SB Nation User Blog: CBKWit

Amoke is a menace on the boards, especially at the offensive end. He's also grown more patient and relaxed offensively, leading to greatly increased offensive production. He's been forced to play a lot of minutes at the 4 because of Harper's injury, and with Harper likely out for the year, that will continue. But even though he's undersized playing at power forward (6'7 and pretty skinny), he's been able to collect double digit rebounds in limited minutes. He compensates for his lack of size with superior athleticism and persistence.

The really sweet part is that Theo is returning! He's supposedly playing tonight against the Pacific Tigers. He'll help this team in so many ways: breaking zones with his shooting, improving the perimeter defense, allowing Jorge to come off the bench and get back to his ultra-aggressive defense, allow Amoke to play the three on occassion...the list goes on. And he's returning to a team that has improved since he last played, nearly a month ago. Cal basketball is about to get really exciting, and just in time for the Poinsettia bowl. Praise be Bak Bak.

On a completely unrelated note, this is what I sat behind at The Nutcracker last night:

If you're going to a movie/ballet/concert, maybe the best hairdo isn't all of your hair piled on top of your head. There may actually be someone sitting behind you! And if this is your dad, unlike last week, I am not at all sorry.

The Onion on Tiger

CBKWit — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:28:16 -0000

The Onion on Tiger

Because piling on doesn't apply to Stanfurd "grads"

CBKWitness - at least we're not ucla

CBKWit — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:11:15 -0000

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.

I saw only one Cal game last week, owing to Thanksgiving in the great state of Washington. The women's game against Ohio State was broadcast on Big10 TV, but sadly CBKParents didn't spring for channel 412 in their cable package.

So Cal versus Jacksonville at Haas last Tuesday was it, and there isn't too much to say about this one. Cal jumped out to a big lead early and dominated the game, winning it by 32. It was the biggest crowd by far this year but not noticeably louder than prior games; the crowd was relaxed with a four day weekend on the horizon and a blowout on the floor.

Patrick Christopher had has best game of the year, going for 23 points. He didn't have much in the first half and struggled as he has for much of the year, missing two three pointers and scoring only a few points (though he did have a spectacular two-handed put-back jam, getting up way above the rim). Then, early in the second half, he came up with a steal and breakaway for an easy bucket. He was lights out after that, hitting four threes on four attempts from the left arc. The performance was yet another indicator that Christopher's play is, for better or for worse, influenced by his mental state. He wasn't much of a factor in the first half; once he came up with the steal and breakaway, perhaps boosting his confidence, he was the most dominant player on the floor.

via cdn2.sbnation.com

Omondi Amoke continued his strong play with 15 points and 8 boards. He's a good leaper and persistent on the offensive glass, though he isn't a great finisher around the rim. He is going to play a huge role for the Bears this year, with the not too surprising news that Harper Kamp will likely redshirt and with Theo still out with his foot injury. I wouldn't be surprised if Amoke plays 20 minutes a game at the 3 and 4.

Bak Bak had two block blocks.

Yes, that's all I remember from this game.

WSU won the Great Alaska Shootout over the weekend, which, amazingly, is not a harbinger of greatness. Cal won it three years ago with the DeVon Hardin/Ryan Anderson/Ayinde Ubaka team, propelling the bears to an 8th place, 6-12 finish in the Pac-10. WSU looks to finish, at least, in the middle of the conference this year. Klay Thompson, a 6-6 sophomore guard, is my pick for conference player of the year. He's an incredible shooter and is going to score a ton of points this year (he set the Great Alaska Shootout single game scoring record with 43 in the final; Glenn Big Dog Robinson had the previous record, 41).

To end on a happy note, ucla lost all three of its games in the 76 Classic, held in ANAHEIM. Yes, the bruins went 0-3 in a tournament held an hour from their campus. Butler is #10 in the country and the bruins almost pulled it out in the end, but losing to Long Beach State by 10 in the 7th place game? Portland has also beaten Minnesota and Oregon, but they didn't win those games by 27, as they did against ucla. To make matters worse for the small ________ bears, their starting forward Drew Gordon has left the team and is transferring out. Ben Braun went after him hard (Gordon is from San Jose), but I believe there's a two year penalty for transferring within the conference so I doubt we'll see him end up at Cal. Not that we need him with Max Zhang patrolling the paint. So yes, we are almost definitely without Harper for the year, Theo's already missed four games, and we lost big, twice, on national TV. But it could have been three times, in Oakland, to lesser teams, with Boykin leaving the team, and with the entire Stanfurd football team mocking us as they run up the score in the last minute. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: at least we're not ucla.

CBKWitness - Bears vs Bears, Bears in the Big Apple

CBKWit — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:56:22 -0000

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.

The big bright spot? Jerome Randle. He went for 51 points in the two games on the strength of ridiculous (only not for him) three point shooting: 11-21. It was even more impressive given that he was really Cal's only offense, and the other teams knew it. He's got such a quick release that he needs very little room to launch a three, which he does with spectacular accuracy off the dribble. When defenders come up on him, he'll beat them off the dribble and has developed a great array of mid range floaters to compensate for his serious lack of height. He struggled with turnovers against Syracuse, but that was basically his only blemish from the weekend.

He can't do it all

via cdn0.sbnation.com

Getting blown out for 65 of 80 minutes wasn't ideal, but it's not like Cal was playing Sac St. or CSU Fullerton. Syracuse looks like a really, really good team, and OSU (and especially Evan Turner) isn't bad either. These are tournament teams, probably better than anyone in the Pac-10.

Cal wasn't playing with a full roster, either. After Harper Kamp didn't suit up against Murray St and Detroit, it was basically a given that he wasn't playing in New York. That didn't make our circus sideshow center-combo any more effective, and when Max is playing extended first half minutes against a Syracuse team with a bevy of experienced, athletic big men, it's probably going to be a long night. Jamal Boykin picked up his second foul only two minutes into the Syracuse game and Cal was in a world of trouble. With Amoke playing 20 minutes at the 4 and Max playing 12 at the 5, Cal was simply outmatched.

Theo Roberston's absence was the surprise. He apparently had swelling in his foot starting Tuesday, practiced in limited fashion on Wednesday, and was in a boot by Thursday. At the women's game on Sunday, I asked Markhuri Sanders-Frison if Theo would play tonight against Jacksonville: "Nope." This is not good news. I am hoping that they're just holding him out as a precaution, but lingering injuries are sadly familiar to Theo. He missed all of the 2007-2008 season recovering from hip surgery; every week, when asked if Theo was going to return, the coaching staff said "maybe next week".

Theo out of the lineup left a major hole. Syracuse plays a 2-3 zone, and what do you need to break down said zone? Shooters! Randle certainly shot the ball well, but with no Theo and Christopher struggling, Cal's offense faltered. Syracuse's defense was literally tilted away from what would have been Theo's side of the floor, as the Orange gave plenty of room and no respect to Jorge and Amoke on the wing. Christopher in particular had nowhere to go. Syracuse made sure they had plenty of bodies guarding him, and were content to let other Cal wings shoot and drive.

Their strategy worked so spectacularly well that OSU copied it the following afternoon. Monty said that he never expected to see 80 minutes of zone, and it was clear that without Theo, Cal was not going to be able to crack it. Cal did make a run against the Buckeyes in the second half, but the deficit was too great.

Theo's absence created a trickle down effect (a real one!). It moved Jorge into a starting role, and he was obviously not going to provide Theo's size and shooting. Jorge is much better coming off the bench, when he can inject some energy into the game and can play his aggressive defense. As a starter, he needed to stay out of foul trouble and play more minutes than usual, greatly limiting his effectiveness. Cal's comeback against OSU died when Jorge fouled out, and you have to think he would have had fewer minutes and fouls had Theo been in the lineup. With Jorge starting, DJ Seeley and Nicola were forced into Jorge's 6th man role and were no substitute for the man himself. My guess is that with Theo, Cal stays within 12-15 points against Syracuse (like UNC did) and beats Ohio State.

No Theo means more George-Michael

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

This is a completely different team without Theo Roberston and Harper Kamp. If those two return and can play at a relatively high level, Cal should be able to make a nice run this year. If not, the Bears will struggle to make the NCAA tournament.

If two blowouts were not enough, you might have considered attending the women's game versus Baylor, Sunday afternoon at Haas. Really, we were all still too high on Big Game euphoria to get worked up about a 20 point loss. The game went on, we were getting killed but you still had to smile thinking about rushing the field and booing that front runner Tiger Woods. Mike Tepper trying to be discrete in a hipster hat, while he and BearBallCarrier texted away? Check and double check!

He doesn't stand out at all

Baylor has a freshmen center who is 6'8. No, really. To put that in perspective, she's taller than our starting center. Our men's starting center, 6'7 Markhuri Sanders-Frison. She's a foot taller than Jerome Randle.

Here she is, lining up next to our freshman, Gennifer Brandon. Brandon is 6'2, and doesn't have the wingspan of a mature California Condor. Thus, she looks tiny next to gigantic Brittney Griner. PaleoDan mentioned something about a thyroid condition. I think he was jealous. I think we all were.

Cal didn't have much of an answer for Griner, offensively or defensively. Cal actually started strong offensively, giving Brandon the ball at the three point line to draw Griner away from the basket and having the much faster Brandon drive to the hoop. After about 10 minutes, Baylor adjusted (how, I couldn't really tell you, because I was too busy recounting my hug with the prophet Mohamed) and Cal's offense was basically abysmal for the rest of the game. Defensively, Cal tried to pack the paint against Griner, to little success. With the Cal defense collapsed against Griner, Baylor had all kinds of space and their wings were able to get good looks. Sometimes Griner passed over the double team. Sometimes she just shot it over our posts' heads (she finished with 15 points and one very near dunk). Let me reiterate: she is really, really big.

Still exceptionally big

Fortunately for us, it will be a long time before the Cal women play against a 6'8 lady again, unless we're playing Baylor next year. Our freshmen bigs, though not as freakishly tall, looked good. Gennifer Brandon is really fast for her size and was smooth rebounding and scoring for a freshmen. DeNesha Stallworth, our other starting freshmen post, is a very gifted scorer with great range (out to and beyond the three point arc) and great touch around the hoop. Talia Caldwell has a rebounder's body and I'm sure will be effective against regular sized posts. The last freshman big, Brenna Heater, was in street clothes on the bench.

The freshmen guards: Eliza Pierre reminds me of a thoroughbred. She's very sleek, thin, and exceptionally fast. Think of her as the female version of Jorge. Layshia Clarendon didn't show too much, but she was going against a talented, experienced Baylor back court. Sorry women's bball fans, but that's all I have for now. Not that bad for a 20 point blowout, basking in Big Game afterglow, right?

The Cal men showed up to support the ladies. Patrick Christopher, ever the fashion icon, rocks the classic sandals with socks:

Bak Bak goes with the George Costanza inspired "drape myself in velvet":

I tried taking a picture of Jorge, but either he's too fast or divine because all of the photos came out blurry. Which one is it? I'm going with both.

Men's game tonight vs Jacksonville, Haas Pavilion, 7:30 PM. Show up, people! Go Bears!

Reveling in Victory - The CBKWit is out on the field!

CBKWit — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:16:43 -0000

by Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP

Serious Reveling

View full size photo »

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

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!

This is about as good as it gets, people. It's my 8th Big Game, and this one ranks second on the list, following only the 2002 iteration. That was my ~~newman~~ freshman year, and featured Cal's first Big Game win in eight years, a Big Game rushing record by one of the great student athletes of our time, Joe Igber, and Cal fans surrounding the sidelines midway through the fourth quarter, rushing the field, removing the goal posts, and parading them down Bancroft. That will be tough to beat, maybe taking a Rose Bowl clinching victory over the furd to top it.

An impressionist's rendition of the 2002 Big Game

A flock of Great Egrets watch Cal Fans storm the field

The goal post comes down!

While Saturday's game did not surpass the 2002 Big Game, it did what others from the last 8 years have not: it came close. These two are in a league of their own in the Tedford era, and beyond. A friend of mine who has seen 20+ Big Games said this was one of the best he's ever seen, topped only by 2002 and possibly 1993. What we saw on Saturday was one the 2 or 3 best Big Games in the 27 years since The Play.

Jeff Tedford is now 7-1 in eight Big Games. For all the losses to usc over the years, and the 72-6 beat down, and another season without a Rose Bowl, and Gregory sucks and why doesn't he fire Alamar, and the kneeling on third down with 2:45 left etc. etc., he's 7-1 in Big Games. Yes, Stanfurd has mostly been terrible over this stretch, but 7-1 following Cal's 1-7 Big Game record immediately before Tedford carries a lot of weight.

This win wasn't like 1982 or 2002. There wasn't a singular reason why this game stands out, like The Play or the dawn of a new era, breaking a seven year losing streak with a new coach. Instead, there are so many reasons why this game was so sweet, so many angles and points of interest that add up to a classic. Stanfurd comes in as "the hottest team in the country," per every sportswriter covering college football. They scored 100 points against teams that held us to 6. They, not us, are the team that dethroned usc. They, not us, have a chance at the Rose Bowl. Toby Gerhart, not Jahvid Best, is a Heisman contender.

Of course, Jahvid Best is not only out of the Heisman race, he was also out of the game. Toby Gerhart? He made his presence known immediately, picking up 5 yards on the first play of the game and then taking a hand off 60+ yards for a TD on the third play. The game was barely a minute old. Toby ended the game with 136 yards, four touchdowns, and a host of Stanfurd school records.

Cal's had plenty of stars under Coach Tedford, but Big Game has featured an inordinate number of secondary players stepping into leading roles. In 2002, tiny Joe Igber set a Big Game rushing record as Cal rolled. Converted fullback Steve Levy threw a couple touchdowns down on the farm in 2005. Tom Schneider kicked four field goals in turbulent winds, including a 50 yarder, to overshadow DeSean and Marshawn in 2006. And Saturday night, Stanfurd's Heisman contender running back, the leading scorer in the country, was not even the best running back on the field. Four touchdowns was not enough.

Let's talk about Shane Vereen

It may be a bit unfair to call Shane Vereen a secondary player. He's much more of a "1A" than a second stringer as "backup" to Jahvid Best, and isn't the scrappy winner despite average athleticism like Igber or Levy. He's a very talented player and was highly recruited for a reason. He'd be the starter at many schools in the Pac-10 and across the country. Still, if you were previewing this game, he'd only be the third runningback you'd mention, behind Gerhart and Best.

Saturday, he permanently etched his name in Big Game lore with 193 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 42 carries. FORTY-TWO CARRIES. That's the most ever for a runningback under Tedford, by a long shot. He took direct snaps, he ran for countless tough 2, 3, 6 yard gains between the tackles, he never fumbled (though he did recover one for good measure, when Riley tripped in the first half), he had the presence of mind to get down in-bounds after his first down run to the Stanfurd 11, running 25 seconds off the clock. He was blue collar, moreso than those yuppies in their wannabe MLB stadium and their doofus coach will ever be. I ran into him on the field after the game. He was wearing the hard hat, which is given to Cal's toughest or hardest working or strongest player of the game. It doesn't matter, because he was all three. I patted him on the back and said "You're a monster." I only found out later that he carried the ball FORTY-TWO times, and I wished I had said even more.

Shane, you earned that hard hat

That was not even the best moment on the field, nor was watching Syd shake his dreads from five feet away, nor was being the first person to shake Robert Calonico's hand after the band played Light's Out. No, the best was finding the prophet Mohamed at midfield. I grabbed him in a bear hug. I said "You're the one who got the pick, right?" I had to, because when he rose to the heavens to make that catch, I instantaneously embraced RemorsefulBruinBabe, my co-worker, and my co-worker's boyfriend in a group hug that lasted far longer than is appropriate for professional acquaintances and their significant others. I barely saw him make the catch, and was buried in bodies by the time he slid to the ground to protect the ball. The prophet answered my question with a nod, at which point I shouted something to the effect of "I call you the prophet gah can you take a picture with me??" Between personally congratulating the guy who carried the ball FORTY-TWO times and getting a picture with the man who clinched the victory, in a span of 5 minutes, I doubt I will ever again have such a great time rushing the field.

The prophet with HydroTech

I found CaliforniaBone and GoldBlooded in the Cal endzone. They showed me their souvenirs.

Thanks for the inspiration, guys. I grabbed mine from the end zone turf and folded it into my campus map printout for safekeeping.

I met Chris Little and said "You're the real number four." He laughed.

TwistNHook holds hands with Chris Little

Most of the players had exited the field, but a few stuck around to take pictures with fans. It was nice of the players - I'm sure that they wanted to be back in the locker room, ~~with a hundred half naked sweaty dudes~~ celebrating with their teammates, but once they took one picture, a mob would form. Thanks for being good sports, guys.

Justin Cheadle takes a picture with Rollonubears

It was a delirious zoo down there. Lots of "Bear Territory," "We've got the Axe," pushing, shouting, crazy-eyed smiles.

RBB and I made our way over to the band.

Avinash, Yellow Fever sing All Hail

Compare to:

Ok, the Storm-trooper uniforms were pretty cool. Some Stanfurd students have a lot of time and money - shocking!

via Monica's Dad

Even Rally Comm seems less toolish after a Big Game Victory

Yeah, this one was about as good as it gets. It was awesome to see our offense reel off four consecutive long touchdown drives, after struggling to sustain drives for much of the year. It was awesome to watch our defense play well in back to back games, holding an opposing QB to 10-30 passing, coming up with a game saving interception, and holding an opposing offense which had scored 100 points in two games to 28. It was great to watch Harbaugh's arrogance bite him as Cal's defense stopped the furd on 4th and 8 from the Cardinal 22. Seeing that bandwagon fan Tiger Woods show up for his first football game in a decade only to go home a loser (as much as one can be with a model wife and hundreds of millions of dollars) was great. Hearing the Stanfurd Banned proclaim "Get a real bear" and in response shouting "Get a real tree" was great. After hearing about Stanfurd's win the in the Big Splash and their director's cups and whatever else throughout the game, we won the one that really counted. After suffering through no Theo and two bball losses, a big Freeze loss, and (this afternoon) a women's bball loss, we won the big one, the Big Game. It was a fucking great day, a validation and celebration of all things good and a repudiation of all things bad. This guy had a usc shirt on under his Stanford sweatshirt:

That's what you get, buddy.

There was (and still is) just so much to revel about. Shane Vereen, the prophet Mohamed, the defense standing up without Syd in the fourth quarter, Tedford winning in his 100th game, dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, Shane Vereen again, coming back from 14-0, rushing their field and making it Bear Territory. So, my question to you is, what are you reveling about? Any one item in particular? All of the above, and more? Or simply, the fact that:

WE'VE GOT THE AXE!!

CBKWitness

CBKWit — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:31:07 -0000

View full size photo »

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.

- Randle struggled to get in the lane and struggled with his outside shot, but still finished with 18 points. Like all good scorers, he knows how to get to the free throw line when his shot isn't falling. He hit 10 of 11 from the line for the game, 8 in the final 6 minutes of the first half as Cal built an 8 point halftime lead.

Boykin has some new offensive moves to go with his trademark hugs

via cdn1.sbnation.com

- The biggest cheer of the game came as Max Zhang entered late in the first half. He's still a liability offensively - it would be one thing if he just got out of the way, but his spacing is poor and he's often in the wrong spot. It's the mark of a truly bad offensive player - not just being being ineffective, but making your teammates worse. On the other hand, his defense and boxing out have really improved, and Cal built its lead with Max in the lineup.

- DJ Seeley was the star of the inter-squad scrimmage, displaying a beautiful shooting stroke on a team full of great shooters. In this game, however, he was pretty juiced up and missed badly on his only three point attempt. Once he settles down he'll be able to score off the bench. Defensively he's a huge liability, as he was unable to stay in front of his man. Jorge, teach him how it's done!

- Markhuri Sanders-Frison, our new JC transfer center, was strong defensively, aggressive (at one point diving to the floor for a loose ball), vocal - all things that Jordan Wilkes was not. He doesn't have Wilkes' smooth passing or shooting touch yet, but he was better offensively than expected. One thing he doesn't seem to do is jump - he boxed out fairly well, but I don't think I ever saw him jump for a board. He also lost the opening tip, and something tells me that if we can't win the tip-off against Murray State, we're probably not going to win it much this year.

- We have kind of a freak-show at center: a 7'3 guy who weighs maybe 240 pounds and a 6'7, 270+ pound guy who can't jump. If Max ate Markhuri, I think we'd have an unstoppable force. As it is now, we have some improvement at center from last year in terms of production and a lot of improvement in terms of entertainment.

- Cal was a bit lazy getting out to challenge the three point shot. I thought they played pretty well defensively in general, but this was their weak point, especially at the end of the game. The final score was probably a little closer than the game as Murray State hit some late threes, but Cal has to improve its perimeter defense.

- I love Jorge. He is approaching the Hawk status in my mind. He hit two spot-up three pointers, which wasn't part of his game last year.

Ragnarok is right: The band plays a lot more than at football games.

via cdn0.sbnation.com

Detroit:

- Randle came out on a mission to prove that his offensive struggles in Monday's game were a fluke. He looked great, getting around Detroit's point guard with ease. Late in the second half Randle had 15 points, 0 fouls, while his opponent was scoreless with 3 fouls.

- Cal jumped out on Detroit and seemingly put the game away early, building a 40-25 advantage. Detroit scored the last 7 points of the first half and first 4 points of the second half before Cal took over and cruised to a win. Murray State is a better team than Detroit, but Detroit has some impressive athletes and skilled players.

- Sanders-Frison contributed even more offensively with a number of slick moves but struggled with fouls for the second game in a row. With limited depth in the post, this will be an ongoing concern.

- Part of that lack of depth is Harper Kamp, who did not play in either game and will miss the trip to Madison Square Garden. He did practice on Monday, so hopefully he'll be able to play this year. We'll need him.

- Christopher had a tough first half, scoring only 4 while Detroit's two guard went for 15. That changed after half, as he finished with 18 points and clamped down on D.

- Theo isn't very fast or agile, but he's so smart and fundamentally sound defensively that he keeps his man from getting to the lane. His shooting form is beautiful, and he's also taking the ball to the hoop more.

- Midway through the second half, Cal was 24-26 from the free throw line.

- Max played 14 minutes and looked good, altering and blocking shots, boxing out, rebounding, even scoring on a few put-backs to tally 7 points. He has a long ways to go, but he's much improved from last year.

- Jorge again had four fouls, but some were pretty cheap. Monty played him for several minutes with four fouls, perhaps to let Jorge practice playing with more caution. Jorge finished the game and never picked up the fifth foul.

- The senior starters came out early with a huge lead, and our bench played strong in their stead. Our final lineup had players from five countries: Max (China), Nikola (Serbia), Jorge (Mexico), Nigel Carter (USA), and Bak Bak (Sudan)

- Yes, even Bak Bak played, which (I believe) prevents him from redshirting this year. It seemed like a strange move at the time, as Bak is clearly not ready to contribute and won't be for at least another year. If Monty did indeed burn his redshirt, it is probably to maintain class balance. Cal just signed a (very good) recruiting class of four freshman who will arrive next fall, and if Bak redshirts that will make 5 players in one class year. By "playing" (four minutes!) this year, he'll be a sophomore with Brandon Smith next year, making a freshman class of 4 and a sophomore class of 2 instead of 5 and 1. Monty probably wants to avoid having another huge class like our current 5 seniors, which could have been 7 (!) had Jordan Wilkes and Ryan Anderson stuck around. It means one less year of Bak in the program but more balance.

- I'm heading to my first women's game of the year, this Sunday against Baylor, so I'll have plenty about the ladies next week.

- Cal plays Syracuse at 4PM tomorrow. Syracuse lost their exhibition game to a D-II school but will be playing with a huge home court advantage in Madison Square Garden. Cal has a fantastic opportunity to show off for the rest of the country, playing an east coast team at an east coast time. May they be awed by the power of Max

Go Bears!

Reveling in Victory - Payback, Arizona

CBKWit — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:04:34 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Cal players prematurely revel in victory

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

I don't think that AZ Desert Swarm was arrogant in answering our question. A pinch naive, a shade optimistic, yes, but they're a sports blog, and most blogs (with the notable exception: those about Cal) are inherently optimistic. Our SBN brethren simply made a mistake, but hey, we all do that. Kevin Riley throwing across his body and leaving it 7 yards short of Boateng for an interception? Mistake! Nick Foles first catching his batted pass, then throwing it again? Two mistakes! Myself eating apple pie ~~a la mode~~ with a pile of soft serve after a full day of pre and regular reveling? Big mistake!

Cal made plenty of mistakes during the game, and despite Foles' critical lapse, I didn't feel that Cal won because they were the beneficiary of more lucky breaks. There were questionable PI calls against both teams, and the refs missed a critical facemask on whoever was trying to tackle Shane Vereen that everyone else in the stadium saw. No, Cal won this game because they were better than Arizona on the line of scrimmage, both offensively and defensively. It's been a while since you could say that about Cal, and probably the first time against a good team this year. Close games (especially lower scoring ones) often come down to line play late in the game, and Saturday night was no exception. Cal was running the ball effectively even before Vereen's sort of clinching TD sprint, including 10 times for 47 yards on a very impressive 7+ minute drive which culminated in Tavecchio's game winning field goal. Arizona could not run the ball and, in an incredibly surprising turn of fortune, struggled to protect Nick Foles. Cal won not because they were lucky; they won because they were better than a good team.

Not this year, little man

After the game, my little group agreed on two things. One, pine nuts are awesome.

Delicious!

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

Two, and potentially more relevant, this was a rejuvenating win for the Cal fanbase. The crowd was into the action, getting stronger as the game went on. The divisiveness felt during the OSU game was basically gone, replaced by a cohesion last witnessed in the season opener. I think rushing the field is a little bush league against non top-10 opponents, especially against those you're favored to beat, but ambling down to the field and watching little kids throw footballs around sure beat anything from the Usc or OSU games. Cal fans broke out into spontaneous cheers in the tunnel exiting the stadium. Everyone was happy and smiling. After Jahvid's horrific injury and a thus far underwhelming season, we needed this game. Football was fun once again.

Little Italy nailing 4 field goals? Fun!

It was fun to watch our highly touted defensive line and secondary match preseason hype. Cal was able to pressure a QB who had only been sacked 4 times all year - the Bears brought that total to 7. Cameron Jordan was the force we expected to see all year, while Alualu was great, as always. It's hard to think that this was his last game in Memorial - my guess is that we're going to miss him more next year than we've missed our departed linebackers this year, especially if Jordan cannot develop Alualu's remarkable consistency. As for Syd, he's been a starter for what seems like forever (only four years), and it seems worthwhile to investigate whether or not we can grant him tenure.

Skylar Curran scores on senior night

For one week at least , Cal football regained its swagger. I talked a little trash to Arizona fans afterward ("Don't worry about it guys, you'll get us in basketball. Jodan Hill is a beast inside and Budinger can really shoot." They then reminded me that both of those guys are now in the NBA. Silly me.) Whether or not we'll be jive talking a week from now is an entirely different matter; it's safe to say that Stanford will be favored, after they put up 50 points in back to back weeks against the teams that held us to 3. Still, it felt good to revel in the way we expected to revel all year - confident, excited, happy about a win over a good team. Keeping the furd out of a very plausible Rose Bowl bid? We ~~may not~~ don't have a BCS team, but that would make for a pretty great season. See you at Big Game.

Reveling in Victory - Escape from Tempe

CBKWit — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:03:17 -0000

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)

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.

It's interesting to compare our last two road games (ucla and ASU) to the same stretch in 2007. The similarities are distressing: looking great early only to squander the lead, being unable to control the line of scrimmage offensively or defensively. But where Cal was unable to stem the opposition's push or mount a successful comeback in '07, this year they did exactly that. Why? Is it a more mature team, more poised at the end of the game? Is there a greater focus on executing at the end of games during practice? Is the team mentally tougher with a better ability to handle adversity? Or is it just luck, the simple product of playing a lot of close games that, in the end, even out? Cal probably wasn't as bad as their 1-8 road record going back to mid 2007 indicated, and they're probably not as good as this year's 3-1 road record.

Cal finds itself in much the same shape as it was a week ago - a significantly flawed team, but a winning one. Once again, the dilema is whether to unabashedly revel in yet another road win, to worry about the flaws being exposed by upcoming opponents, or something in between. The defense turned in a better performance than they did against WSU or ucla, but the lack of a pass rush and the ineffectiveness of both lines loom as huge problems. I would love to believe that Cal can run the table, but each game looks like more or less of a toss up. The answer (or answers) to the previous paragraph's question will likely determine how the Bears finish the season - if it's just luck, we'll probably drop one or two of what will undoubtedly be some pretty close games. If Cal really has learned how to close out games (if that's even a tangible skill), perhaps 10-2 is an attainable goal.

The Cal pass rush makes one statement...on the final play of the game.

One shred of evidence indicating that Cal hasn't quite figured out the complexities of late game play was the Wildbear pass. On second down at the 7(?) yard line, with about 30 seconds left and ASU holding only one time out, Cal drew up a pass play...with Shane Vereen as QB. If you run the ball on second and third down, you force ASU to use their timeout and bring the clock down to virtually zero. If you score a td on one of the runs, great. If not, you're set up for a glorified extra point to win the game. Forgoing this elegant plan for a halfback pass seems...shortsighted, and was nearly catostrophic as ASU almost came up with a game clinching pick. If the play is executed properly, it may have gone for a touchdown. Still, it was far too risky for attempt at that juncture, given the high potential for disaster and the relatively straightforward path to a game winning field goal. Blame Vereen (he of zero pass attempts this year) for a poor thrown if you will, but he should never have been asked to throw at that point in the game.

Aside from that near disaster, the final drive was a clinic. Riley was accurate AND decisive, Marvin Jones was great as per usual, and Verran Tucker made up for his earlier abysmal drop with a slick catch inside the red zone. Anthony Miller had a beautiful catch, making up ahead of time for acting like a matador on Little Italy's winning field goal; he stood still between two ASU defenders as they went right by him and nearly blocked the kick.

Phew!

Riley was generally very good. He had no help from his offensive line or running backs (save Best on check down shovel passes) for much of the game and still threw the ball accurately. On some passes, he looked indecisive, a problem that has plagued him for much of the year, but it's hard to say if that's him not seeing certain receivers or if everything is covered up - ESPN doesn't show you what's going on downfield until the ball is in the air. He was also very sloppy while handling the ball, fumbling three times and losing two of them. The last fumble was particularly frustrating, given that the defense had just come up with a goal line stand to preserve a two touchdown lead. To give the ball back to ASU at Cal's 5 yard line was an extremely careless and costly mistake. Next time, take the sack, Anger Boom the ball away, and trust the defense that was, up to that point, playing very well. That said, he played a hell of a game and basically carried the team to victory. He was playing against a pretty terrible and banged up secondary, so let's hope he continues the strong play against tougher competition in the coming weeks.

Kevin Riley and Cephalexin save Halloween!

My other helmet sticker goes to Josh Hill. He made several nice plays on the ball in pass defense, then came up with a potentially game saving tackle on third down late in the fourth quarter. ASU's runningback tried to break the ball outside and Hill cut him down a half yard short of a first down. If ASU converts there, Cal wouldn't have had much time for a game winning halloween saving drive. He's only a redshirt freshman and looks a lot better than he did only a few weeks ago. Hopefully he will carry on the legacy of Syd's awesome tackling in the AQ (After Quan) era.

Another "A win's a win" game. Our last three opponents may end the year ranked 8-10 in the conference, so we'll soon see if Cal is improved enough to make a serious run at the Holiday Bowl. If nothing else, saying "a win is a win" will carry far fewer reservations against OSU et al than it does against ASU and WSU.

Go Bears. Time to show up in force against brothers' Rodgers and the Beavs on Saturday and Shouty McStooge and the Wildcats in two weeks. We haven't beaten OSU since 2006, so show up and get loud, people!

Just because you can't say it enough, Go Bears.

Reveling in Victory - Cal beats WSU

CBKWit — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:59:00 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

Best 1, Jones 0

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.

The fast start was impressive, to put it mildly. Cal flat out dominated and nearly had the 35 point line covered after only twenty minutes. I was regretting not placing more faith in (and a bet on) the Bears. Then Jeff Tuel (pronounced "Tool") started his Graham Harrell impersonation. Cal's penchance for making mediocre and/or inexperienced QBs look like Aaron Rodgers is such a predictable treat; perhaps it was Bob Gregory's plan to give a QB who was sacked TWELVE TIMES last week enough time to throw for 354 yards, in order to teach our young Cal fans (it was kid's day, after all) how to be courteous and gracious hosts. Seriously, Masoli goes 4-16 the week before playing us and then magically turns into Pat White, Barkley barely breaks a sweat in a 27 point victory, KEVIN PRINCE!! throws for 300+, and then true freshman Jeff Tuel, in his third ever start, goes for 350. And I don't want to hear the "oh, they were way behind so they had to throw." You know who else was way behind? Cal, at Oregon, this year. Riley finished with 123 yards on 31 attempts. 4 yards per attempt. Riley has much better talent than Tuel at every surrounding position, not to mention three years more experience, AND we knocked out Oregon's star corner on the first play of the game. Oregon figured out how to shut down a passing attack; maybe someday we won't be one horrible Kevin Price pass away from blowing a game to a pretty terrible ucla team. End rant.

If only we had the talent to containt the Karstetter's of the world.

If my reveling seems a bit more muted than last week, it's because Cal has given up almost 700 yards passing the last two weeks to teams who are a combined 0-9 in Pac-10 play. That's my dilema right now, and I suspect the dilema for most Cal fans: I'm THRILLED that we FINALLY won in LA, and I'll take a 30 point victory over anyone, any time. But does anyone think we're going to run the table from here on out, given what we saw today? Oregon State just put up 36 on USC at the Coliseum. Our kick coverage is still, how we say, not great (there was a gaping hole on WSU's first return of the game). The purpose of this column is to celebrate our victories, not to fret about what's ahead, but my natural inclination to worry and Cal's seemingly natural inclination to allow 400+ yards of offense is ruining my reveling apetite. On to the good stuff.

Jeremy Ross: he had a pretty nice day, no? The opening kick return was great but paled in comparison to his spectactular punt return. What a sweet move to semi hurdle, semi sidestep a tackler from about 40 yards out. He did drop a couple of passes, including at least one that would have converted a third down, but he also hauled in a 60 yard bomb from Riley.

Good game!

With such a big day from Ross, it seems inappropriate that the hurdle highlight of the day went to Covaughn DebOSKIe-Johnson. Not only was it a clean, great looking leap, but it sprung Oski for an extra twenty yards. Hurdling (and the set up and landing) is slower than flat out sprinting, so players often only get a few yards after they land; Covaughn made his count. The PA announcer even included it in his summary ("30 yards and one hurdle for a California first down!") Someone post the video.

Best and Vereen were great, as usual. Vereen in particular had some nifty runs, juking and somehow avoiding Cougar defenders for an inside eight yard run, and getting to the outside with a wicked stiff arm on a big gainer. Best will probably be a first round pick this April, but just as we were fine when we lost Arrington, and Marshawn, and Forsett...we'll be fine when we lose Best.

Tough to nitpick Riley's performance. His start was absolutely ludicrous and he finished with a spectacular 12.7 yards per attempt. The pass to Best in the flat at the goal line was ugly, and if he had led Ross to the outside on the 60 yard completion, instead of drawing him back slightly to the middle, it would have been a touchdown. I also think Riley gets pretty antsy on third down - it seems like he left the pocket a little early on a few occassions, continuing a trend we saw last week. If someone wants a project, look at third down passing attempts from the Cal offense over the last two games. Is Riley not seeing open receivers and taking off too early, or are Cal players being covered up down field? Still, great numbers, and they would have been better except for a few drops.

I even think the Cal defense can be excused slightly, so I'll disagree a bit with myself from 4 paragraphs ago. The defensive line mounted a generally robust pass rush (certainly better than last week), and Cameron Jordan had perhaps his best game of the year with at least a couple of sacks. I loved a third down play near the south endzone when Cal brought at least 5 in pass rush - one of the linebackers had a free shot at Tuel up the middle and the hurried pass was almost intercepted.

Jordan was extremely disruptive today, hopefully a sign of things to come.

The Cougars, as promised by Nuss, are significantly improved from last year. I like the Cougs, mostly due to my love for my younger brother and for cheese, so this makes me happy. Jeff Tuel looks very good for a true freshman in his third game. Gino Simone, another true freshman, looks good at wideout. This is a very, very young team and a very injured team; I except they will continue to improve and Tuel could be a major pain over the next few years. And most of all, I really, really hope they beat ucla.

If you're still up reveling, what do you think? A thirty-two point victory should make us happy, and there were a lot of fun and entertaining moments today: Ross, Best, Riley, Vereen, Oski, Jones (just list the entire offense, really); Beau Sweeney looked good converting a third down with a pass to Michael Calvin. Cam Jordan busted out, Derrick Hill was a force, and Cal allowed zero points in the second half. Is that enough, for now, to compensate for the problems that may cost us a couple games down the stretch?

Go Aloe, Go Bears.

Reveling in Victory - Finally! Cal wins in LA!

CBKWit — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:21:03 -0000

More photos » by Reed Saxon - AP

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

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.

You know who deserves a lot of credit? All of the Cal fans who made the trip down to LA after watching us get demolished the last two games. I am very much enjoying the reveling from my couch, reading the comments, watching the highlights, but it can't be anywhere as sweet as reveling in LA tonight. Watching all those fair weather fans file out of their stadium must have been incredible. (And I know it happened - when a holding penalty was called against the bruins with 5 minutes left, the crowd cheered. No boos, because apparently their weren't any ucla fans left. Way to represent, Cal fans! We stand and take it until the bitter end against SC, ucla fans can't even stay to the end of a reasonably close game.) Getting to chant our own cheers and listen to our fight songs in jubilation, instead of hearing bastardized versions of them played after Schneider misses a kick/Maurice Drew returns a punt/Longshore throws a pick 6 must be AWESOME. So big, big props for CaliforniaBone, Ragnarok, my friend Chris from college, and everyone else who stared both recent (72-6) and distant ('03,'05,'07) history in the face and went down to Pasadena anyways. Post your stories from the game and especially the post-game in the comments so I can live vicariously through you.

You guys are heroes!

I am still in a bit of disbelief that we actually, really, finally won in LA. I know we were favored, but we've been favored down there before. Even with a 15 point first half lead, it seemed familiar, another we're playing well on offense but not putting them away our kick coverage sucks oh no here comes the heartbreaking loss! game. I kept waiting for the inevitable heartbreaking play to blow the game (the way it was going, pretty obvious that it was going to be a kickoff return), but somehow, for some reason, it never came. CAL was the team with the play to seal the deal, a pick 6 to put us up by 19 with 6 minutes left.

And who was the guy to put it away? None other than Mychal Kendricks, who, according to Okanes, played only 15 snaps. Kendricks, of course, had this to say earlier in the week:

We can’t lose again. I don’t think we are, either. Actually, I know we’re not...We’re going to win this week.

I didn't put too much stock into this, because the last time I heard a Cal player giving a guarantee, it was Robert Jordan in 2007 against ucla and then someone else against ASU the following week. Those didn't exactly pan out. If you're going to use big boy words, you had better be able to back them up. Well done, sir.

Not getting caught from behind today

via www.dailycal.org

That play was clearly the defensive highlight of the day, and it compensated for a pretty mediocre day from the defense. Ucla is not a good offensive team, but Cal made them look like one for much of the game. Ucla held the ball for sustained drives, protected their QB with a patchwork offensive line, and were a couple of lapses away from a very tight game. Kick coverage...yikes. But that's for another day. Who knows if it will be another 8 years until Cal wins in LA again? Our defense and special teams are definitely cause for concern (especially if Syd isn't back very soon), but let's ignore it for now and talk about happier things: offense!

Cal didn't have the most consistent offensive performance: most of our touchdowns (actually, now that I think about it, all of them) came on big plays, not from particularly long drives. There might be some cause for concern here too, but I think the lack of offensive consistency was due to one large, strong, fast, and very nimble man: Brian Price. He absolutely dominated our offensive line and was in our backfield on most running plays. That is not an exaggeration: Best gained only NINE yards on seventeen carries outside of his spectacular 93 yard touchdown. Price's penetration was the ucla defense - when he briefly left the game in the third quarter, Cal opened up massive holes on the left side of the line and moved the ball with ease.

The guy is a monster. Incidentally, he was also a "minimum qualifier" out of high school (like Marshawn, I believe), although we know that's impossible because ucla has higher academic standards than we do. Whoops.

But man, aside from losing yardage on most of our running plays...what a bonanza! If you somehow didn't see the game, click here right now to watch Best's touchdown run. It was incredible, even by his standards. Best did his sideways shuffle (while going at top speed, I have no idea how he does this) to make the last guy miss, which usually makes him lose his balance and stumble. Not this time. What a run. I'm going to watch it again.

How about Marvin Jones? Pretty nice catches from #1, especially the second one against great coverage by Verner. He has, as the experts say, great ball skills when the ball is in the air. Catching the second td to put Cal up by 18 (after the ucla field goal, 15) going into half was absolutely huge.

You're good.

Riley had a very strong day as well, putting numerous deep balls (like the one pictured above) right on the money, hitting some short passes (tight one to Miller, slant to Boateng come to mind), and not turning the ball over. He also was great in the pocket, moving to avoid the rush when necessary and taking off to pick up some critical first downs on the ground.

you were good today, despite the mustache.

Finally, Shane Vereen. He was better than Best for much of the day. While he didn't rip off a huge run (his touchdown was only 42 yards), he moved the ball more consistently.

Also good: you.