DBD 10/1/09: A Time for Regrouping. And Honking.

A shot of curry powder in your honor.

But this one earns a rex’d

Let’s go hiking, I know some great places.

Isn’t it October now?

Very interesting read here.

It captures a lot of the thoughts I’ve been having about the changes going on in the Pac-10, and the very real risk that with another disappointing season Cal could slip into the middle of the Pac.

We are teetering on the edge, and this is simply a huge game for the program’s near-term prospects.

Super Rem’d

It’s fucking hot in South East Asia. The kind of hot that punches you in the chest and beats you around the head and shoulders until you just give up and go get an ice coffee.

I’m celebrating my country of residence’s 60th anniversary celebrations by getting the heck up out of there and go to the 4th and least evil, reletively speaking socialist country in Asia.

I’m going to go gorge myself on com, ban minh and pho over the next 4 days, and even I have to re>’d this post.

There is so much hilarious in this video (want the full game summary go to :22, if you want the funny go to 1:30).

I can’t stop laughing at this. I’m going to be a terrible parent.

Here’s Feldman top 2, which are pretty obvious must-watches (warning: need Insider subscription to view all).

1. Florida Gators vs. LSU Tigers (Oct. 10)

We’ve all pointed to this game for months as the biggest potential stumbling block in the Gators’ march to a perfect season — and all that was before Tebow’s concussion.

The brief history: Two years ago in Baton Rouge, LSU took some fourth-down gambles and won. Last year it was ugly: Florida won 51-21. Florida is trying to get through a season without losing to an SEC West team for the first time in a decade.

2. Texas Longhorns vs. Oklahoma Sooners (Oct. 17 in Dallas)

The Longhorns won last year but feel jobbed because OU was sent to the Big 12 title game and got a shot at the BCS championship. This year, it sure seems that this game could decide whether the Horns get the BCS berth this time around. Oklahoma, meanwhile, is optimistic that it can use a win at Miami (Oct. 3) and then this game to springboard itself back into the BCS picture.

Shoots back. BLOG FIGHT!

You have to wonder if ‘Dr. Saturday’ is even watching the games, as he makes the case here that USC’s current offensive problems are basically about turnovers and penalties.

    No mention that the numbers put up so far have been against the weakest part of the Trojan schedule. USC is averaging 19.3 ppg the last three games and if you take away that last drive against Ohio State in the final minutes, it falls to 16.6 for a unit that returned nine starters from 2008 (also, two of USC’s scores against WSU came off of an onside kick and a turnover inside the Cougar 30). The Trojans are one of the worst teams in the country at third down conversions. But why get into that? Much easier to slap some selective numbers together to ‘prove’ that the latest edition of the USC offense compares to recent ones.

Don’t go too crazy carp. (Click here for NSFW pics)

LINK

Bradford is a bruiser if given the chance but he is not a short yardage, goal line running back…even the coaches acknowledge that. Bigger does not necessarily mean better sometimes you need some some agility and Johnson provided that. Of course the flip side is that if USC is on the opposing teams goal line and Johnson was back there you could call it a telegraphing of the play. SC has been guilty of that in the past. With Gable or Bradford back there you could still say that SC will try to punch it in but you never know of they could pull a rabbit out their hat with a new look

I almost laughed. Almost.
(I’m still depressed, after all.)

Flagg’ed for showing porno to children.

Mens water polo to take on USC:

Bear Bites:

In a showdown between two of the most storied collegiate water polo programs in the nation, the No. 4-ranked Cal men’s water polo team (8-2) will host No. 3-ranked and defending national champion USC (9-1, 1-0 MPSF) Saturday, Oct. 3 in a noon match at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The Golden Bears, who defeated the Trojans in both the 2006 (7-6) and 2007 (8-6) national championship matches, fell to USC earlier this season, 8-6, in the third-place match of the NorCal Invitational, Sept. 20 at Stanford. Cal has won an NCAA-record 13 national titles, while the Trojans have four titles. The match versus USC is the Bears’ MPSF league-opener.

Cal Standouts:

Head coach Kirk Everist’s troops feature several key returnees from last season, including senior captains Spencer Warden and Mike Sample, and juniors Brian Dudley and Zach White – all members of the Bears’ 2007 NCAA championship team. Warden and Dudley notched scores during the 8-6 win over USC in the `07 final. Warden, a three-time All-American, garnered second-team All-America honors last year after leading Cal with 40 goals and 68 steals; while Dudley was an honorable mention All-American after scoring 28 goals, including a match-winning shot in overtime at Long Beach State. The Bears also feature 6-2, 190-pound sophomore attacker Cory Nasoff, who earned this season’s first MPSF Player of the Week accolade when he notched 11 goals in three Navy Open matches with seven assists, five steals and two ejections earned. Nasoff is currently tied for fourth in the MPSF with 2.33 goals per game. As a team, Cal is second in the MPSF with 13.7 goals per game.

Womens Tennis hosts Nike Invitational:

BERKELEY – The California women’s tennis team begins its fall tournament season as hosts of the 2009 Cal Nike Invitational this weekend (Oct. 2-4) at the Hellman Tennis Complex and the Channing Tennis Courts. Some of the top women’s collegiate tennis talent from around the country will converge on Berkeley for a three-day, three-flight tournament with play beginning at 8 a.m. PT each day. Cal welcomes players from Arizona State, BYU, Fresno State, Long Beach State, Minnesota, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pacific, Sacramento State, Saint Mary’s (CA), San Francisco, Santa Clara, UC Davis, UCLA and USC.

Singles players will be divided into three flights; Gold, Blue and White. The Gold and Blue flights will each carry 32 players with the top eight in each flight holding seeds. The White flight fields 12 singles players. Doubles teams will be separated into three flights as well. The Gold doubles flight will feature four seeded teams atop a field of 16. The Blue doubles flight will also feature 16 teams; two seeded. The final doubles flight will be determined closer to the beginning of play. Players and doubles teams eliminated in the first round of play will be placed into consolation brackets which will not be played to completion.

The Golden Bears have three singles players ranked in the ITA preseason rankings. Sophomore Jana Juricova holds the No. 4 ranking and is joined by No. 18-ranked junior Marina Cossou and No. 26-ranked junior Mari Andersson. Andersson and Juricova are ranked No. 2 in the nation among doubles teams as the defending NCAA doubles champions.

10 other participating players hold ITA preseason singles rankings: Arizona State brings No. 7 Kelcy McKenna and No. 68 Micaela Hein; BYU brings No. 97 McCall Jones; Long Beach State brings No. 121 Anais Dallara; Oklahoma brings No. 71 Ana-Maria Constantinescu; Pacific brings No. 69 Jenifer Widjaja; Saint Mary’s brings No. 55 Alexandra Poorta; San Francisco brings No. 45 Jenni Heinser; and UCLA brings No. 11 Yasmin Schnack and No. 37 Andrea Remynse.

Mens tennis heads to Fresno State:

BERKELEY – The California men’s tennis team will send seven players to the 2009 Fresno State Bulldog Classic this weekend (Oct. 2-4) at the Wathen Tennis Center and the Fresno City College Tennis Courts in Fresno, Calif. Nine schools will be represented at the annual Central Valley tournament as Fresno State hosts the Golden Bears, Cal Poly, Fresno City College, Nevada, Oregon, San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, and the defending NAIA Champion, Fresno Pacific.

The Bulldog Classic is a traditional bracket tournament with A, B and C flights for singles; A and B flights for doubles. Approximately 70 players will take part in the three-day event with matches beginning at 9 a.m. each day. Cal will be represented by senior Bijan Hejazi; juniors Zach Gilbert and Bozhidar Katsarov; sophomores Sky Lovill and Tommie Murphy; and freshmen Riki McLachlan and Christoffer Konigsfeldt.

Last year, the Bears won both doubles titles as junior Pedro Zerbini teamed up with partner Geoff Chizever to win the A Flight doubles championship and junior Zach Gilbert earned the B Flight doubles crown with partner Andy Chirita. Zerbini also advanced to the A Flight singles final where he fell in a third-set tiebreaker to Fresno State’s Rikus de Villiers.

Two decade long rugby manager to end full time role with bears:

BERKELEY – Jerry Figone, for over two decades the team manager for California rugby, will take a well-deserved vacation from the Golden Bears for the rest of 2009 before transitioning to a part-time schedule.

Figone will dip his toe into the retirement pool by ending his full-time status with Cal but will remain a match-day mainstay with a significant role on the team.

“I am forever indebted to the experience, the love I have and feel from these incredible student-athletes,” Figone said. “I look forward to the next chapter of this great program.”

Figone first joined the staff as an assistant coach in 1985, one year after Jack Clark became head coach, and over time became the team’s manager. He was also involved with Clark in USA Rugby beginning in the mid-’90s, eventually becoming its equipment manager.

“Jerry continues to be a key ingredient to our success in building this program,” said coach Clark. “He’s a loyal friend and respected colleague for me personally and to every man who has matriculated here. I’m just so glad we’ll still be able to count on him on a part-time basis.”

On Figone’s new schedule, Clark said, “Since full-time work is about 80 hours a week to Jerry, we’ll need to show great discipline in not allowing him to reduce it by half and call his efforts part-time.”

Womens golf to head to Washington:

The No. 17 California women’s golf team will compete in their second tournament of the season, the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational, near Seattle, Wash. Monday Oct. 5 through Weds. 0ct. 7.

Cal is coming off a second-place team finish at the Golfweek Conference Challenge held Sept. 13-15 in Primm, Nevada. Cal finished a single stroke behind first-place Pepperdine in the tournament that featured 18 teams from 18 different Conferences. The Bears four scoring golfers posted no-worse than one-overs in the final round to give the Bears their push toward victory. Sophomore Diane Kwon had a very steady, consistent tournament, carding three straight one-over 73’s to finish at +3, in a tie for sixth place. The Bears were once again paced by preseason All-American Pia Halbig. The junior finished tied for third with a 216 (E).

This week, the Bears head to the Pacific Northwest for the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational, hosted by the University of Washington. The tournament will be the first glimpse that Cal gets at some of this year’s Pac-10 squads. The tournament will be held once again at the par-72, 6,130 yard Sahalee Golf Course in Sammamish, Wash. Sahalee is rated one of the top 100 courses in America with 27 holes carved out of the tall majestic Cedar and Douglas Fir native to the Pacific Northwest. The club hosted the 1998 PGA Championship and the 2002 World Golf Championship-NEC invitational and will serve as the host for the 2010 US Senior Open.

Whats a website where I can host mp3s and I can send people links and they can go and listen to the song? Tnx.

Fantastic DBD. You’ve captured the essence of CGB to a T. Rec’d!

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1877287/California%20at%20Oregon.avi

right click, save as. Do not share this link.

Anyone see the pilot last week?

I thought the adverts looked really intruiging, but I never got a chance to watch it until last night. Man, it’s really good. The show has been compared to Lost and the comparisons really aren’t that off. Sure, it doesn’t take place on an island, but the overall feel is the same (there was one especially Lost moment towards the end of the show).

The premise is really interesting and I really hope this show can carry on for a while.

Episode two is tonight.

Thoughts?

Laughed all the way through — nice start to the morning. Woo! Go Bears!

Particularly loved that rollonu used Twist’s scarf as a cleanup rag.

Taken from the Silver post, which is a must-read for anyone with a pulse.

I think the word DOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED is the one you’re looking for

Also, as a self-hating Scot, I don’t even sound Scottish. I am morose and prone to attempting to save money though.

Wilner has an interesting piece up:

At Jeff Tedford’s press conference Tuesday, I asked how far back he’ll go watching film of previous Cal-USC games.

His answer: Three years.

So I pulled out the box scores from the past three Trojan-Bear affairs and looked for clues and trends that would help me get a handle on Saturday’s game. One jumped out:

In the three games — all USC wins, of course — the Trojans have outscored Cal by a total of 35 points.

But in the fourth quarter, USC has outscored Cal by 28 points (actual score: 28-0).

That means there’s a mere seven-point difference for 45 minutes and a massive edge to USC in the final 15.

It seems fairly unlikely that Cal will be far enough ahead Saturday that it can once again cede the fourth quarter to USC and still win.

And how did HydroTech become Tripod.

And who’s my master?!

Anyone else nervous about the recent seismic activity and, I dunno, a game in Strawberry Canyon this weekend?

The Emperor doesn’t even use a PC. Which, if this were BN, would be a little odd.

Now he was sitting behind his desk, kicked back deep in his swivel chair, listening to music, alternating between e-mail on his Mac and texts on his iPhone. (He uses the stopwatch app to clock forties.)

Right now I only count three definites. Yellow fever, we missing anyone?

1. Will the real Cal please stand up? California can’t possibly be as bad as it looked at Oregon. You look up and down the roster and check off guys with NFL futures and just shake your head. So, do the Bears put it together and play to their potential against USC? Or will they look out of sync again? It’s possible that Cal could put forth a strong effort and still lose, but at least that might leave some sparks for a strong run through the rest of the conference slate.

We need to beat U$C because they are evil fucks and that is that.

Rec’d.

Go here and give us your input so we can finalize the details.

Make them.