DBD 11.19.09: TwistNHook's Palo Alto Adventure

I have to admit, I just skipped to the Bartholomew the Bear part. And still laughed at that photo. Rec’d.

If #14 Furd in their rivalry game won’t sell out, I don’t know what will. Buy tickets Cal fans!

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Best said he is shooting for Dec. 5 against Washington for a return. He acknowledged it’s going to be a day-by-day thing and there really is now way of knowing right now if he’ll be ready by then, but that is his goal. Best said he has had two rehab sessions and the second one, which was tonight, showed a lot of progress from the first one. He says if that rate of improvement continues, then Washington is a possibility.

Farudo:

– On whether Cal’s 3-point shooting ability poses a problem or plays into the hands of a team that uses an aggressive zone defense: "Any team that shoots well gives you trouble. It never plays into your hands. They’re a very good offensive team. They’ve got veteran guys that have been able to score, that have proven they can play offense."

– His impressions of PG Jerome Randle: "He’s a tremendous player He can score, he can penetrate, he’s as good as anybody in the country. Their perimeter guys are tremendous — they can really shoot the ball and they can get by you."

– On starting freshman Brandon Riche at point guard: "It’s a matter of feeling comfortable. Physically, he’s certainly strong enough to play as a freshman. Having veteran guys around you really helps you, which Brandon does have."

Mike Wilbon of PTI mentioned it yesterday, now a radio interview; of course Harbaugh denies it all.

Host Bruce Murray: "You are a hot prospect now in college football. You are going to be sought after. Do you have outs to go to other jobs should they present themselves in your contract?"

Jim Harbaugh: "Well, I love Stanford and I love the football players here and the coaches here. I’m not going to specifically discuss my contract but I hope to have the honor of coaching here, Bruce, for a very long time."

Murray: "But you’ve heard the rumors and I’m not saying that you would entertain it. You know if something doesn’t work out with Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, as an alum you’re going to be called by them … "

Harbaugh: "Let me just stop you right there, Bruce. This is big game week. This is Cal week, and as you would understand, all my focus and our focus has to be on that. So if we’re going to keep going into this I’ve got other things that are more pressing. … This week is just one of those weeks where the focus really has to be on the game we’ve got coming up."

And seems to…uh…appreciate him a lot.

Besides, nobody does the not-a-candidate-candidate thing quite like Harbaugh. He’s as subtle as a bag of padlocks to the groin in everything he does, most notably of late the two-point conversion try against USC in an attempt to widen a four-touchdown lead with six minutes to play last weekend. It was such a trouser-dropping that Harbaugh’s explanation (“We were running well, and we just wanted to punch it in there”) has been interpreted widely and correctly and accurately as “I wanted to jam a golf umbrella in Pete Carroll’s nose and open it three or four times, just because I could. What of it?”

Harbaugh’s is that combination of attitude and unexpected success that causes potential job posters to drool. Classic good looks with a smile that says, “I’m about to deny what you just saw me do and I’m going to make you take my side.” He has snapped the once-comatose Stanford program back into regular sinus rhythm. He makes alums think, “That’s what we need around here.”

Good, okay, flop?

The N.F.L. potential of Gerhart, who ranks second in touchdowns and third in rushing yards in the Football Bowl Subdivision, has shot up the way 14th-ranked Stanford has in the polls. But his presence in the April draft is not a foregone conclusion. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound Gerhart is also a professional baseball prospect. A three-year starter for the Cardinal, he is an outfielder known for his defense and speed on the bases.

After the bowl season, Gerhart will decide whether he will train for the N.F.L. scouting combine or plow right into his senior season of baseball. Gerhart has juggled both sports in high school and college because he could never settle on one.

Ann Killion of SI thinks so.

Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh warned Monday against the “ills of hubris”

Which was pretty amusing, considering he spent his weekend as the poster child for hubris (noun, Greek origin, definition: excessive self confidence, arrogance).

Harbaugh’s Stanford team has transformed from the wimpy Clark Kent of a few years ago to Superman — beating Oregon one week and vivisecting USC the next.

He values hard work apparently.

Harbaugh: "I just always felt if you work hard, great things will happen. It’s part of my upbringing. I respect a job well done. I like to watch a guy direct traffic for an hour. I’ve done it. He was doing a really good job at that."

Q: "You watched a guy direct traffic for an hour?"

Harbaugh: "I did."

Q: "Where?"

Harbaugh: "San Diego."

Q: "You just happened to see a guy directing traffic and you said, ‘That’s really neat. I’d like to watch him.’"

Harbaugh: "He was really good at it — with the hands, with the whistle, the way he was controlling the flow of the traffic. That’s the kind of stuff I like. I like watching people do something really well to the best of their God-given ability."

You learn certain Harbaugh nuggets from this vignette. He likes to watch someone direct traffic. He appreciates technique. He appreciates hard work. He appreciates regular people. And if you hang around him, say, 10 minutes, you’ll hear him use his favorite phrase — "blue-collar." Harbaugh uses it even though it’s a cliché and he works at the least blue-collar university in the known world.

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The standard course load at Stanford is 15 credits. This quarter, Gerhart is taking 21. Then he’ll be three courses from his degree in management sciences and engineering. He’s taking investment science, integral calculus, introduction to optimization (engineering), prehistoric archaeology and high-technology entrepreneurship.

He’d like to go to a four-year graduate program that would give him both an MBA and a law degree, depending on how pro football works out.

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Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, will hit the road Friday for a special edition of “Chronicle Live” on Friday at Stanford at 5 p.m. The show will break down Saturday’s 112th Big Game and will feature former Stanford and Cal players, broadcasters and alumni on the program.

The public is invited to watch a taping of the live show, which will take place at the football practice facility.

The guest list includes former Stanford football All-American Darrin Nelson, former voice of Stanford football Bob Murphy, former Stanford lineman and current Stanford radio broadcaster Mike McLaughlin, former Cal player and head coach Joe Kapp, and former Cal quarterback Steve Levy.

Unfortunately I can’t read it all because it’s Insider content. LAME.

The Big Game looms this weekend for Stanford and California, but thanks in part to California’s seemingly inconsistent play, it has been hard to get a read for who has an advantage. Jeff Tedford’s Golden Bears have proved they are a capable team by beating No. 17 Arizona without Jahvid Best and scoring 94 combined points against UCLA and Washington State. But they also scored a combined six points against Oregon and USC.

Cal has built a reputation for up-and-down play, but in terms of week-to-week performance, have they really been any less consistent than anybody else? Not really. In fact, they aren’t even in the top 5 most inconsistent teams. Let us explain.

And that’s where it ends. Again, LAME.

Has he been playing like one?

QUARTERBACKS

   1. Andrew Luck, Stanford FR

   Must admit I was sleeping on this redshirt freshman until the Cardinal’s whompin’ of Oregon. Then I made a point to see him against Southern California’s battered resistance. And look, I know USC is a shell of its ’08 defense. But Jim Plunkett and John Elway will be proud of this kid. He is one impressive specimen.

   After stumbling against Oregon State, he’s had one great game after another. Without being reckless, Luck zips passes between the seams and picks his spots nicely. Only three picks all year in 238 attempts. Can really zing the 14-yard square-out, has a quick, fluid release and hits the long ball, witness his whopping 9.3 yards per attempt even with an ordinary .580 completion rate.

This is why Gerhart won’t win the Heisman:

To the voters, Gerhart is, if I can venture the term, a “system runner.” A trumped-up fullback in a power-running game who’s shown uncommon speed and balance, but is nowhere near the “other” running backs in terms of skill because of his race.

This will be what prevents him from winning the Heisman.

Now, I am certainly not saying the Heisman is biased against white people. That’d be a tough argument to make, given that only two black players have won this decade.

But Gerhart is still the victim of a subtle, persistent racism against white running backs—and against blacks in the quarterback position, for what it’s worth. And though this subtle racism can be supported by NFL combines and Wonderlic tests, it harms those small few who are the exception.

Donovan McNabb is probably one of the greatest players this decade, and certainly one of the most exciting to watch, lack of Super Bowl rings aside. But in those games, or stretches of games, where he’s struggled, it is his intelligence, not his ability, that is routinely questioned.

We can fire the Rush Limbaughs of the sports announcing world all we want. (Although, is Keith Olbermann really a better choice?) The belief that McNabb, Jason Campbell, or Vince Young cannot succeed because they’re not naturally bright will persist each time they face difficulty in games.

On the other side of the coin is Gerhart. Heisman voters will be quick to point out his 82 yards against Wake Forest in Stanford’s 24-17 loss in Week Two, or his 96 yards in the Cardinal’s 38-28 loss to Oregon State.

If Gerhart was the Great White Hope, why didn’t his natural ability help him rise above those struggles?

Now they try and adjust to the lights under Madison Square Garden. Also a Jeff Goodman podcast discussing Syracuse’s famous 2-3 zone.

It’s a been-there-done-that situation for Montgomery, but not for most of his players. Indeed, the anticipation of competing at the historic facility has put his team in a different mood.

“The practice was very spirited,” Montgomery said at Monday’s press conference. “(The players) are excited about it-as they should be. It’s an interesting place, and it’s a fun place to go.”

Christopher was at Madison Square Garden for the NBA Draft in 2007, when his friend Kevin Durant was taken as the second pick overall, but the swingman has never played there. And instead of trying to overcome the jitters, he thinks Cal (2-0) can use the added excitement to its advantage.

“We kinda want to be a little more amped up for the game instead of calm,” Christopher said. “We need to be fired up.”

extended fake conversation between blog posters using photos is win.

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Boeheim is such a guru of the zone alignment he sells a DVD called “Jim Boeheim’s Complete Guide to the 2-3 Zone Defense.” Price tag: $39.99. Probably worth the price, considering it includes a segment on how to take advantage of any zone defense.

The man responsible for triggering Cal’s attack is point guard Jerome Randle, who is generously listed at 5-10, but has great quickness and deep shooting range.

“There’s always a way to beat a zone,” Randle said. “You need ball movement and penetration. What we have to do is not get trigger happy. We have to be smart, pass the ball, get our big men involved, take great shots.”

Montgomery agreed that Randle’s decision-making will be a key. “They’re going to get to him a little quicker than he’s used to,” Montgomery said. “He’s going to have to pick and choose his moments. But Jerome’s our guy.”

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The Orange beat Robert Morris 100-60, and looked like an unstoppable force—quite the opposite from the Le Moyne game, which some of the SU players are still bitter about. "A loss like that leaves a bad taste in your mouth," said Jardine, who finished with six points and nine assists, after the Robert Morris game. "I don’t know about the other guys, but if everybody felt the way I felt, they wouldn’t want to feel that way again."

While returning senior shooting guard Andy Rautins has reclaimed his role in the offense, freshman point guard Triche brings a new dimension to the team. Triche might not be faster than Flynn, but he’s stronger and drives to the hoop with the same reckless abandon as Jonny. And at 6-feet-4, he stands about a half-foot taller than his predecessor, and that elongated whirling wingspan makes it that much more visually obstructive for the opponent he’s guarding to find an open teammate or shot. And he knows that ability and focus can take his team a long way.

"It was the {28} turnovers and the way we played defense," said Triche of why he thought the Orange cruised to victory. "We’re playing better defense than we ever did last year {as a first-year player this year, Triche must have been carefully studying last year’s team to make that statement, or has over-indulged playing EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball ’09 on X-Box} and getting our hands on a lot of basketballs and rebounding better, and that’s the key to our season."

The Orange’s smothering defense and constant double-teaming caused many bad shots and turnovers, which ultimately led to 25 easy fast break points. But the rotation in and out of the zone was a thing of beauty.

"We’ve been really active and trapping the ball more than we have in the past," said Boeheim. "We are a little bigger so the traps are more effective. I thought the other night {against Albany on Nov. 9} we had a tremendous defensive game but we really struggled on offense. Tonight, we had a really good defensive game but played really well offensively."

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As hundreds of students rushed the building today where UC Regents were meeting – throwing wet red bandannas meant to look like blood – the regents’ finance committee voted to recommend a 32 percent student fee increase, setting off planned protests at several UC campuses.

The vote all but ensured that the full governing board on Thursday will raise the annual price of a UC education to $10,302 for next fall.

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More than 1,000 union members, students, professors and other supporters assembled at a noon rally in front of Sproul Hall Wednesday to kick off three days of action decrying a vote on a student fee increase by the UC Board of Regents.

The day’s activities also included picket lines around campus, a march and the occupation of a campus building. According to UCPD Sgt. Andrew Tucker, officers arrested one person who possessed a knife and whose “activity rose to the level of inciting violence.”

Wednesday’s rally coincided with a two-day worker strike by the local chapters of the University Professional and Technical Employees and Coalition of University Employees unions.

At about 1:30 p.m., the rally transitioned into a march around Berkeley, eventually settling at California Hall where nearly 400 people linked arms around the administrative building.

Later on in the evening 37 people-18 of which were UC students-occupied the architecture and engineering building while police waited outside. The occupants emerged from the building after giving their names to the police, who said they would be discussing the possibility of criminal charges.

And when you boot up meebo, you get a message telling you to support the Card! Clearly, we must hit up his comment section!

http://blog.meebo.com/?p=2099#comments

Bq.Stanford 30, California 27: Cal’s defense awoke last week against Arizona, and the Bears have been mostly good against the run this year. So Toby Gerhart can’t win back " The Axe" on his own. It’s going to take a good day from Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck, and there’s no reason to believe he won’t produce it playing at home.

Jesus Christ, there are like 4,000 links in this DBD and NOBODY put i the CalBears.com ones? Back to the griss mill!

Mens soccer player named All American:

BERKELEY – California junior forward Andrew Wiedeman claimed a spot on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America second team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, CoSIDA announced on Wednesday. The social welfare major earned the spot on the University Division’s second team with a 3.45 grade-point average.

To be eligible for the national team, a student athlete had to have been selected to his District’s first team, as Wiedeman was. Initial nomination criteria at the District level includes being a varsity starter or key reserve, maintaining a cumulative grade-point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, reaching sophomore athletic and academic standing at his current institution and be nominated by their sports information director.

More honors for Mens Soccer:

BERKELEY – California junior forward Andrew Wiedeman, junior midfielder Hector Jimenez and junior defender A.J. Soares were named to the All-Pac-10 Conference first team and four more Golden Bears earned second-team or honorable mention distinction, Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott announced on Nov. 17. Cal sophomore goalkeeper David Bingham and junior midfielder Servando Carrasco earned spots on the conference’s second team, while senior Jeff Cosgriff and senior defender Jacob Wilson claimed honorable mention for the Bears, who finished the 2009 season with a 9-8-1 overall record (3-6-1 Pac-10).

This marked the third all-conference honor for Wiedeman and the second for Jimenez, Soares and Wilson. Wiedeman was a first-team selection in 2008 and earned a second-team spot in 2007. Jimenez also earned a berth on the 2008 All-Pac-10 first team, Soares was a 2008 second-team player and Wilson claimed honorable mention in 2008.

Wiedeman, who was one of the most dangerous attacking players on the West Coast this season, was Cal’s leading scorer in 2009. He paced the Bears in points (26), goals (11) and game-winning goals (5) after starting all 18 games. The San Ramon, Calif., product also tied Cosgriff for second on the team with four assists. Wiedeman was named to three important preseason award lists – the Watch List for the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy and the preseason All-America teams for Soccer America and College Soccer News.

Holmoe, great DBD. I wonder what it’d be to read this if you had never seen CGB before and had no idea what was going on. It’d blow your mind!