlet to Randle for the go ahead bucket late in the second half. What should jump out are the 5 steals and the single turnover. I can't recall Jorge's one turnover, either from Saturday or from watching the replay, which is a remarkable turnaround from his 11 turnovers versus the Oregon and LA schools less than a month ago. It's even more impressive given that Jorge played the point for a decent portion of the second half, allowing Randle to play off the ball and avoid Stanford's perimeter traps.

Still, the most impressive feat was Jorge's defense. 5 steals is a lot for any player, in any game, but I was convinced Jorge had more. While watching the replay, I kept a tally of Jorge's "steals", basically any ball he acquired that should have belonged to the Cardinal. By my count, he finished with ten and a half, an impressive collection of loose balls, stolen rebounds, and outright steals. Although he was only credited with 5 steals, his disruptive play created another 5 at least, which is what Monty was referencing when he said "Jorge came in and he just guards like eight guys."

This all adds up to a very solid game, but it was Jorge's timing and tenacity above all else that made the greatest impact. Down by 22 points with only 4 minutes to go in the first half, Jorge entered the game for the second time (he played an ineffective minute or so earlier in the game) and, with 3 steals and 4 points, sparked an 11-3 Cal run to bring the deficit to a more manageable 14. Cal erased most of the Cardinal advantage early in the second half, but Cal didn't take the lead until Jorge stole the ball and fed an outlet pass to Randle with less than four minutes to go. Finally, with only a two point lead and less than two minutes remaining in the game, Jorge received the ball on the perimeter late in the shot clock, head faked to get his man in the air, stepped up, and calmly hit a 16 footer to make it a two possession game.

via imgs.sfgate.com

After the game, Jorge, exhausted, leaned on one of his teammates as they exited the floor. 30 minutes was a season high, save for 36 in the triple-overtime UW classic, but like most of his other stats, 30 minutes doesn't tell the whole story. This was an intense, energetic, relentless 30 minutes, 30 minutes in which Jorge led the team in rebounds, steals, played the point, scored 10 points, hounded and held his man (Anthony Goods) to only 3 second half points (all free throws), and, most importantly, provided the energy necessary to overcome a seemingly insurmountable deficit. It's hard to pick one play to encapsulate his afternoon, but the sequence when he switched to follow a player into the paint, recovered from underneath the basket to his man outside the three point line, intercepted the pass, and finished with a lay-in to begin Cal's first half run is a good start. Here he demonstrated good team defense, a great read on the play, fantastic hustle, and a clutch finish, just like he did for 30 minutes.

After 900 words, I still haven't accurately described just how good Jorge Gutierrez was on Saturday afternoon. Quite simply, without Jorge, we lose this game by double digits.

via a.espncdn.com

Jorge was not without help. Jamal Boykin played well while he was in the game, but a couple of stupid fouls limited him to only 16 minutes. This paved the way for our secondary MVP, Harper Kamp. Harper was a human wrecking ball down low, grabbing 3 offensive boards and a multitude of second chance points to go with good low post defense on Lawrence Hill. He also kicked in 5 free throws in 7 chances (not bad for a 50% free throw shooter), one of which (the front end of a 1-1 with less than a minute left in the game) bounced straight up from the rim and fell through, giving Stanford a bit of their own medicine.

Randle and Christopher also deserve commendation for their efforts. Randle finally dominated mole rat Johnson in a winning effort, going for 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists to only 3 turnovers (Johnson, for comparison's sake, finished with 5 points, 8 assists, and 6 turnovers). When not faced with a double team, Randle beat Johnson off the dribble with ease and scored 7 straight points late in the second half, turning a 6 point deficit into Cal's first lead since the opening minutes of the game. Christopher had a game high 21 points and hit a huge three pointer to give Cal a four point lead with less than 3 minutes to go.

These guys, along with Theo, are our best and most valuable players, and have carried the team to a 19-6 record with an NCAA tournament berth within reach. Still, Saturday will be remembered as "the time Jorge saved Valentine's day", and if that sounds too much like the title of a Berenstain Bears' novel, I don't care. It's Jorge's world, and Sister Bear is just living in it.

via www.berenstainbearstreehouse.com

Hip, hip, Jorge!

Cal Recruiting Recap Event

CBKWit — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:29:01 -0000

At 6 PM this Thursday, February 12, at the Bancroft Hotel, the good folks at the Bear Insider are putting on their annual new recruit montage and Q & A with a Cal coach. This will be the fourth year in a row that I have attended, and if you're the type that wants to see our newest Bears on display (sometimes years) before they hit the field, (or the masochistic type that wants to hear about all the players we were thisclose to landing), then you'd be wise to pony up the $25 and attend. You can find out more about the event here; the direct link to the registration page is here.

Unfortunately, it seems Tedford will not be in attendance as per usual. The past few years he's been great describing the new guys and specifically answering questions about the team and returning players. Instead, it looks like Kenwick Thompson, the linebacker coach and recruiting coordinator, will be the one answering questions about the Brock Mansion party yacht. It's a bummer that Tedford won't be there, but I'm actually pretty excited to hear what Thompson has to say; maybe he can finally explain why Syd isn't our starting wide receiver.

I've had a great time attending the last three years, and I know that $25 bucks is a bit hard to stomach, but hey, last year there were chicken skewers and satay sauce! If you're a student and short on cash, post your sob story here; I did this when I was a senior and a generous cyberbear paid for my admission. It doesn't hurt to try, you damn mooch.

There was so much material from last year that I ended up writing a three part series, here, here, and here. I'll probably do something similar again, so if you're too cheap or lazy to get out there, now you can rest assured that I'll relay some of it back to you. And if you want a certain question answered, post it in the comments and if I like it and you bribe me I might consider asking it.

On the other hand, just show up. It's worth it, it's interesting, you can hobnob with people that make a lot more money than you do, and as a bonus, I'll be wearing a nametag with my handle printed in addition to my name, so you can discover my super secret identity. Say hi, and see you Thursday.

DBD 2-5-09: With HYPHENS

CBKWit — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:16:43 -0000

You dot people are so smug. It always has to be MM.DD.YY, no questions asked. Hey, I've got an idea - (note the hyphen) - (note the other hyphen) - let's separate our numbers by the smallest discernable space, a puny dot, so they run together and people with bad eyes and computers more than 3 inches away from their heads can't tell if it's 12.1.09 or 1.21.09. That's a great idea, let's confuse our readers so we don't know what day it is, and then fill the DBD with the same inanity every day so it doesn't even matter which one they read.

Well that is going to - change. I am going to start using hyphens to separate words that don't even - need to be separated, and there is nothing you can do about - it - dot people. I won't even use them as comma substitutes, as I sometimes do because I - am a horrible writer. I'll just use them whenever I feel like it, to make up for this dot monopoly that is driving everyone insane. -

So why am I even up this early? Is it because I had some pretty scary dreams about crocodiles? Did I dream that I was on a sandy beach infested with crocodiles, and that sometimes I would have to walk down to the water's edge, and that I would sit very still as the crocodiles walked right by me and sometimes over me? Did I actually talk to a crocodile and explain why I wasn't stopping at a particular spot in the sand so that he wouldn't eat me? Did some bald guy that kind of reminded me of bulldog from Fraiser get bitten by a croc, so he was bleeding when we were told we had to fight three or four crocodiles as our final challenge? Did RemoursefulBruinBabe have to sit on a crocodile's lap in a bucket seat in the van I was driving while the smell of fresh blood wafted through the air?

I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, but did I really just dream that I had a degenerative brain disorder called MD4 which causes paranoid dreams about things like car crashes, and then say to myself, well, this one was about crocodiles, but it's still pretty paranoid - before I woke up? Did I just have a paranoid dream about having a horrible ailment which was supported in theory by another paranoid dream? Chicken and the egg kind of thing, yeah, yeah, no?

Or am I awake because I'm trying to buy tickets for my family to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and in the email they said they would be available no earlier than 10AM EST which apparently means that after waiting around for an hour I will get in the shower and they will go on-sale immediately and all of the gold medeal curling tickets will be gone before you can say HONK?

Well you know what? It is BOTH. That's right, both. And neither of them is really working for me right now, but Twist is going to be really pissed that he can't post his Gossip Girl or Twilight DBD because I beat him to the punch. That's what kept me going through that rough patch I hit (pretty much after the first hyphen). So Twist, I win. Now bring me links. I mean - now - bring me links.

Good triumphs over evil, at least in one sport

CBKWit — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:39:05 -0000

Halfway through Pac-10 play, our Golden Bears are a perfect 9-0. Put another way, we know that every other team in the Pac has at least one conference loss, because all of them have lost to Cal. This is the first time in school history that Cal has started 9-0 in conference play.

The ninth win did not come easily. USC and Cal both came out shooting well, and USC lead 20-19 with 8 minutes gone in the first. A 15-4 Cal run put the bears up 10, and Cal responded to a 7 point USC spurt with a run of its own to head into the locker room with an 11 point lead.

via imgs.sfgate.com

That was about as comfortable as it would get for the bears. USC cut the lead down to 2 by the 11 minute mark and the score remained close for the remainder of the game. Cal finally seemed to have control after a tough Alexis Gray-Lawson (remember her?) fadeaway made it a 5 point game with under 2 minutes to go, but USC answered immediately with a men's range 3 pointer. Cal had at least 3 turnovers in the final 3 minutes, the last of which gave USC an easy lay-in and a tied game with 18 seconds left. It was USC's first tie or lead since 20-20, less than halfway through the first stanza.

Cal fans know how this usually ends. Building a nice lead and scraping to hold on, only to lose in the final seconds is a painfully familiar script. Women's basketball is no exception to this Cal sports formula; one needs only to revisit last season's losses to Stanford at Haas and, especially, to George Washington in the NCAA tournament, to see the lady bears at their Cal best. Saturday afternoon, though, they broke the mold.

via grfx.cstv.com

With less than 10 seconds left, Cal isolated senior forward Ashley Walker on the right elbow. Walker drove to the hoop, drew a double team, and put up a shot. It missed, but senior center Devanei Hampton set up camp on the weak side of the rim and, left alone by the double on Walker, nailed the put back with 2 seconds left. Ironically, it was almost an exact replica of the final play which doomed the bears against GW last year, from the weakside put back off a miss to the time left on the clock and even the direction of the play (right to left). Perhaps Cal teams of old would have failed on the final possession, but this squad showed the patience, steadiness, and poise that often accompany experience. They may have been a bit rattled by the pressure in the last few minutes (the turnovers sure made it seem so), but they took care of business at the end and closed out the win.

If you haven't seen this team in action yet, you owe it to yourself to get out to a couple games. I have finally gotten to the point where I have stopped comparing women's basketball to men's basketball and have instead started comparing women's basketball to itself. It make take watching a couple of games to get used to it, but when you get past the fact that no one is going to jump out of the gym for a board or alley-oop, it's really entertaining. This Cal team is especially fun to watch: you can see the wily senior Ashley Walker toy with less experienced players in the post, watch Alexis Gray-Lawson and her pretty shooting stroke, or observe our next star, freshman guard Casey Morris. Casey has the best looking jumper on the team, save for Lexi, and a surprisingly good handle for a true freshman. This is a good team, and their record is not a fluke. Go check them out! Also, go bears.

Cal @ ucla Recap

CBKWit — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:42:50 -0000

Cal lost. Ucla won. Ucla is better than us at theater and men's basketball. We are better than ucla at almost everything else. There's your recap. Happy? Me neither. Drunk? Me too.

Go Bears.

mmm turnovers.

via www.aarushijain.com