Read more after the jump. Back to 1 spot remaining with Vachel Samuel's departure. [Edit: Added Barr, Gibson and Walls to the commit list! Loggy, Samuels gone. Added B. Tyndall as class of 2010 transfer. Blackmon removed as target.]

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The 113th Big Game will be the 44th hosted at California Memorial Stadium since 1923. Our record at Memorial Stadium is 19-19-5. One more win would give us a winning record in Strawberry Canyon! The longest home win streak is 5 from 1952-1960. If you count the tie in 1950, the unbeaten streak reached 7 from 1948-1960. Our current win streak is 4 from 2002-2008.

We must close out the stadium in its current configuration with a victory just as we opened with a Big Game victory in 1923! We need to match the all-time home winning streak! Let's honor Andy Smith, Stub Alison, Pappy Waldorf, Joe Kapp, and all of the Golden Bears who have come before us!

GO BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TwistNHook Note:  CaliforniaEternal has a great post here regarding progress on the Student Athlete High Performance Center.  We wanted to highlight his amazing work.  After the jump, please take a closer look at some of the impressive changes happening to our beloved Memorial Stadium.  And thank you very much to CaliforniaEternal!  GO BEARS!]

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A look at the team roster reveals that the 2011 recruiting class will likely have 19-22 spots available, with the full 25 possible depending on how certain things play out.

There are currently 15 seniors on the roster whose eligibility will expire.  Let's take a look at them after the jump.

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Welcome to the July construction update! On a clear Saturday afternoon, just moments before the fog rolled back in, I had a chance to stop by for another installment.

The stadium itself was sealed off and I couldn't take pictures from above. I'm not sure if it was open earlier in the day because there were a few joggers still in there. Sucks for them, because that is one high fence to be climbing. There were still some nice views from street with the concrete exterior now finalized.

Later that day, as I was driving from Target to Vik's Chaat, on San Pablo close to University, I came to a stop light when I see a certain football player.  He is waiting to cross the median and appeared to be heading into some super sketchy halal food market. I stop before the intersection to allow him to cross, and he acknowledged my Cal Go Bears license frame on my front license. I wanted to roll down my window and greet this player whose face I recognized, but whose name I couldn't remember at that moment!

About 20 minutes later, as I'm indulging in some delicious chaat, I suddenly blurted out "IT'S GABE KING!!!" My brain had finally put the name to the face, and I managed to scare my fiance and some Indians sitting next to us. The short dreadlocks I had seen in so many recruiting pictures were the main giveaway that it was in fact Gabe King.

Just from that quick look, I would be shocked if Mr. Gabe King doesn't play this year. His size is really impressive for an incoming freshman.

Back to the update. A preview of what's yet to come!

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*Totals include football, men's and women's basketball, and women's volleyball since all Pac-10 schools are required to compete in these sports. Also included are Cal rugby and Utah men's and women's skiing.

Does the University of California carry too many sports teams? That is the philosophical question being faced right now by the university.

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Since my last visit to Strawberry Canyon, there have been a number of significant changes to the SAPHC and stadium. Most noticeably, steel braces are being lined up to support the stadium for the renovation project.

Before we continue with the update, I want to share a sad story about an inquiry I made to the UC facilities management team. I thought, since the official sources are providing so little coverage,  an on-site tour of the SAHPC would be nice so we could take some pictures for all to see and ask some construction questions that have come up in previous updates. Suffice it to say, the CGB community has been thoroughly disrespected by both facilites management and Cal Athletics media relations.

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Yesterday, in an otherwise dull election, Measure J in Santa Clara that authorizes a new stadium in Santa Clara for the 49ers passed by a large margin. The final vote total was 11,231 for, or 59.61%, and 7,609 against, or 40.39%.

Quite a victory for the 49ers, whose main challenge now is to line up financing before breaking ground in 2012 and opening in 2014. The 49ers, who spent $3 million to $4 million on the campaign, and the NFL, which does not have a modern stadium in California, will both be highly motivated to make this happen.

So how will this affect the California Golden Bears? Quite simply, this could be the start of the relocation of all three professional sports franchises currently in the East Bay. That would leave the Bears as the only game in the East Bay, a potentially positive development.

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I stopped by Strawberry Canyon the other day to check out the construction progress. In one month's time since my last visit, some nice progress has been made, and as Berkelium97 noted, some milestones are being reached this month.

Let me know if you find this update useful and interesting. This could be a good monthly feature if people are interested.

As part of the project to seismically strengthen California Memorial Stadium, steel braces will be installed along the west wall of the stadium. They will be installed starting May 15 and will rest on the plaza on top of the SAHPC.

Forming and pouring exterior walls continues. Concrete pours continue to take place approximately every three days. The final concrete pour for the new building’s exterior is scheduled to take place May 27.

Installation of interior utilities (plumbing, electrical and sprinklers) is underway on the first floor of the new building.

Starting with the south end, we can see the work on the 4th level of the structure. Most of the SAHPC is a two-level structure, but on the south end starting at section HH, the structure contains two additional floors for coaching offices for the olympic sports.

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          Now that basketball season is over, it's time to get back to business. At long last, seismic retrofit and improvements to the west side of Memorial Stadium are beginning this year. As can be seen in this diagram, the west side renovation (phase 2)  will include the field and almost 2/3 of the seating sections, from section W in the northeast corner all the way to section MM in the south end zone. That leaves 18 of the 48 sections for the next phase. Since the east side renovation plans and schedule haven't been discussed in much detail, I wanted to to offer my perspective on this important project.

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A "study" (using the term generously) by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida that looks at graduation rates claims that Cal has a zero graduation success rate for black and white basketball players entering school from 1999-2002, with an overall graduation rate of 20%. Meanwhile, Cal has an APR of 944 for the period from 2004-2008, well above the 925 number that can result in scholarship reductions and other penalties. So it seems as though for more recent years the graduation rate is better. The "study" notes that a 925 APR score is equivalent to an NCAA GSR rate of approximately 60 percent.

The Institute reviewed 2002‐03 graduation (six‐year) rates, with a four class average (freshman classes of, 1999‐2000, 2000‐01, 2001‐02, and 2002‐03). The APR data in this study does not include data from the 2008‐09 academic performances of the teams, but instead uses the four‐year data from the 2004‐05, 2005‐06, 2006‐07, and 2007‐08 academic years.

The "study" lists Cal as having an overall overall student graduation rate of 80%. A related study looking at football graduation rates shows Cal has an overall football graduation rate of 64%, with 62% for black players and 69% for white players. These numbers are from 1999‐2003, so that covers some pre-Tedford recruiting classes. The overall football graduation rate from the bowl teams in 2009-2010 is 65%, with 58% for black players and 77% for white players.

Now, getting back to basketball. Is the data correct that Cal did not have a single black or white basketball player graduate who enrolled from 1999-2002? I thought for sure that at least Gabriel Hughes, Amit Tamir, Richard Midgley, and Rod Benson graduated. Is this wrong or is the NCAA data messed up? Maybe others graduated as well. I don't know if signed players who didn't even enroll count in the data, but players who transfer and graduate somewhere else do not count against the graduation rate.

The only thing I can conclude from this study and the graduation rates in general is that Ben Braun was not only a bad coach on the court, but was a failure when it came to the academic progress of his players. The program was in such disarray that many of the players he recruited did not even have a chance to graduate.

1999: Donte Smith [enrolled spring 1999], Joe Shipp, ShanTay Legans, Brian Wethers, Nick Vander Laan

2000: Saulius Kuzminskas, Gabriel Hughes, Michael Lawson

2001: Jamal Sampson, Julian Sensley, Erik Bond, Amit Tamir

2002: Richard Midgley, David Paris, Rod Benson, Jordi Geli Vilardell, Kennedy Winston

I went to Cal Pro Day at Memorial Stadium today. The weather in Strawberry Canyon was just fantastic so that made for a pleasant morning. JO made a list of participants. Jahvid did not participate in any of the activities. They started with the 40 yard dash. The scouts were using stopwatches to time everything, and several spectators in the crowd were also timing with their phones and comparing times. A whole lot less accurate than the slow motion video the NFL combine uses for the official times. After the 40 they split up into different drills like the shuttle run, cone drills, and various position drills. I took this little video of Syd'Quan Thompson running the 40. I also have a few pictures from the event and some SAHPC construction shots as well.

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I noticed that the university posted some new information about the stadium renovation, so I thought I would summarize it here for anyone that is interested. The entire 141 page document can be found here. This document is an EIR addendum to the Southeast Campus Projects specific for the stadium west side renovation project.

The EIR approval for the west side renovation is scheduled to be approved at the next UC Regents meeting [Jan 19-21]. This is the final approval needed for the renovation to proceed. Construction preparations will begin in the spring of 2010, with the major work beginning after the conclusion of the 2010 football season. We will be playing the 2011 season off-site as everyone is well aware of by now. The stadium will be ready in time for the 2012 season.

The west side of Memorial Stadium will look something like this when the renovation is complete:

via img85.imageshack.us

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