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Max Homa shot Cal's best round of the day on Thursday, a 3-under par 68, to help the Bears secure a spot in the match play portion of the NCAA Championship.

2012 NCAA Men's Golf Championship -- Match Play Quarterfinals

Friday, June 1, 2012

The Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Cal vs. San Diego State

Stream: ncaa.com (coverage begins at Noon PDT)

Live scoring: golfstatresults.com

Matches and Tee times:

10:45 a.m. Max Homa (Cal) vs. J.J. Spaun (SDSU)

10:54 a.m. Brandon Hagy (Cal) vs. Colin Featherstone (SDSU)

11:03 a.m. Pace Johnson (Cal) vs. Matt Hoffenberg (SDSU)

11:12 a.m. Michael Kim (Cal) vs. Tom Berry (SDSU)

11:21 a.m. Joël Stalter (Cal) vs. Alex Kang (SDSU)

The Cal men's golf team is still in the hunt for the second national championship in program history.

Needing a solid team performance in the third and final round of stroke play competition on Thursday at The Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., the Bears got it. Cal's top four scores resulted in the Bears' best round of the tournament (287, +3) and the Bears finished the third round in a fourth-place tie with San Diego State at 19-over par for the stroke play portion of the championship. Only Alabama (+7), UCLA (+9), and Texas (+17) scored better than Cal over the first three days of competition.

After tying for fourth place in stroke play, the Bears and Aztecs draw each other in Friday's match play quarterfinals. The Cal/SDSU match will begin at 10:45 a.m. This marks the first time Cal has advanced to the match play quarterfinals since the NCAA reinstituted match play to decide the team champion in 2009.

This is your open thread for today's match play. Live video for today's action is available at ncaa.com beginning at Noon PDT. (Live video of the playoff between Florida State and Kent State for eighth place is also available at 8:00 a.m. The winner of that playoff will take on Alabama in match play.) Click here for live scoring throughout the day.

See a recap of Cal's Thursday third round, today's match schedule, and the stroke play results after the jump.

GO BEARS!

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Brandon Hagy shot a 2-over par 73 on Wednesday for the Bears. Hagy is tied for 16th after 36 holes of the 54-hole individual competition.

The third round of the 2012 NCAA Men's Golf Championship takes place today at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. And it's gut check time for the Pac-12 champion California Golden Bears: through the first two rounds of stroke play competition, the Bears find themselves in a five-way for eighth place with a team score of 584 (+16). Cal posted a score of 289 (+5) in Wednesday's second round, a six-stroke improvement over the first round that helped move the Bears up seven spots on the leaderboard.

For Wednesday's second round, the Bears started off with early tee times, each of them participating in threesomes with competitors from top-seeded Texas and first-round leader (and # 2 seed) Alabama. Cal started off well, paced by Max Homa's three-birdie, bogey-free front nine. With the top four scores counting toward the stroke play total, Cal's best four (Homa, Michael Kim, Brandon Hagy, and Joël Stalter) were 2-under par on the front nine --- a score that could have been even better but for Stalter's double bogey at the 9th.

As it did for most teams on Wednesday, however, the back nine at Riviera bit the Bears. Cal's top four golfers combined for 10 bogeys and only three birdies on the back nine to give back a little bit of what they gained on the front nine. Still, the Bears managed to put themselves in contention, finishing the day in a tie for eighth place along with Kent State, Florida, USC, and Illinois. Alabama (285-287 - 572, +4) leads the team competition by four strokes over UCLA (289-287 - 576, +8).

Homa led the Bears with a 1-under par 70 on Wednesday. Kim, Stalter, and Hagy each shot 73 (+2) to account for Cal's team score (289, +5). Pace Johnson's 78 (+7) was the score that did not count for the Bears.

Cal's eighth-place standing is important: today marks the final day of the stroke play portion of the competition, with the top eight teams advancing to the match play quarterfinals tomorrow. Follow the Bears as they try to keep their national championship chase alive. This is your open thread for the day's action. Cal will tee off starting at 12:50 p.m. in five threesomes with golfers from Kent State and Liberty. A live video stream will be available at the NCAA.com website. Click on this link for live scoring updates throughout the day.

Also, an NCAA individual champion will be crowned after today's third round of stroke play. Thomas Pieters of Illinois (-5) leads that competition by two shots over UCLA's Anton Arboleda and Florida's Tyler McCumber. Cal's Hagy is in a tie for 16th, seven shots behind.

Scores and leaderboards after the jump.

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The 2012 Pac-12 champions continue their chase for a national championship today.

Tuesday marked the beginning of the 2012 NCAA Men's Golf Championship at historic Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. The third-seeded California Golden Bears got off to a bit of a rough start, posting a team score of 295 (+ 11) and finishing the first round in a tie for 15th place, 10 shots behind first-round leader Alabama.

As expected, Cal used a lineup of sophomore Brandon Hagy, freshman Michael Kim, junior Max Homa, sophomore Joël Stalter, and junior Pace Johnson. For the first three rounds of stroke play format, the top four scores count toward the team total. Hagy was Cal's top individual performer on Tuesday, carding an even par 71. Johnson (72, +1), Kim (76, +5), and Homa (76, +5) posted the other scores that counted toward the Bears' team total. Hagy, Kim, and Homa carded the same number of birdies (three) on their respective rounds, but Kim and Homa were each victimized by the bogey bug. Kim made double bogeys on both the 2nd and 17th holes, while Homa suffered through a stretch of four consecutive bogeys on the front nine (the Bears' second nine, as Cal started the first round on the 10th tee).

Stalter's was the score that didn't count for the Bears' on Tuesday. Stalter shot 78 (+7), a round that was marred by double bogeys on the 5th and 12th holes.

Tuesday's scores also count toward the 54-hole individual competition. Hagy's 71 put him in a tie for 13th place after the first round of the individual competition, just four shots behind leader Anton Arboleda of UCLA.

The Bears will tee off bright and early for the second round with tee times at 7:00 am PDT (Johnson), 7:10 (Stalter),7:20 (Homa), 7:30 (Kim), and 7:40 (Hagy). There will be no live video stream for today's second round, but you can follow the action with this link to the live scoring updates. Live video stream coverage provided by ncaa.com will begin tomorrow for the third round of competition.

After the jump, see the first round team scores and leaderboard.

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He will score three more times while you read this post.

In 2002, ESPN Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons published a column called "The 13 Levels of Losing." That column categorized 13 different types of losses, from the not-so-painful at level 13 to the excruciating, shoot-me-now painful at number 1. Then, in 2007, inspired by the New York Mets' infamous September collapse, Simmons reprised the "Levels of Losing" column, adding three levels to come up with the 16 levels of the agony of defeat. He called it "Levels of Losing 2.0."

Last October, when the Texas Rangers collapsed not once, but twice, in Game 6 of the World Series, eventually losing the game and series to the St. Louis Cardinals, CGB's own norcalnick recalled Simmons' "13 Levels." That recollection turned into this: we thought it would be fun to match each "level" of losing with Cal sports losses that fit Simmons' descriptions. Not only that, we thought it would be a real hoot if we matched Cal losses to not only the "13 Levels," but also to Simmons' updated "16 Levels." Yeah -- doesn't that sound fun? It was so much fun, we couldn't do it all in one installment. We had to do this in two parts! This is part one, where we walk you through the first eight levels, starting with (theoretically) the least excruciating category of losses.

(Okay, maybe "fun" is not the correct word for this project.)

So here we go. Take a self-loathing walk down memory lane after the jump! You know you can't resist doing it.

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Earlier this month, surefire Pro Football Hall of Famer Junior Seau committed suicide in his Oceanside, California home. Why would Seau -- a man who seemingly had so much to live for after his football career ended -- end his life at the young age of 43? Speculation is already rampant that his death was somehow related to the sport Seau played with such memorable passion and reckless abandon.

In the wake of Seau's suicide, valued reader California Pete wrote on this site:

Cal should drop football, now, and be at the vanguard of a rebooting of college athletics in the 21st Century featuring a more equitable, distributed emphasis on both men's and women's sports, on rugby and soccer and baseball and softball, as well as the dozens of other exciting sports played indoors, outdoors, and in the water. I will always cherish my memories of Cal football, and names like Nickerson, White, Pawlawski, Gonzalez, Lynch, Rodgers, et al. will always be heroes for me. And if I casually notice a 2012 Cal team led by Zach Maynard and family that jumps out to a surprise 4-0 start, it will be really hard for me to ignore. Really hard. But it's time. Get rid of the barbaric sport that American gridiron football has become. There is no reason why College Football Saturdays can't feature soccer in the Fall and rugby in the Spring. It works for most of the rest of the world. It could work here, too.

Now, the suicide for Seau has not yet been linked 100% to head injuries sustained as a result of his playing career. However, it is widely suspected that he committed suicide due to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). This is especially true considering that he shot himself in the chest and not the head, similar to former NFL player Dave Duerson.

In light of Seau's death, California Pete's thought provoking post, and serious concerns raised by others about the sport, CGB's writers and mods share their thoughts about CTE, Junior Seau, and the future of football. Read more after the jump.

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We continue our Remembering the Cal Football Seniors series by taking a look at one of the greatest ever to play his position at Cal: Punter Bryan Anger. (Previous installments: Mychal Kendricks, Marvin Jones, Mitchell Schwartz, and Trevor Guyton.

The Jacksonville Jaguars raised some eyebrows on the second day of the NFL Draft when they chose the Cal punter in the third round (70th player taken overall). With that selection, Anger became the highest drafted punter since the Chicago Bears took Todd Sauerbrun out of West Virginia in the 1995 NFL Draft. Sauerbrun lasted 13 years in the NFL; will Anger have a career of similar length?

Anger's Cal career was about as a good as could be. He was the second player in Cal history (center Alex Mack was the first) to earn first-team all-conference honors for three consecutive seasons and, not surprisingly, also won the J. Scott Duncan Award as Cal's Most Valuable Special Teams Player for the same three seasons. Anger was the Bears' starting punter for all 51 games possible in his Cal career and averaged 43.5 yards per punt, ranking second all time behind Scott Tabor's 44.0 yard average in 1986-87. Anger holds Cal's single-season record for punt average, posting an impressive 45.6 yards per punt in 2010. In fact, Anger has three of the top six statistical seasons ever for a Cal punter (44.2 in 2011 is fifth all time and 43.1 in 2008 is sixth all time).

True to his nickname of "Anger Smash," Anger had an incredible 72 punts of more than 50 yards during his Cal career. In fact, Anger has four of the 12 longest punts in school history, including famously booting a 76-yarder vs. Stanford in the 2008 Big Game for his career best. But Anger was just as much about touch as he was about power: he had a knack for pinning opponents inside the 20-yard line, doing it 90 times in his Cal career.

Today, CGB remembers the Jacksonville Jaguars' new punter.

TwistNHook: I cannot remember a time before Bryan Anger was the Cal punter. I presume there were previous punters from a misty before before time. But I sure as hell can't confirm it!

OhioBear: Twist must have a mancrush on Anger that affects his memory because we've had some pretty good punters during the Jeff Tedford era at Cal. Anger's immediate predecessor, Andrew Larson, was pretty good. So was David Lonie before him. And Tyler Frederickson (two-way kicker FTW!) was pretty good before him. Of course, during the Tom Holmoe era, we had Nick Harris, who may have been Cal's best ever punter before Anger. And for us older Blues, we remember Ryan Longwell (another two-way kicker!), Chris Noonan, and Robbie Keen (yet another two-way kicker!) being very good punters. (And even older Blues will wax poetic about Scott Tabor's Pac-10 record 89-yard punt back in the day.)

But I digress...

I am amazed as anyone that an NFL franchise used a third-round draft pick on Anger, let alone any punter. And it's not like the Jaguars didn't have any other needs to address. But while the wisdom of using a third-round pick in the NFL Draft on Anger is certainly debatable, one thing that is NOT debatable is Anger's status as one of the greatest --- if not THE greatest --- California Golden Bear punter of all time.

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Stunningly, we won't be waiting for Bryan Anger to be drafted today. He Anger smashed his way off the draft board already!

Wow. What a night Friday was in the NFL Draft for Cal players. And Marvin Jones wasn't even one of them!

Cal fans did not have to wait long into the second round to see the first Golden Bear plucked off the draft board. But it was a mild surprise whom it was: OT Mitchell Schwartz was the first Cal player taken, 37th overall by the Cleveland Browns. Schwartz will join fellow Cal offensive line alum Alex Mack in Cleveland. (At this point, I may have to like the Browns!)

LB Mychal Kendricks was the next Bear to go, 46th overall to the Philadelphia Eagles, where he will join former Cal stars Nnamdi Asomugha and Desean Jackson.

The big surprise of the night for Cal fans -- well, perhaps not just for Cal fans -- was Cal punter Bryan Anger being taken with the seventh selection of the third round (70th overall) by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Anger was the first punter taken in the first 100 selections since the Chicago Bears drafted West Virginia punter Todd Sauerbrun in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft. Hopefully, Anger can have the same longevity in the league as Sauerbrun, who lasted 13 years in the NFL.

This is your open thread for rounds 4 through 7. Television coverage begins at 9:00 am PDT on ESPN and NFL Network. Where will Marvin Jones go? The Cal wide receiver is still on the board. D-linemen Trevor Guyton and Ernest Owusu also have good chances to be drafted today. Also, will we see one or both of Cal's safeties (D.J. Campbell and Sean Cattouse) drafted? And what about TE Anthony Miller? Perhaps a longshot, but will an NFL team take a flyer on him?

[UPDATE: Yellow Fever is on the scene, so follow him with the CGB Twitter]

The NFL Draft rolls on today with the second and third rounds taking place. Today's action starts at 4:00 pm PDT, with coverage on ESPN and NFL Network.

Chances are very good that we will see a Cal player (or two, or maybe even three) finally come off the board. Linebacker Mychal Kendricks' draft stock has been on the rise and he is expected to go in the second round today. Tackle Mitchell Schwartz may also be chosen today, as many mock drafts have him going in the second or third round. It is also within the realm of possibility that WR Marvin Jones will be taken today.

Thursday's first round of the 2012 NFL Draft came and went in a lightning fast (for the NFL Draft!) three hours. The night saw four Pac-12 players taken in the first round -- not a bad number, but it was still a mild surprise that both Stanford T Jonathan Martin and Stanford TE Coby Fleener went undrafted in the first round. Will those guys still be on the board when Kendricks is drafted?

Talk about all the festivities here. This is your official open thread for day 2 of the NFL Draft.

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Thursday's prime time opening act of the NFL Draft did not feature a California Golden Bear drafted in the first round. The Pac-12, however, was well represented with Stanford QB Andrew Luck (Colts), USC T Matt Kalil (Vikings), Stanford G David Decastro (Steelers), and USC DE Nick Perry (Packers) all being taken in the first round.

The draft resumes today with the second and third rounds. The fourth, fifth, and seventh rounds will take place tomorrow. There is a better than even chance that we will see some Cal guys come off the draft board today. Many mocks, including this one from former NFL GM Charley Casserly, have Cal ILB Mychal Kendricks and T Mitchell Schwartz getting chosen in the second round. The latest second-round mock from NFL.com, taking into account last night's first round, predicts Kendricks going to the Kansas City Chiefs today in the second round, but does not list Schwartz as a second round pick. NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock lists Kendricks as the third-best ILB in the draft and raves about his upside as a versatile guy:

``The neat thing about this kid is he not only ran an impressive time at the combine, but he also was extremely productive at Cal. So the productivity lines up (with the speed). The speed is phenomenal. People are worried about his size. But I think he could start inside in both a 4-3 and 3-4. Some teams also are looking at him as a WILL.''

As for Schwartz, many mocks predicted him as a second-round pick before the draft. But the NFL.com scouting report, though grading Schwartz as a potential second round pick, isn't so sure that's where he will go:

Schwartz is a versatile player who does many things well but doesn't stand out in any one area, and that's likely the rep that will stay with him through the draft. Schwartz is a guy who makes it off effort and smarts. He has decent size for a tackle, and doesn't display strong skills that would encourage a move inside to guard. His size and productivity at Cal will earn him consideration in the fifth or sixth round.

After the jump, see what other Cal guys we might see drafted in the next two days.

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Tonight is the night that 32 college football players have dreamed of for most of their football playing lives: the first round of the NFL Draft. This year, the first two are a foregone conclusion. The Indianapolis Colts have confirmed that they will select Stanford QB Andrew Luck with the first overall pick to become Peyton Manning's successor as the franchise quarterback. Baylor QB and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III is expected to go to the Washington Redskins with the second overall pick. After that is where the uncertainty begins. Until the last few days, the conventional wisdom seemed to be that the Minnesota Vikings would take USC T Matt Kalil with the third selection. But now, that's not clear. Will Minnesota trade the pick? Or will they take the supremely talented LSU CB Morris Claiborne? Or will they go with Kalil after all?

The Cleveland Browns are widely expected to draft Alabama RB Trent Richardson with the fourth overall pick, perhaps completing the Peyton Hillis downward spiral in Cleveland. With the fifth overall pick, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and new coach Greg Schiano would love to take Claiborne. But will he be there?

After that, who knows what will go down? Will the St. Louis Rams pick Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon with the sixth pick or will they take Notre Dame WR Michael Floyd? Or will they do something completely different? Here's a fact for you Notre Dame haters: if Floyd is chosen in the top 10, he will be the first Notre Dame skill position player taken in the first round since 1993, when QB Rick Mirer and RB Jerome Bettis were drafted in the top 10 selections. (As I recall, one of those guys worked out all right!)

Will the Miami Dolphins pull the trigger on Texas A&M QB Ryan Tannehill with the eighth overall selection? Will Stanford really have four players (Luck, T Jonathan Martin, G David Decastro, and TE Coby Fleener) taken in tonight's first round?

One thing we do know, unfortunately: a Cal player will probably not be taken in tonight's first round. Yeah, I know: not even Bryan Anger!

The action starts at 5:00 PT on ESPN and NFL Network. This is your open thread for it all. Enjoy the show.

And after the jump, see what might get Ohio Bear banned from CGB forever.

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Tonight is the first round of the much anticipated 2012 NFL Draft. Unfortunately for Cal fans, we will likely not see a Golden Bear drafted in the first round for the first time since the 2008 NFL Draft. (That year, the Philadelphia Eagles got a steal when they took Desean Jackson in the second round.) But while we will not have the pride of seeing a Golden Bear walk onto the stage at Radio City Music Hall and pose for photos with Commissioner Roger Goodell, we will see many former adversaries make that walk. No fewer than four Pac-12 players are expected to be first round draft choices tonight with as many as six a realistic possibility. And in a happening that will make you think "gee, no wonder they were so good," as many as four Stanford Cardinal footballers are expected to be drafted in the first round tonight, including the first overall selection in quarterback Andrew Luck.

Cal linebacker Mychal Kendricks, the reigning Pac-12 defensive player of the year, has seen his draft stock rise considerably since the end of last season. One of the reasons for that is speed: Kendricks ran the fastest 40-yard dash (4.41 seconds) for a linebacker at the NFL scouting combine since 2000. Even with his stock rising, however, Kendricks is likely a second round pick at best. So we will probably have to wait until Friday to see who will be Kendricks' future employer.

After the jump, get the skinny on the Pac-12 players we can expect to see taken in the first round tonight.

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Trevor Guyton

Our celebration of the 2011 California Golden Bear football seniors continues with defensive lineman Trevor Guyton. (In case you missed our past installments, follow these links for our previous installments for Mitchell Schwartz, Marvin Jones, and Mychal Kendricks.) The 6'3", 280-pound Woodinville, Washington native played in 41 games in his four-year Cal career (2008-2011), starting 16 of them. He had his best season by far as a senior in 2011, sharing the team lead with 4.5 sacks and picking up 10 tackles for loss. In 2011, Guyton also forced two fumbles, recovered two fumbles, and scored his only career touchdown on a fumble return against Fresno State. The good senior season earned Guyton an invitation to the 2012 NFL scouting combine, after which he was rated as a solid value for the sixth round of the NFL Draft. Another draft analyst projects him as a potential fourth round pick.

Today, the CGB staff remembers Guyton's career and looks forward to seeing him play on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays in the NFL.

Kodiak: Trevor Guyton may not have been flashy, but he was one of those solid, blue-collar trench warriors that every team loves to have.

He got better each year and really started to show some burst as a senior. I suspect that he was slowed with some nagging injuries because of the substitution patterns on the line towards the end of the season. When he was in there, he was by far our best defensive end and really did a nice job holding the edge at the point of attack.

If not for the youth at OLB, I think Guyton would have had a bigger impact. Or perhaps not, because the DE in a 3-4 is often overshadowed even when they're doing their job correctly.

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Our celebration of the 2011 California Golden Bear football seniors continues with Mitchell Schwartz, the Bears' most consistent and solid offensive lineman. (For previous installments of our celebration of Cal seniors, click here for WR Marvin Jones and here for LB Mychal Kendricks.) Schwartz capped off his Cal career with first-team All Pac-12 honors in 2011 and also garnered first-team recognition on the Pac-12 All-Academic team. Schwartz started all 51 games possible from 2008 to 2011 at either left or right tackle. That durability and versatility was part of the reason Schwartz was a three-time winner of the program's Brick Muller Award as Cal's most valuable offensive lineman.

Kodiak: Mitchell Schwartz started 51 consecutive games for the Cal Bears. Wrap your head around that one for a second. It's unusual enough for a redshirt frosh to win a starting job. To show such durability and versatility (played both sides) is rare.

During his time at Cal, he had two different position coaches and three different offensive coordinators. Adapting to new systems wasn't an issue for this cerebral player as evidenced by his all-conference 1st team academic honors.

Although more suited physically for right tackle than left, he was moved to left tackle because he was our best lineman and we simply didn't have any other options. Even playing out of position, he was 1st-team all-conference as a senior.

Besides being smart and tough, he was also disciplined and rarely got called for penalties. He's at his best as a run-blocker; he definitely has a bit of mauler in him and has been known to pile-drive smaller defensive linemen in short-yardage situations.

He might not be ideally suited for pulling, but he's mobile enough to get outside on pitch or sweep plays.

In pass protection, he used his size (6'6) with decent arms and did a good job holding up against bull-rushes.

If there's one area where he occasionally had difficulties, it's with pure speed rushers off the edge.

I would expect him to play right tackle in the NFL. Considering his intelligence and experience playing under two different position coaches with NFL experience (Marshall, Michalczik), he's more ready to play than most rookie linemen. Right now, he's probably slated as a capable backup that teams love to have because he can fill in at either tackle.

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Our offseason walk down memory lane to celebrate the 2011 Cal football seniors continues. Last week, we looked back at the career of linebacker Mychal Kendricks. Today, we remember wide receiver Marvin Jones.

Jones' talent was evident from the moment he stepped onto the field as a true freshman. Jones made the wide receiver rotation as a true freshman in 2008, but his debut season was unfortunately cut short by injury. But over the next three years (2009 to 2011), Jones started all 38 games that Cal played. For his career, Jones finished with 156 receptions for 2,260 yards and 13 receiving touchdowns. Each of those figures cracks Cal's top ten all time for those stat categories. Jones also racked up six 100-yard receiving games in his career, good for sixth on the Cal all-time list.

Cal football fans grew to appreciate the tremendous football talent that Jones possesses. But as we learned through the course of his career, Jones is more than a football player.

TwistNHook: Everything you need to know about the experience and maturity of Marvin Jones, you can learn from this article:

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The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament reaches its one shining moment tonight. (See what I did there? If you watch nothing else, you'll want to see what's at the 1:20 mark. Trust me.) It is the national championship game between two of the most storied programs ever to story.

Kansas. Kentucky. Kentucky. Kansas.

These programs have combined for 20 NCAA national championship game appearances and 10 national championships. Kentucky will be going for its eighth national title all time, which would still put it three behind the University of California's southern branch campus on the all-time list. Tonight's championship game has an interesting coaching twist: it is a rematch of the coaching matchup in the 2008 national title game, where Kansas defeated Memphis. Kansas Coach Bill Self won his first national title that night over a Memphis team coached by John Calipari. Can Coach Cal get Self back?

This is your national championship game open thread. Enjoy the game. And the one One Shining Moment afterwards.

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The climactic final weekend of the NCAA men's basketball tournament is here. And looking at the matchups, I can't help but notice that three of the four schools represented are from jurisdictions encompassed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. That's some Circuit domination right there! Go Sixth Circuit!

But enough of the law geek observation. This is a good Final Four. For openers, we have Kentucky vs. Louisville. It's a Bluegrass state epic showdown! It's so big and so bitter that there are people who will throw down at the dialysis clinic if the smack talk gets too heated. The vitriol runs deep. Add to the mix that Louisville Coach Rick Pitino has a chance to end the title run of the storied Kentucky program he once coached and we have the makings of a memorable national semifinal matchup.

The second game is no slouch. Kansas vs. Ohio State. Kansas won a regular season meeting between these two teams in December, but the Buckeyes were playing without All-American Jared Sullinger in that one. Ohio State is obviously a different team with him. But Kansas is also a much different (and better) team than it was in December. You get the feeling that this game has taken a backseat to the Louisville-Kentucky game in terms of Final Four hype, but, on paper, Jayhawks vs. Buckeyes is a good game in its own right.

This is your Final Four open thread. Full schedule after the jump. Enjoy the games.

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Twenty-one Cal football seniors concluded their Golden Bear careers in 2011. None of them was more valuable than linebacker Mychal Kendricks. Kendricks capped off his Cal career with a season to remember in 2011. The Fresno native racked up 106 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss (including three sacks), and two fumble recoveries on his way to capturing the 2011 Pat Tillman Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Award. Kendricks played in all 51 games possible during his four seasons at Cal (2008 to 2011) and finished his career with 258 tackles, good for ninth all-time in the program's history. He was also somewhat of a stat-sheet stuffer in his career: his ledger includes 36.5 tackles for loss (13.5 sacks), seven fumble recoveries, four interceptions (one for a touchdown), a forced fumble, and a blocked punt.

Today, Mychal Kendricks leads off CGB's Remembering the Seniors series. Remember away! And see you in the NFL, Mychal.

Avinash: To start us off, HydroTech, could you relate to us the story that you heard about Kendricks when you worked with the team? And how would you say he performed relative to the standards set in the story?

Hydro Tech: I have two stories to tell of Mychal. First, was a memory from the 2008 Emerald Bowl luncheon. That day, while the team was having lunch with Miami as a part of the pre-game festivities, Zack Follett took the stage for a brief interview with the host. The host was asking Zack how this game would go down. Zack started talking about how he thought Cal was going to dominate Miami and how they were really going to get after the QB, but it wouldn't be him sacking the QB too much because he was being used in a different role this game. Immediately it became apparent that Zack was perhaps talking too much and revealing a bit of Cal's defensive gameplan. Mychal was seated at a table next to me and quietly hissed to our table, "he's saying too much!" with a very concerned look on his face. The other, and more senior, Cal players at my table agreed but couldn't help just laugh about it all.

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The road to New Orleans is almost there. Two more teams will earn Final Four berths today after the final two Elite Eight games are said and done. The two matchups today are almost as chalky as you can get.

South Regional Final - Atlanta, GA

(3) Baylor (30-7) vs. (1) Kentucky (35-2)

11:20 am PDT, CBS

Midwest Regional Final - St. Louis, MO

(2) Kansas (30-6) vs. (1) North Carolina (32-5)

2:05 pm PDT, CBS

These are two good games with some nice story lines. Baylor was a program in the doldrums just a few years ago: can they knock of the Goliath of all Goliaths in college basketball? And how about KU-UNC -- it's the battle of Roy Williams' coaching stops! I think of Ol' Roy as a Jayhawk about as much I think of him as a Tar Heel. But I digress.

Enjoy the games!

Happy Friday, CGB! Tonight, the Sweet 16 action continues as the tournament whittles its way down to the Elite 8. Four more teams will be eliminated tonight in the exercise of "survive and advance."

This is the night for double-digit seeds: there are three of them in action tonight. Perhaps the most intriguing of these is Ohio University. The Bobcats are in St. Louis to take on Midwest Region top seed North Carolina. Carolina is most likely without starting point guard Kendall Marshall, who broke his right wrist (non-shooting hand) in the Tar Heels' win over Creighton last weekend. Marshall had surgery on Monday to insert a screw in the wrist. Without Marshall on the floor, does Ohio have a real chance to keep its run going? We shall see.

Don't like double digit seeds in the Sweet 16? Well, we do have some chalk for you. Indiana vs. Kentucky is the late game in the South Region. UK will try to avenge one of its two losses of the regular season against IU. Hoosier Daddy?

Full schedule after the jump. Enjoy the games.

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Before South Florida's dismantling of Cal began last Wednesday night, these were coveted items for the CGBers in attendance: a game ticket and the "GO BEARS" sign to wave in Dayton Arena.

Last Wednesday night, Dayton, Ohio was Bear Territory. At least, it was Bear Territory for a motley collection of CGB denizens who came from the far flung places of Columbus, OH, and Louisville, KY, to watch our Bears play their NCAA Tournament "First Four" game against the South Florida Bulls. CALumbus Bear, Mrs. CALumbus Bear, The Buckeye Bear, longpasses, and yours truly trekked down to Dayton from Columbus while HeyAlumniGo and his "Oldest Lil HeyAlumniGo" made the trip to Dayton from Louisville, KY. These are our stories.

Ohio Bear: The Columbus Bears met in a Meijer parking lot in a western suburb of the city. I got there a little early and hit a nearby pub to take the edge off before meeting everyone else. I was excited about the game, but felt that familiar nervousness of a football game day. (With good reason, apparently.) I drank a couple of Rogue Dead Guy ales and took some grief about my Cal rugby shirt from a guy who thought they were Michigan colors. I had the last laugh: dude and his GF were drunk and the bartender refused to serve them!

TheBuckeye Bear: I tried to meet at the wrong place, but quickly spotted the bumblebees, thank goodness. (Ed. note: CALumbus Bear, Mrs. CALumbus Bear, and Ohio Bear wore Cal Rally Comm-style rugby shirts. Ironically, despite TheBuckeyeBear's Rally Comm pedigree, TheBuckeyeBear did not join our fashion statement.) On the road to Dayton, we saw signs of what was to come. No, really. They said: HELL IS REAL.

Ohio Bear: In retrospect, we could have really used a picture of one of those billboards for this post. Seems fitting for the night's events, amirite?!? We rode in longpasses' sweet ride. We all just met him and he was cool enough to volunteer his roomy vehicle. Props to TheBuckeyeBear for bringing cookies, which apparently were sent to her from California. I probably partook in a couple too many of those.

CALumbus Bear: Ohio Bear was the only one to have "imbibed" a couple beers before starting the journey, the lucky bum. I was more concerned that his hydration activities might cause us to need to find a restroom (or several) during our trip; however, something else happened. Ohio Bear instead entertained us with many robo-brain-remembered facts about Cal sports history at a somewhat higher-than-normal volume level. As a result, not 3 minutes into the game, Ohio Bear completely lost his voice and was no longer able to cheer (or wail). Ergo, most of the blame for our team's performance rests with Ohio Bear.

Ohio Bear: I dispute this. I don't think my voice gave out until the second half. I was unable to cheer with the requisite enthusiasm when Rob Filley made his shot at the end.

Meanwhile, the HeyAlumniGo duo was driving up from Rick Pitinoville.

HeyAlumniGo: When the day started, I was excited to meet my fellow Midwestern CGBers. Even though I was swamped at work, I took time off to watch my Bears play in the tourney. Oldest Lil HeyAlumniGo came with me and we left around 4:30 to try to get to Dayton by 7 to eat. We did drive by the site of the now destroyed "Sweet Cream Jesus" between Cincy and Dayton. It was this huge above the waist Jesus in a pond with his arms pointing up to heaven in front of this church. Someone made a song about him. "Big Butter Jesus....Sweet cream Jesus..." A couple of years ago it was hit by lightning and burned down.

Ohio Bear: Sweet Cream Jesus. Again, maybe a photo we could have used for this photo essay...

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We have reached the final day of the frenetic first weekend of the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It was upsets galore on Friday night with two #15 seeds beating #2 seeds within hours of each other. Those Missouri and Duke conquerors -- Norfolk State and Lehigh, respectively -- will take the floor again today and try to reach the Sweet 16. A #13 seed, Ohio University, is also in action today after upsetting #4 seed Michigan on Friday night. Next up for the Bobcats? Our familiar foe, South Florida, in a 12 v. 13 seed matchup I'm sure all of you had in your brackets.

Speaking of unlikely third-round games, only two of today's contests (Creighton vs. UNC and Cincinnati vs. Florida St.) feature matchups where the second-round bracketing chalk held. (March) Madness!

By the time today's games are done, eight more teams will punch their tickets to the Sweet 16. This is your open thread for the day. Enjoy the games. Full schedule after the jump.

And a reminder for you Cal fans still wanting to watch Cal play in some March Madness: the Cal women play their first round NCAA tournament game against Iowa at 9 am Pacific Time today!

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We have reached the Friday afternoon and evening action in the first second round of the 2012 NCAA men's basketball tournament. There should be some bittersweet feelings for Cal fans tonight. Okay, who am I kidding? Just bitter. This is the day the Bears could have been playing if they had not been so thoroughly dominated by the South Florida Fighting Stan Heaths in Wednesday night's "First Four" matchup.

South Florida's impressive win over the Bears means that Stan Heath's team is the one playing Temple tonight in Nashville. Can the Bulls make it two in a row and get a chance to play three games in five days? We shall see. That game is tonight, one of the last ones on the slate. There's plenty of action to follow before then.

Full Friday afternoon and night schedule after the jump. Enjoy the games.

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Happy Friday, CGB. I am sure we were all hoping we would have a Cal game to watch today to kick off the weekend. But South Florida's suffocating defense took care of that, didn't it? Sigh. Speaking for myself, I still haven't quite gotten over Wednesday night's game. I'm talking about physically -- I was in attendance Wednesday in Dayton, I yelled my head off, and my voice is still not all the way back yet as of the time of this writing (Thursday evening). Good thing I am not needed as an oralist today.

We're down to 48 teams left after 16 were eliminated on Thursday. Four more will be eliminated after this morning's games.

Enjoy this morning's games. If you have the day off, good for you! If you don't, just add to the lack of productivity that is normally associated with these first two full days of the NCAA tournament. Full morning schedule after the jump.

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Here. We. Go.

The Cal men's basketball team finished its regular season with a thud on Friday night, falling to Colorado 70-59 in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals. Now it is time for the waiting to see if the Bears' season (24-9 overall, 13-5 Pac-12) is deemed good enough to get into the 68-team NCAA tournament field. You can watch the show selection unfold live, as usual, on CBS.

NCAA Tournament Selection Show

Sunday, March 11, 2012

3:00 PM PT, CBS

How good shape are we in? Let's see what some of the "experts" think--

Joe Lunardi thinks Cal is the Pac-12's only at-large entry and predicts Cal as an 11 seed

Jerry Palm has Cal in the field. Barely.

Shawn Siegel at collegehoops.net has Cal in the field as a 10 seed

Check out The Bracket Project for a compilation of different projections from different sources. The consensus is that Cal is in.

Cal is 38th in the RPI (down 2 spots after the loss to Colorado)

Pomeroy's college basketball ratings has Cal ranked 28th

There is added intrigue for the Pac-12, as it is unclear if regular season champion Washington will make the field of 68. If Washington misses, the Huskies will become the first regular season champion from a power conference NOT to make the NCAA tournament. Needless to say, that would be an ignominious distinction for the Pac-12. Not the type of March Madness that the league wants to be a part of.

Cal's loss on Friday night certainly did not do any favors for the Huskies:

With Cal falling in the Pac-12 tournament, one of Arizona or Colorado [ed. note: Colorado defeated Arizona 53-51 on Saturday] will win the conference, effectively stealing a bid from a bubble team. The unfortunate squad was fellow Pac-12 school Washington. This is not because the committee will actively cap the Pac-12's bids at two, but because the Huskies RPI fell to 68th and they didn't beat a Top 100 RPI team in non-conference play.

More information after the jump. Remember, if you want to join our Tourney Pick Em, click here! GO BEARS!

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Former Cal golf star Charlie Wi had the table set for his first PGA TOUR victory Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Wi went into the final round with a three-shot lead over Ken Duke and a four-shot lead over Tiger Woods. But Wi could not shake off a shaky start, eventually grinding his way to an even-par round of 72 and a solo second place finish behind Phil Mickelson. Mickelson, playing with Woods in the second-to-last group, fired a sizzling 8-under par 64 to win at Pebble Beach for the fourth time in his illustrious professional golf career.

In the end, it was Wi's struggles on the front nine that doomed his tournament finish. Wi inexplicably three-putted the first hole on the way to a double bogey and then bogeyed the par-3 5th and par-5 6th holes to drop four shots in his first six holes. Wi eventually settled down and after a birdie at the par-3 12th, he was back in second place and within one shot of Mickelson. But Mickelson posted back-to-back birdies on the 13th and 14th holes to go up by three over Wi. Wi tried to keep pace with a fabulous effort from the greenside rough at the 13th, but his chip hit the flagstick and bounded away. And when Wi bogeyed the 15th hole, the tournament was out of reach.

To his credit, Wi finished strong, making three straight birdies to end his round at even par and claim second place all to himself. For that finish, Wi takes home a cool $691,200. Not a bad turnaround for Wi, who had missed the cut in two of his first three PGA TOUR events to start the season. And his day was certainly more successful than that of Woods, the ex-Stanford golfer: El Tigre was within striking distance, but played himself out of contention with three straight bogeys on the front nine, stumbling to a round of 75 (+3) and finishing in a tie for 15th.

Wi, who played golf at Cal in the early 1990s and turned pro in 1995, has won nine times professionally around the world (including, most notably, once on the Asian Tour and once on the European Tour), but has yet to win on the PGA TOUR. Sunday's finish marked the fifth time that Wi has finished second in a PGA TOUR event and the second time that Wi lost after holding the 54-hole lead. Wi missed a chance to become only the sixth golfer to win both the California Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach (which he accomplished in 1990) and the PGA TOUR's Pebble Beach event.

In other Cal-related news from Pebble Beach, former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers played in the pro-am with PGA TOUR professional D.J. Trahan. Unfortunately, their 12-under par score for the first three rounds did not make the cut for Sunday's final round.

SUPER BOWL XLVI

LUCAS OIL STADIUM, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

NEW YORK GIANTS (12-7) vs. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (15-3)

3:29 pm PT, NBC

The National Football League's championship extravaganza is here. The stage is set for Super Bowl Extra Large Vee Eye in Indianapolis. The New England Patriots and the New York Football Giants will play for the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the second time in the last four years.

In Super Bowl Extra Large Eye Eye four years ago, the Giants pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, defeating the heavily favored Patriots 17-14 in Glendale, AZ, to deny New England's bid to be the first NFL team to go undefeated since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Will Serra High School grad Tom Brady and the Patriots get their revenge in this rematch? Or will Eli Manning and the Giants stay hot and cap off a remarkable run that seemed unlikely when the Giants were a mere 7-7 just six weeks ago?

Cal fans who don't have a rooting (or betting) interest in this game might be wondering: what Cal alumni are in this game for us to cheer for? Well, unlike last year's game when we cheered Aaron Rodgers and Desmond Bishop on to their Super Bowl championship, we don't have any former Golden Bears to watch in this year's Super Bowl. The Giants don't have any Bear alumni on their roster. As for the Patriots, neither of the Cal alumni on their roster will play today: Andre Carter (who had a fine season for the Pats) is out for the season with an injury and running back Shane Vereen is inactive (along with the Patriots' veteran running back Kevin Faulk). With Vereen and Faulk inactive, the Patriots' running back stable consists of BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Danny Woodhead, and Stevan Ridley.

Though inactive for today's game, at least Vereen will get to be there with his teammates, which is more than you can say for poor Tiquan Underwood. The now former Patriots wide receiver was released by the team last night -- less than 24 hours before the Super Bowl kickoff.

As for the biggest story of the Super Bowl hypefest related to on-the-field matters, there was a development yesterday: Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (listed as questionable with a high ankle sprain) appeared for the team's Saturday photo shoot and walked without a limp.

For the Giants, we will not get to see the culmination of a cancer-to-Super Bowl story. Linebacker Mark Herzlich, the former Boston College star who overcame cancer to land on the Giants' roster as an undrafted rookie, is on today's list of the Giants' Super Bowl inactives. As expected, running back Ahmad Bradshaw (foot) and wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (shoulder), who were banged up in the NFC Championship game, are good to go for the G-Men.

This is your open thread for the game. Talk about all the hot game action here. And the commercials. And Madonna's halftime show, too. That should be good, amirite? Get into the groove.

via www4.pictures.zimbio.com

And then there was one: With the Patriots' Andre Carter out with an injury, Shane Vereen is the only Cal football alum left with a chance to play in the Super Bowl this season.

It is the NFL's version of the Final Four. The AFC and NFC championship games are being contested today. Who will be the winners and Super Bowl XLVI combatants? Will it be Patriots-Giants? Patriots-49ers? Ravens-49ers? Or Ravens-Giants in the long awaited rematch of Super Bowl XXXV?

Personally, yours truly is hoping for Patriots-49ers. Shane Vereen in the Super Bowl against my favorite professional football team? Yes please. Now that I've said that, I've probably talked the Juju into striking me down and sticking it to me with Ravens-Giants.

This is your conference championship game open thread. Enjoy the games.

AFC Championship Game

Baltimore at New England, 12 pm PT, CBS

NFC Championship Game

NY Giants at San Francisco, 3:30 pm PT, FOX