DBD 2.10.10 Avatar = Treesitter Propaganda?

No mention of Utah specifically (or anyone else). Commish just says the time for expansion is now.

Speaking on a conference call to introduce former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg as his new deputy, Scott talked about possibly adding new teams to the conference and launching a new television network.

Scott, the former head of the Women’s Tennis Association, took over the conference last July. In his less than eight months on the job, he has seen growing interest from the membership over the possibility of adding teams for the first time since Arizona and Arizona State joined the conference in 1978.

“It is really over the next six to 12 months that we’ll start having serious analysis and serious evaluations,” Scott said.

“To me, the logic if the Pac-10 is going to think about expanding, now is our window,” Scott said. “The reason being if you’re going to consider a reconstruction of the conference, there’s a value proposition associated with that. Given that we’re about to have negotiations regarding our media rights, it makes sense that if you’re going to do it, to do it when you can monetize it and get value from it commercially.”

Scott said there have been “no serious discussions” with any schools. He said the primary factor in the decision will be finding schools that fit into the conference culturally and academically.

And possible expansion of NCAA tourney and Pac-10 TV contracts

These are just a few snippets. I recommend going to the link and reading the whole thing. Some interesting comments from Monty all around.

How do you feel about possible Pac-10 expansion and do you think the league’s presidents would even consider it?

"I think in today’s economic climate, the presidents have to be open to a lot of things. I don’t know when all that’s going to change or if it’s going to change, but I think that in hiring Larry Scott (as Pac-10 commissioner), the primary thought process was we need to expand our television revenue, take more advantage of some of the things out there that others have taken advantage of that we’ve been kind of in the dark ages about as far as revenues.

"In order to do that, if adding teams allows us to do that, adds markets, adds the opportunity to sell packages, then I think the presidents have to look at that. For a long time, I think the Pac-10 was pretty comfortable where they are — and they still may well be, and in many ways should be. It’s a great conference, and we’ve had academics as part of the mission statement for the league. But the times, they are a-changin’, as my good friend Dylan said.

Are you comfortable with all that comes with changing TV contracts in the future, trying to get more Pac-10 games on ESPN?

"There are some coaches in our league that have been other places, way more than there ever used to be. Their thought process is we’ve got to play wherever, whenever to get that exposure. I don’t necessarily agree with that. I’ve been in the league long enough to feel like we have been awfully competitive over the years the way we were.

There seems to be more talk recently that the NCAA Tournament field might be expanded from 65 teams. Do you favor that?

"I don’t think the tournament would necessarily be diminished if you doubled it because now you’re going to play one more game to get to 64. There’d probably be some of the 128 teams that wouldn’t deserve to be in, but if you get an upset maybe they did deserve to get in. The fact of the matter is some of the haves are able to orchestrate their schedule to get wins and some of the have-nots can’t do that. So they’re in an awkward spot from the get-go. They’re having to play guaranteed (high-payday road) games just to get a schedule to raise money to support their program."

Normally, I’d point out that this has been posted in a previous DBD; however, having just seen Avatar for the first time this last Friday, I’ll let it slide just to encourage discussion about the movie.

I was blasted on a DBD recently for having the gall to suggest that popularity of a piece of art or an artist might be an indication of quality. Yet, I have missed the two highest grossing movies of all time(I don’t plan on seeing Avatar.) So is that hypocrisy or coincidence. Or maybe I just hat James Cameron movies?

Mens BBall returns to Haas:

California Golden Bears (15-8, 7-4) vs. Washington Huskies (16-7, 6-5)
Thursday, Feb. 11, 6 p.m., Haas Pavilion, Berkeley, Calif.
Radio: KFRC 1550 AM TV: ESPN2

California Golden Bears (15-8, 7-4) vs. Washington State Cougars (15-8, 5-6)
Saturday, Feb. 13, 1 p.m., Haas Pavilion, Berkeley, Calif.
Radio: KFRC 1550 AM TV: FSN/CSNBA

California ended its four-game road trip in sole poessesion of first place in the Pac-10 after it defeated UCLA by 14 last Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. The Golden Bears now look forward to coming home this week. Five of the remaining seven regular-season contests will be played in the Bay Area. Cal faces Washington Thursday, Feb. 11, at 6 p.m. at Haas Pavilion.

Things didn’t get off on the right foot for the Bears against UCLA last Saturday. The Bruins broke out to a 22-8 lead early in the first half before the Bears enjoyed runs of 26-6 and 18-4 to claim a lead that they would never give up. Senior forward Theo Robertson and senior guard Patrick Christpoher put up 20 points each, while senior guard Jerome Randle chipped in 14. The win for the Bears snaps a six-game losing streak against UCLA, and it was the largest margin of victory at Pauley Pavilion since 1992-93 (104-82).

Randle, who passed Ryan Drew last Thursday for the school record in most career three-pointers made, now boasts 223 career treys. Randle is six three-point attempts away from the school record in that category, as well. He also needs 18 assists to become just the third player in school history to record 500 assists, and he is 12 behind Jason Kidd for third all-time.

The team leader in steals with 40, Christopher is ninth on the school’s career scoring list with 1,530 points, He is currently second on the team in scoring with 16.3 ppg and second in rebounding at 5.7 rpg.

Womens BBall heads to Washingtons:

The California Golden Bears (12-10, 6-5 Pac-10) head up to the state of Washington for a pair of games, taking on Washington State (6-16, 1-10 Pac-10) on Friday, Feb. 12 at 6:00 p.m. in Pullman and Washington (9-12, 4-7 Pac-10) Sunday, Feb. 14 at 2:00 p.m. in Washington. Sunday’s game will be carried live on Fox Sports Net and shown locally on Comcast Bay Area.

The Bears are trying to rebound from last Saturday’s 44-32 loss to the UCLA Bruins. Cal is currently tied with Arizona State for fourth place in the Pac-10 standings, trailing Stanford (11-0), UCLA (8-3), and USC (7-4).

Freshman center Gennifer Brandon turned her season around against Washington State the first time the two teams played this season. Brandon scored 12 points with seven rebounds against the Cougars. Since that game, Brandon has pulled in at least seven rebounds in each contest, is averaging 27.7 minutes per game, and has worked her way back into the starting lineup. Brandon pulled in 22 rebounds last week against the LA schools (14 vs USC, 8 vs UCLA). Brandon is averaging 8.2 rebounds per game in Pac-10 contests, ranking her fifth in the Conference. Overall, Brandon is ranked seventh in the Pac-10 in rebounding, averaging 7.7 boards per game and is second among freshmen, trailing only Markel Walker of UCLA among rookies.

Freshman forward DeNesha Stallworth had six blocks last week against the LA schools, including a career-high four rejections against UCLA. Stallworth has blocked at least one shot in each of her last four games. She has 18 rejections in Pac-10 games this season, ranking only behind WSU’s Carly Noyse (24) and Stanford’s Jayne Appel (19).

Stallworth has also been the steady offensive presence for the Bears. She is averaging 12.5 points per game, third among the Pac-10 freshmen for scoring average. Davelynn White of Arizona is averaging 17.5 points per game and Washington State’s Kiki Moore is scoring 13.2.

Mens Crew Coaches put into HoF:

BERKELEY – California Men¹s Crew Head Coach Mike Teti and Assistant Coach Wyatt Allen will be inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut on March 20, 2010.

Teti is being honored as the coach of the gold medal-winning men¹s eight at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and Allen is honored as one of the oarsmen in that gold medal-winning eight. Teti will become the first person to be inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame as both an athlete and a coach.

This season will be Teti’s second as head coach at Cal. Last year, Teti led Cal to a Pac-10 Championship and a second-place finish at the 2009 IRA Regatta. Also, under his guidance, seven members of the team competed in the 2009 Under 23 World Rowing Championships. James Long-Lerno and Nareg Guregian won a silver medal with the men’s four for the United States at the international event.

In December of 2008, Teti received the USRowing Medal, the highest honor that the rowing governing body can bestow.

VBall hires new asst coach:

BERKELEY – The California volleyball program has hired Sam Crosson as assistant coach, head coach Rich Feller announced Tuesday, Feb. 9. Crosson will replace Matt McShane, who was recently named head coach at the Air Force Academy. Crosson’s appointment with the Golden Bears will officially begin on Tuesday, Feb. 16. Crosson comes to Berkeley after spending the past five seasons as the top assistant coach at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif.

“I believe we have the perfect fit for our program in hiring Sam,” said Feller. “His commitment, technical skills and proven ability to train highly skilled athletes and teams earned him the job offer. I believe Sam’s style of coaching and his energy for teaching will allow for a smooth and seamless transition as we develop our 2010 squad. I am very excited to have Sam join us and look forward to this spring and next fall.”

In 2009, Crosson helped guide Saint Mary’s to its second consecutive 20-win season as the Gaels posted the second-best record in program history at 23-5. Saint Mary’s logged a perfect 13-0 mark at home and set new school records with an 11-match winning streak and a 13-1 record in West Coast Conference matches to net the program’s first-ever WCC title. Saint Mary’s made its fifth appearance in the NCAA tournament and nearly took out Pac-10 champion Stanford in the second round.

Crosson’s responsibilities as the top assistant for the Gaels included serving as the recruiting coordinator, planning and executing practices, coordinating the offense during matches, providing video and statistical analysis of practice and matches, and player development; including technical training for setters and middle blockers. Crosson was responsible for bringing in some of the top recruiting classes in Saint Mary’s history. From 2006-09, his classes were selected for high honorable mention by PrepVolleyball.com and included some of the top talent in the country.

Mens tennis player named player of the week:

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – California men’s tennis freshman Christoffer Konigsfeldt has been named the Pac-10 Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 1-7, Commissioner Larry Scott announced Tuesday, Feb. 9. Stanford senior Lindsay Burdette received the women’s weekly award.

The native of Denmark led the Golden Bears to a pair of victories over ranked opponents; then-No. 46 Fresno State and No. 40 Hawaii. In Cal’s 4-3 win over the Bulldogs, he defeated FSU’s Rikus de Villiers, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, at court two. Against Hawaii, he bounced back to win, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, after dropping the first set to Andreas Weber. In doubles matches, Konigsfeldt teamed with sophomore Nick Andrews to go 2-0 at the No. 2 doubles position. The duo upset Fresno State’s 20th-ranked team of Taylor Leiby and Mirko Zapletal, 7-6 (4), and defeated Hawaii’s Leo Rosenberg and Jeremy Tweedt, 8-4.

Womens water polo player named Player Of The Week:

WOODLAND, CALIF. – University of California sophomore standout Emily Csikos has been named the Feb. 8 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Mikasa Player of the Week, it was announced by MPSF commissioner Al Beaird. Csikos was instrumental in the No. 4-ranked Golden Bears (10-1) starting off the season 9-0 before falling to No. 1-ranked Stanford in the championship match of last weekend’s Stanford Invitational.

Csikos, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, was outstanding last week, scoring 18 goals in five matches (two wins over Hawaii and wins over UCLA and Arizona State). She was the Bears’ leading scorer in every contest, including five goals against ASU and three goals against Stanford in the title match. Csikos is the team’s leading scorer on the year with 29 goals in 10 matches.

This past summer Csikos led Canada to the finals of the FINA World Championships in Rome, where they fell 7-6 to the United States. She concluded the World Championships with an impressive 15 goals in seven matches (including four against Team USA), leading Canada to its first FINA Championship final since 1991. As a freshman at Cal last spring, Csikos was second on the squad with 65 goals.

Monty Press Kwotes:

On getting any momentum from last week:
No, we lost one. We’re hanging in there. I thought Saturday was critical after Thursday’s loss, and in the first part of the game, it didn’t look like we were going to make much progress, but we came back and played pretty good basketball. We’re doing what we need to do and we just need to keep doing it

On Washington:
Well they do certain things really well and they sure had their way with us up there. Hopefully we can be a little more aggressive and do a better job at taking care of the ball against them. They are a very good offensive rebounding team, and they go to the glass hard. They’re athletic, they’re long, they’ve got depth and that’s going to be a challenge for us. So, we’ve worked on block-offs a little bit, but we’ve just got to be attentive to the ball, as well. That will certainly be something that we have to address. The defensive pressure that they put on us, some of it was our own doing, some of it was theirs, and we’ve just got to take care of the basketball and try to get good shots.

On how Washington shut down Jerome Randle in the first meeting:
Well you can look at it two ways. If you’re on the offensive side, you’re not executing well enough, and if you’re on the defensive side, you want to take credit for doing a good job. I think they’re a good defensive team.

On the energy from Cal’s bench players:
It’s huge for us because that’s not the nature of our team. When we don’t have those guys, which we have not, it just doesn’t allow us to change anything, we’re just the same. Markhuri’s giving us the best effort he can, given a back that’s pretty sore, and he doesn’t practice much. Jorge’s gotten better in terms of getting in shape, but the knee, obviously, isn’t 100 percent as far as timing. Omondi came off the bench and gave us a huge lift. We were pretty much dead in the water until Markhuri and Omondi came in Saturday and gave us a lift, got a loose ball and got a second opportunity for us. It was huge.

Womens Golf in 9th place in tourney:

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIF. -

The No. 10 California Golden Bears dropped nine strokes off their first round score in the second 18 holes of the Northrop Grumman Invitational.

The tournament raced against the weather all day. The golfers went with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start to try to beat the incoming rains. The weather held off until late in the round when play was halted for nearly two hours. The players made it back otu onto the soggy course and finished off the second round.

Sophomore Emily Childs had Cal’s low round of the day, posting a one-under 70. Junior Pia Halbig was back to form with a second round score of one-over. Childs and sophomore Joanne Lee are both at +8 for the tournament, currently tied for 27th among the individual golfers. Lisa McCloskey of Pepperdine took over the individual lead, sitting at four-under after 36 holes.

The Bears dropped nine strokes off their first round score, posting a 300 for the second round. They currently sit in a tie with TCU for ninth place in the team standings.

The tournament, being played at the par-71, 5,912 yard Palos Verdes Golf Club in Southern California, will conclude on Wednesday, Feb. 10. Live scoring will once again be available through the Golfstat website.

Womens Swimming to take on Stanford:

On the Pool Deck
Fifth-ranked California (5-1, 3-1 in the Pac-10) battles rival and fourth-ranked Stanford (8-0, 4-0 Pac-10) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13 at the Cardinal’s Avery Aquatics Center. The Golden Bears last competed on Jan. 30, when they topped UCLA, 167-128, in Los Angeles. Last season, Cal fell to Stanford, 169-129, at Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley before winning the Pac-10 and NCAA Championships.

The Bears last won at Avery Aquatics Center in 2006, taking a 169-131 result to finish that regular season unbeaten with an 11-0 (7-0 Pac-10) dual-meet record.

Against common opponents (Pacific, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and USC) this season, Cal has produced a 4-1 record and Stanford has compiled a 5-0 mark. Cal’s only loss was at USC, 153-147, on Jan. 29.

Scouting the Golden Bears
The Bears have produced strong times in the relays and had amazing swims from several Bears, including junior Amanda Sims, sophomore Sara Isakovic and freshman Caitlin Leverenz. Nationally, Cal ranks in the top 10 in all five relays. The Bears rank seventh in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:31.13, NCAA B consideration time), fourth in the 400-freestyle relay (3:17.60, NCAA B), second in the 800-free relay (7:07.11, NCAA B), tied for 10th with Stanford in the 200-medley relay (1:40.05, NCAA B) and third in the 400-medley relay (3:37.09, NCAA B). Cal is faster than Stanford in the 800-free and 400-medley relays, while the Cardinal is faster in the 200-free relay (1:29.22, 1st, NCAA B) and 400-free relay (3:17.28, 3rd, NCAA B).

Isakovic, the 2008 Slovenian Olympic silver medalist in the 200-meter free, ranks second nationally in the 200-yard free (1:44.95, NCAA B) and sixth nationally in the 200 butterfly (1:55.66, NCAA B). Sims, the defending NCAA champion in the 100 fly, ranks seventh in the 100 fly with an NCAA B time of 52.96 and is tied for eighth in the 200 fly with an NCAA B time of 1:56.30. Leverenz, Cal’s record-holder in the 400-individual medley, ranks fourth in the 400 IM in an automatic NCAA qualifying time of 4:06.69 and seventh in the 200 IM (1:57.97, NCAA B).

Mens Golf ranked 16th overall:

BERKELEY – Cal has moved up to 14 spots to No. 16 in the latest Golfweek national rankings after a dramatic team victory at the Arizona Intercollegiate held February 1-2. In the first collegiate men’s golf event of the spring season, the Golden Bears made up 12 shots over the final four holes for a one-shot team victory over host Arizona to set a school-record with its third team win of the season.

Michael Weaver, who had led the two-day 54-hole event at the end of the first two rounds, was the team’s top individual finisher as he tied for second place overall.

Cal returns to action February 17-19 at the John Burns Invitational hosted by Hawai’i.

Track & Field heads to Husky Classic:

THIS WEEK IN CAL TRACK & FIELD: In its final tune-up before the MPSF championships at the end of the month, the California indoor track & field team travels to Seattle for the Husky Classic Friday and Saturday. The Golden Bears will return to the Dempsey Indoor facility on the University of Washington campus for the conference meet Feb. 26-27.

A full contingent of more than 40 Bears is scheduled to compete this weekend. Four Cal runners will take to the track Friday night in the 5000 meters – Kari Karlsson and Matt H. Miller for the men and Alison Greggor and Deborah Maier for the women. All remaining events scheduled for Saturday. Live results will be available on the schedule/results page under track & field at gohuskies.com.

CAL MEN JUMP TO 16TH IN POLL: The Cal men’s indoor track & field team moved up six spots to 16th after a strong showing at the UW Invitational Jan. 29-30, an effort that saw the Bears post on NCAA automatic qualifying mark and four additional provisional marks. Cal remained 16th in the Feb. 9 rankings. The Bears began the year rated 20th in the preseason poll and were ranked 22nd after the first week of competition.

Thanks DBD…