Golden Nuggets: Big Game Week Kicks Off

I was hoping to have a recap of today's Big Game press luncheon, but the normal sources are taking longer than usual to post the quotes.  One important (though unsurprising) piece of news is that Best will not play.  His concussion symptoms are gone, but Best's return will be determined by when his back heals up.

So today, we'll look ahead to Cal basketball's trip to the Mecca of basketball: Madison Square Garden.  The coaches generally seem concerned about how their teams played in the past week.  Here's what Monty and Syracuse coach Jim Boheim had to say:

– Boeheim, who last week won his 800th game at Syracuse: "We’re still figuring out how to replace our three leading scorers from last year. We have, obviously, a lot of new parts. We’re like everybody at this stage of the year, trying to figure out how they all fit in. "

– Montgomery, whose Bears face the Orange: "We actually played two pretty good basketbsall teams. Murray State, I thought, was very good. They gave us all we wanted, they’re an experienced team.  Detroit is kind of a work in progress, but with pretty good athletes. Now, all of a sudden, you’re talking about the best athletes in the country, year in and year out, with the teams that will be there."

After the jump, we congratulate Giorgio for winning player of the week honors and look at updated power rankings, post-game quotes, women's basketball's dominant opening victory, and the rest of the results of a generally successful weekend for Cal sports.

Cal Football

• Giorgio Tavecchio earned Pac-10 special teams player of the week honors. Vereen and Mohamed were nominated for offensive and defensive players of the week, respectively.
• Cal is 6th in Ted Miller's Pac-10 Power Rankings.
• JO provides a much more comprehensive list of post-game quotes than what was provided by CalBears.com.  On the play when Riley made a great block to allow Shane to make a 9-yard run, Riley was originally trying to get Shane to pass it to him.  He said that block was the best play of the day for him.  Earlier in the season when he made a great block for Best (or was it Vereen?), Riley was very pleased with himself, calling it one of his favorite plays of his career.
• Daily Cal talks about Tavecchio's field goals and tackle.  Giorgio thought it was funny that, of all players, the doctor was giving stitches to a kicker.
• Daily Cal writes about Vereen's performance.  When Vereen wasn't on the field, he spent much of his time talking to Best about what to do to take advantage of how Arizona was defending him. 

Cal Basketball

• The no. 13/18 women tipped off their season with a 100-43 win over Idaho State.  After a hot start which put them up 29-4, they cruised to victory, converting 34 ISU turnovers into 49 points.

 The Rest of the Weekend in Cal Sports

• Women's soccer defeated Auburn 2-1 in OT to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament, where they met No. 1 Florida State and were defeated 3-0.
• Men's soccer wrapped up the regular season with a 1-0 upset of no. 13/17 Stanford.
• No. 12 women's volleyball defeated Oregon St 3-1 and defeated the no. 16 Ducks 3-1.
• No. 2 water polo continued its streak of dominance by posting a 12-5 win over Pacific and crushed no. 13 Santa Clara 15-4.