DBD 2.15.10 & 2.16.10 Let The Romance Continue ... Even Longer

Women’s BBall beats UW in OT:

The California Golden Bears defeated the Washington Huskies, 75-68 in overtime in Seattle. Alexis Gray-Lawson scored 35 points to lead the Bears.

With both teams going with a full court press from the start, Cal won the early battle of ball control, taking a quick 6-0 lead. Alexis Gray-Lawson dominated the first half of the game, scoring 14 of Cal’s first 16 points, hitting five of her six field goal attempts. Gray-Lawson, at the front line of the pressure defense, picked up her third foul with 8:33 left in the half. As Gray-Lawson headed to the bench, Cal’s offense stalled. On the other end of the court, Washington took advantage of contact fouls, hitting 10 first-half freethrows to build a 30-25 halftime advantage.

In the second half, Cal trimmed the Husky lead to 40-39. After Washington turned the ball over, Cal took their first lead of the half on a three-pointer in the corner by freshman guard Layshia Clarendon, 42-49 with 11:28 remaining. After five lead changes and two ties, Cal was trailing by a point, 56-55, with 4:56 remaining in the game when Gray-Lawson sustained an injury to her right ankle and had to be helped off the court. After coming out of the game, testing the ankle, and getting it taped by the Cal training staff, Gray-Lawson came back out onto the court two minutes later with the score tied, 57-57.

DeNesha Stallworth put Cal up 59-57 with two minutes left on a putback after fighting for an offensive rebound. Gray-Lawson nailed a three-pointer with 54 seconds remaining to give Cal a 62-58 lead. After Washington answered on the other end with a three, Cal had a one-point lead, 62-61 with 31.4 on the clock. After senior guard hit two freethrows, Cal took a 64-61 advantage into the final 28.4 seconds of the game. Washington got a layup with 14 seconds remaining to pull within a point. A quick foul sent Vital back to the line where she put the Bears back up three, 66-63 with 10.2 remaining. With less than a second on the clock, Washington’s Kristi Kingma drained a three to send the game to overtime.

Womens Tennis beat by Arizona:

MADISON, Wis. – The No. 2-ranked California women’s tennis team (6-1) was dealt a 4-3 loss by No. 3 Northwestern (7-0) in the semifinal of the 2010 ITA National Team Indoor Championship at the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Stadium on the campus of host University of Wisconsin. The Golden Bears failed to capitalize after earning their seventh doubles point in as many matches as the Wildcats secured a come-from-behind victory to break Cal’s six-match winning streak and edge the Bears in their bid for their first championship match appearance since 2000. Second-seeded Northwestern will face unseeded No. 11-ranked North Carolina in the title match on Monday, Feb. 15.

For the seventh consecutive match, the Bears won the doubles point as each of their top two teams earned their sixth straight wins. Cal’s top tandem of junior Mari Andersson and sophomore Jana Juricova set the Bears off with an 8-4 win over Elena Chernyakova and Lauren Lui. Moments later, junior Marina Cossou and senior Kasia Siwosz clinched the point for Cal with their 8-2 victory against Maria Mosolova and Brittany Wowchuk at court two. Northwestern took an 8-6 win on the third court after the point was clinched as Samantha Murray and Kate Turvy defeated Cal’s freshman tandem of Tayler Davis and Annie Goransson.

No. 2-ranked Juricova earned her seventh singles victory over a top-25 ranked opponent as she took a 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 12 Mosolova on the top court. Juricova’s win was her team-high 22nd, and put Cal in front, 2-0, in the match. One court over, the Wildcats got on the board as No. 10 Cossou suffered her second straight defeat for only the first time this season in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to No. 48-ranked Murray. Undeterred, the Bears responded to score a third point as No. 83 Andersson won her seventh consecutive singles match in a 6-3, 6-1 win against No. 85 Turvy at court three.

Former Bear ties for 27 at AT+T:

PEBBLE BEACH – Former Cal men’s golfer Charlie Wi finished tied for 27th at the 2010 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Wi shot a one-under par 71 during the final round of the 72-hole event Sunday at the Pebble Beach Golf Links. He shot a seven-under par 279 for the tournament.

Wi began four days of action with a four-under par 68 at Pebble Beach on Thursday before skying to a four-over par 74 in his second round at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course on Friday. Wi rebounded by shooting a blistering six-under par third round of 66 (six birdies, 12 pars) on Saturday at the Spyglass Hill Golf Course to make the cut for Sunday.

Miler sets new Cal record:

SEATTLE, Wash. – Senior Mark Matusak ran the first sub-4-minute indoor mile in Cal history and junior Michael Coe had an NCAA automatic qualifying time in the 3000 meters to lead the Golden Bears during Saturday’s competition at the Husky Classic.

Matusak completed the mile in 3:58.36, breaking the NCAA automatic qualifying standard and snapping the old school mark of 4:00.29 set by Coe at last year’s MPSF championships on the same Dempsey Indoor Stadium surface. Matusak finished third in the race behind Adrian Blincoe (New Balance), who finished in 3:57.05, and Oregon’s Mac Fleet, who was clocked in 3:57.70.

Matusak becomes the fifth Golden Bear to break four minutes in the mile indoors or outdoors, and his time was the second fasest for a Cal runner under any circumstances, passed only by Coe’s 3:56.18 outdoor mile last year. Other Bears to run a sub-4-minute mile outdoors are David Torrence (3:58.62, 2007), Don Bowden (3:58.7h, 1957) and Andy Clifford (3:59.59, 1979).

In the invitational 3000, Coe was sixth overall in 7:52.14, more than two seconds under the NCAA automatic time of 7:54.50, and about four seconds shy of his school record in the event established last year.

Rugby beats Minnesota and again does not give up a single try!!!!

LAS VEGAS – California faced perennial Midwest playoff contender Minnesota Saturday at the Las Vegas Invitational and scored a dozen tries to defeat the Golden Gophers, 76-9. Winger Nicholas Maloney had a hat trick for the Golden Bears and Cal did not allow a try to Minnesota.

Minnesota was able to control their position on the field and create penalty opportunities after several successful kickoffs, and Gophers fullback Lucas Ericson connected on three attempts to account for all his team’s scoring.

When Cal’s backs got their motors going and the forwards successfully recycled possession, phases quickly became sequences and by game’s end, eight Bears had found the try zone.

“What jumps out is the speed that Cal has,” said Minnesota head coach Loren Lemke. “They’re such a disciplined, speed-oriented team, a great program that gives us a frame of reference for everything else we set out to do.”

While the Bears acknowledged after the match they incurred too many penalties and need to respond better to the referee’s requirements, they also said they succeeded at improving incrementally with each match and each lineup.

“As a team I think we’re coming together as a good reserve side,” said hooker Jake Wrobel. “There’s a lot of room for improvement but we achieved our objective to play hard.”

Added No. 8 Zack Klaas, “It was good to get the work in against a playoff-caliber team. We committed too many penalties and we’re a long way from championship caliber, but we’re taking steps in the right direction.”

Womens Golf gets 2nd at Invitational:

STANFORD, CALIF -

The No. 10 California Golden Bears women’s golf team finished second at the Peg Barnhard Invitational at the Stanford University Golf Course, being edged by the home team Stanford Cardinal by a single stroke. The Bears led by six strokes after the first round, but the Cardinal dropped 12 strokes off their first round score to come charging back and edge Cal for the team title.

Joanne Lee, who shot a 3 in the first round, went one-under in the final 18 holes to finish with a 144, tied for the low score with Stanford’s Sally Watson. Emily Childs finished tied for tenth after shooting a 73 (2) in the final round.

Softball beats PSU:

BERKELEY – The California softball team ended its season-opening weekend with an 8-0 win in five innings against Portland State on Sunday afternoon in the closing day of the Kajikawa Tournament. The Golden Bears (4-1) scored four runs in the first inning against the Vikings (2-4) and then three in the fourth to run away with the mercy victory.

In the bottom of the first, Jamia Reid started things off with a bunt single and then stole second while Shannon Thomas was up to bat. Thomas singled to short and then advanced to second on the through while Reid put on the speeds to score. Thomas came around to home when Jolene Henderson reached on a fielding error. With Henderson on first, Lindsey Ziegenhirt homered for the fourth time this weekend for two RBI and to give the Bears a 4-0 lead at the end of one complete.

Cal tacked on another in the bottom of the third when Frani Echavarria singled through the right side to plate Ziegenhirt, who reached on a single to left-center field.

In the fourth, Cal put the first two batters on – Thomas (single to right) and Valerie Arioto (hit by pitch). After a PSU pitching change, Henderson had a sacrifice fly to move the runners, and Ziegenhirt flied out to center for a RBI, plating Thomas. With a Jace Williams double, Arioto scored to give the Bears a 7-0 lead. To close the inning on a high note, Elia Reid doubled to center to score Williams to five Cal its final run of the game.

Mens gymnastics narrowly edged by Stanford:

LIVERMORE, Calif. – The California men’s gymnastics team lost the Gold Country Classic by a very slim margin to Stanford, 342.700-340.850. The meet, which was the fourth dual meet between the Golden Bears (0-4) and the Cardinal (4-0), took place Saturday night at the Robert Livermore Center.

The Bears earned team wins on still rings (57.050-56.000) and parallel bars (58.250-56.450). Kyle Bunthuwong took home the all-around title thanks to his 86.700, defeating Stanford’s Eddie Penev (84.200).

Getting right to work on that all-around win, Bunthuwong took second place on floor with a 14.850. In his first collegiate outing, Swiss national team star Dennis Mannhart was Cal’s second highest finisher, grabbing a 14.350.

On pommel horse, it was freshman Donothan Bailey who was the shining star for the Bears, earning a 13.600, which was good for third.

It was a complete team effort to capture the rings title for the Bears. Bunthuwong took second (14.900) while sophomore Glen Ishino was third (14.800). Also contributing high scores were Mannhart (13.800) and Steven Lacombe (13.550).

The Cardinal won vault by incredibly slim margins – 60.850-60.600. Bunthuwong was racking up the points with a 15.500 for second while freshman Christian Monteclaro notched a 15.350 for third.

It’s the calm before the storm these days with football as we get through the time between Signing Day and spring practice. Believe it or not, spring practice is less than three weeks away (begins on March 6). About 10 days before the start of the spring, I’ll start doing day-by-day previews of what to expect and what to look for during spring practices.

He also says there will be a live chat with Sandy Barbour on Thursday.

I went to work! Then I came went grocery shopping, came home and cooked dinner. Hopped online, watched some TV…it was pretty special !

Now I’m off to work again! THE PARTY NEVER STOPS!!

I moved in with my girlfriend, then we made cupcakes. Chocolate with buttercream vanilla frosting.

The six nation’s cup is currently underway. European tournament involving: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy.

It can be watched here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/categories/sport
Note the game doesn’t actually start until about 30 minutes into the coverage.

… will act as satellite center to UC Berkeley’s data center, in operation these past 10 years. LINK – SF Gate

Economists, geographers, sociologists, demographers and public health researchers all are potential users of the data centers, said Henry Brady, dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and principal investigator for the California Census Research Data Centers, which include the sites at UCLA, Berkeley and, now, Stanford.

While the new research center at Stanford is little more than three small rooms with computer terminals, the area is built to Internal Revenue Service specifications, second only to CIA standards for data security, Snipp said.

Cleveland Cavaliers:

If the Cavaliers aren’t able to work out a deal with the Suns for Amare Stoudemire, they’ll focus their attention on Indiana’s Troy Murphy.

Miami Heat:

According to sources from the Washington Post, the Heat — other than the Cavaliers, of course — have expressed interest in Antawn Jamison.

Minnesota Timberwolves:

The Bulls are preparing to trade forward Tyrus Thomas prior to Thursday’s deadline and the Timberwolves could be a sleeper to land the former LSU star.

ESPN’s bracketology has Cal as an 8 seed in Milwaukee against UTEP, with Kentucky the likely 2nd round matchup. I’d really like the Bears to go on a run to end the season so they wind up with a 6 seed and a much more winnable 2nd round game.

Their fan blogs are full of “coach sucks” and “coach needs to be fired” comments these days. As a result, one of their basketball recruits posted this to their fan blog: http://www.wralsportsfan.com/ncsu/story/7038819/

Good reminder that they are kids, they want to win even more than we do, and they are affected by what goes on on the fan blogs.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/02/12/rule.changes.ap/index.html

Taunting and preventing concussions are the primary focus.

If passed, players who draw flags for taunting gestures on their way to a touchdown would have the penalty assessed from the spot of the foul, taking away the score. Penalties that occur in the end zone would continue to be assessed on the extra-point attempt, 2-point conversion try or ensuing kickoff.

If approved, injured players — including those with concussion symptoms — would have to be cleared by a doctor before returning to competition.

The action comes a month after the playing rules panel instructed the rules committee to review policies about stopping play for injuries and consider new rules to help prevent head injuries.

The other rule changes:
1) TV monitors are allowed in the coaches box
2) No writing messages on eye black
3) Pants don’t have to cover the knee
4) No more ‘wedge’ on kickoffs and punts

I would like to propose:
1) No more icing the kicker with multiple timeouts.
2) Mandating all schools use no more than 3 uniforms: home, away, and I’m fine with a special home jersey for specific occasions like homecoming or bowl games

I like 2)…4) sounds odd…

I missed this place.

HydroTech extended my DBD to today. I cant put in the official stories right now, tho, can somebody else handle it real quick. CalBears.com look for ones dated 2.15.10

Dude is AWESOME.

We missed the field of 65 in this exercise.

The committee does not take into consideration how many qualifiers a conference has.
The committee does not take into consideration how many qualifiers a conference has.
In our mock bracket, the Atlantic 10 had five at-large teams. The Pacific-10 had none. Does that mean we believed the Atlantic 10 is a vastly superior conference? Probably not, but it’s not a question that came up. Each team is judged on its merits, period. We deemed that the five A-10 teams — Rhode Island, Dayton, Richmond, Xavier and Charlotte — were each better than California, the top Pac-10 at-large candidate. (Arizona and Temple were declared conference tournament champions.) The fact that the A-10 had five at-large teams and the Pac-10 none was not discussed until the field was completed.

Poll rankings don’t matter.
Not once did they come up. They’re not included on the statistical sheets that break down each school. They are included in supplemental information, whose importance is negligible.

RPI matters, but it’s not as crucial as it might seem.
California is the perfect illustration of this. Cal had an impressive RPI of 25, which normally signifies a strong at-large candidate. But a major component of RPI is strength of schedule, and Cal had the top-ranked out-of-conference schedule. The problem was that it hadn’t beaten any of the good teams it had played. The Golden Bears were 0-4 against top-50 RPI teams and had a dearth of signature wins.

The more we weighed Cal’s resume against the other seven teams’ in successive mini-ballots, the less we liked it.

Jeff Faraudo’s Pac-10 Reflections

– Cal is almost certain to be favored in its final five regular-season games. How many of them will the Bears win? We’re guessing four.

– If Jerome Randle hadn’t deservedly won Pac-10 Player of the Week today, a legitimate choice would have been teammate Jamal Boykin, who totaled 38 points, 22 rebounds and shot 13-for-18 in the two victories. The best weekend of his Cal career.

– Why coaches go gray: Ken Bone’s Washington State Cougars led by 18 points in the second half at Stanford and 11 at halftime at Cal . . . and lost both games. Ouch.

– The number of seasons since 1946-47 that UCLA (11-13) has been two games below .500 on Feb. 15: One . . . until now.

Brackets, Computers, and Polls. Oh my!

COMPUTER RATINGS: Cal is No. 24 in today’s CollegeRPI.com computer ratings. The rest of the Pac-10: 52. Washington; 64. ASU; 84. USC; 86. Arizona; 119. WSU; 134. UCLA; 158. Oregon; 164. Stanford; 185. OSU. Saint Mary’s is No. 44.

The Bears also are No. 24 in the official NCAA version of the RPI.

Cal is No. 31 in the latest Sagarin computer ratings.

TOP-25 POLLS: Still no Pac-10 team in either of AP writers top-25 or the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, although Cal did garner six votes from the coaches. Here are both polls.

This Week In The One-Bid League Pac-10 Men’s Basketball

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Thursday, February 18
California at Oregon State, 7:30 p.m. (FSN)
Stanford at Oregon, 7 p.m.
UCLA at Washington State, 5:30 p.m. (FSN)
USC at Washington, 7:30 p.m. (FSNW/PT)

Saturday, February 20
California at Oregon, 3 p.m. (OSN)
Stanford at Oregon State, 12 p.m. (FSN)
UCLA at Washington, 6 p.m. (ESPN)
USC at Washington State, 2 p.m.

Sunday, February 21
Arizona State at Arizona, 3:30 p.m. (FSN)

CALIFORNIA

• SR G Jerome Randle sits third on the school’s career scoring list with 1,680 points. He needs nine points to move into second, passing Lamond Murray (1,688; 1992-94). Sean Lampley holds the school record iwth 1,776 points (1998-01).

• Randle needs 12 assists to reach 500 for his career. He currently ranks fourth on Cal’s all-time list and needs seven to pass Jason Kidd (494; 1993-94) for third.

• California is 11-0 when it shoots 50 percent or better from the field.

• SO G Jorge Gutierrez picked up a pair career-high’s with 15 points and six assists, and added four steals in the win vs. WSU.

Bad ass.

It’s a shaping up to be a pretty good year for talent in Oregon next year and Central Catholic (Portland, Ore.) two-way standout Brennan Scarlett is a big reason why.

Scarlett is a national prospect with eight offers currently on the table. The athlete is getting looks at both defensive end and tight end. It will be interesting to see if Scarlett stays home or leaves the state to play his college ball.

“Recruiting is going good right now,” Scarlett said. "Oregon State was my first verbal offer. They offered at their summer camp following my sophomore year and then put it in writing September 1st of last year. My written offers are from Oregon, Washington, Cal, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Stanford and BYU in addition to OSU.

($)Greg Biggins, ESPN

Running back Savon Huggins of Jersey City, N.J., has several offers, including Clemson and USC. Some other offers are North Carolina, Miami, Rutgers, Northwestern, Alabama, Florida, Pitt, West Virginia, Virginia, Cal, Stanford, Duke, Connecticut and Boston College. He is also hearing from Notre Dame, Penn State, and Central Florida, and is expecting offers from each. His sole junior day visit has been to Rutgers, and he has taken unofficial visits to Wake Forest, Miami, and Penn State. Huggins plans to take more unofficials to USC, Clemson, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, South Florida, Duke, and Cal.

YTube | Rivals Interview

GoGameCocks.com