Yeah, I thought we’d be 5-4 at this point. I really think we can go 6-3 in the second half of the schedule with wins over Washington State, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, and Arizona.

USC won because of fluke shots that energized him. I felt we played better for pretty much the whole game (other than rebounding. dear jesus we were horrible tonight) than SC did. I’m just flattened. I don’t feel like doing anything right now. I feel the win was a fluke. ahh. Plus Jordan Wilkes has a three game stretch where he actually shows a pulse (Oregon game was previous best game of his career, topped tonight) and then of course he gets injured.

when you’re an outside shooting team and you’re not making your outside shots, your deficiencies in the middle are going to show up. Our shots have stopped falling as often as they did at the start of the season, and we don’t have anywhere else to go with the ball when Christopher and Randle aren’t scoring.

I like this team but I think we’re showing that we are who we thought we were. Crown ’em if you want to.

“So Many Reasons To Hate Ragnarok. So. Many. Reasons.” -AndBears, after Ragnarok forgot to take out the trash.

Wilkes is okay and should play Thursday against Washington. His injury was only a minor ankle injury.

As much as I wanted and thought we could win yesterday, 5-4 and tied for 3rd at the halfway point is pretty damn good. Especially considering how every team seems able to beat any other team (well, other than Oregon).

Yesterday was a bad day for the outside game to go away, but part of that is due to $C’’s defense. And yeah, they got some lucky bounces, but that’s not what won the game for them.

The really good news is that other than Ucla, we’ve been “in” every conference game this year, and it wouldn’t have taken much for us to be sitting at 7-2 or even 8-1 right now.

I’m still happy about the effort of the team, and am looking forward to a bit of payback in the 2nd half.

I was thinking how much I didn’t like him, how he frustrates on Offense with improbably shots, timely shots, drives that draw fouls at the end of the game. He hit the shot just before halftime against Cal. He scored that 3 point play by posting up Randle (and 1) at the end. He made an acrobatic reverse layup at the end, too. Dammit. He also frustrates on defense, playing solid and solidly rough. It makes me just want to punch him in the face. Then, I stopped and listened to him in the postgame interview. I never knew he had an Italian accent…(?) Yes, I knew his dad played professionally in Italy, and that he spoke Italian. But he speaks English with a slight accent. Funny.

I stopped and asked myself why I hated him so much. I realized he was exactly the kind of player I would like to have on my team. Tough, Committed. Leader. I tried to picture him in a Cal uniform, speaking with that accent. I’d love it. Ex-Pat comes home and does us proud.

Well, I still won’t root for the guy, but at least I don’t have to hate him, like I do those SC fans in the stands. I’d punch them in the face. (not really, but you know what I mean.)
Peace.

I went to the Cal-USC basketball game on Saturday and it was a terrific! A dramatic last-second win by the Bears. I also went to the Cal-Stanfurd basketball game a couple of weeks ago. Another dramatic last-second Cal win. It was also one of the most exciting sporting events I’ve ever attended. (And I was actually in Memorial Stadium on November 20, 1982 and saw “The Play” in person, so I know a little something about exciting sporting events.) Now our basketball team is ranked #3 in the nation. I think you folks are watching the wrong games. While the Stanfurd game was close to a sell-out, there were less than 3,000 at the USC game. Get out there and show our women some support – they deserve it, plus it’s a lot of fun. (And at $10 for adults and, on Saturdays, $1 for anyone under 18, it’s the best bargain in sports.) Go Bears!