Washington is playing well and a particularly tough matchup for the Bears. I don’t think this loss is a bad thing – might hurt seeding a bit – but I don’t think going into the tourney with a long winning streak is great either. We just now have to hope for match-ups in the first couple rounds (I’d much prefer Duke to a Syracuse rematch for example) and a good location.

We shoot well enough to beat anyone on a given night and this team still beats my expectations more often than not. But, of course, the tourney is a bit of a crapshoot.

Went to the game again today, and deep down, I expected us to drop this game. The dogs played horribly last night, and I remarked to my friend that it was a sign they were going to come out shooting fire for the final game. When Udub came out flying and pushing the basket, while getting away with hard fouls on our guys driving the basket, it was clear they wanted it badly. It would be a hard to ask of our seniors to match their intensity, especially after the stellar performances they gave us the last two games. In addition, the Udub fans that showed up brought their energy, and that definitely fed their team when Cal got their lead in the game.

All in all, I’m disappointed that we lost, but only because it was a loss. Huge silver linings on this cloud, and I hope the Bears get over this and move into the real tourney with confidence. At least we didn’t lose to the bruins or the furd. That would’ve been reason for heavy drinking. Instead, I’m going to drink a beer and look forward to Sunday afternoon.

Go Bears.

Didn’t get to watch the game but followed the box score. One thing is for sure though that Cal is most likely not staying in San Jo for the tourney as they probably wont make that 5 seed mark. I’m going to say they are an 8-9 seed unfortunately with maybe an outside chance at 7.

I asked my magic 8 ball if we were a 5 seed, and it said “signs point to yes”

Promise I’m not just telling you…

My CGB screen has switched to the most bizarre formatting and I don’t know how to get it back to normal. It is now a navy blue background, with a single gold stripe and with all sorts of underlined blue-on-blue hyperlinks and black type, and none of the nice block-formatting or columns that it used to have.

It’s as though I have asked it somehow to show me the blog in text mode with no formatting whatsoever. Any ideas?

It’s the first time all year that two of the three good team in the Pac (Cal, UW, and ASU) engaged in a well-played, hard-fought, close game. It’s a shame our guys came out on the short side, but I’m pleased with the effort.

Let’s get one thing straight. California did not lose this game. Washington won it. To be more precise, they took it from us

Nailed it.

Although I’m willing to put money that Cal makes the tourney, a part of me is still a bit worried that somehow we get screwed. A few favorites in the midmajor did lose in their finals today to shrink the bubble a bit.

It would have been sweet to take home the trophy but I agree our lack of depth really hindered us today. With Randle being in check, we just couldn’t pull it off despite great efforts by Theo and Boykins (PC was decent as well).

With some luck (often not there for the Bears), we might get a decent draw and be able to make some noise.

Kudos to them for being the second (and likely last) Pac-10 team to be going to March Madness.

Shouldn’t you call them the first Pac-10 team to be going to the tournament?

GreyBear at BearInsider posted this bit of info that sounds very encouraging.

I’m umm… Gonna have to go the unpopular route here and go with sixsevenfiftysix…

And I thnk that HAD we beat Syracuse, Ohio State, or Kansas, that we’d be a definite lock.

But he’s right, one win against Washington making our record 1-8 against RPI top 50 teams… It’s just a little hard for me to go buy my tourney tickets just yet.

All the logic above ignores the simple fact that the NCAA is heavily biased in favor of the “major” conferences, thus the comparison with Missouri State—however rational—is completely bogus. Forget all the various metrics such as RPI, which actually point to Cal’s favor; the Bears are a regular-season champ of a major conference which also made it to the final of their conference tournament, which they very nearly won. Cal is thus a lock. ASU has a better chance of getting an invite than Cal has of getting a snub.

If Kentucky and Ohio State both win you can probably be reasonably sure you’re going dancing. Reasonably sure, but, again, if you guys get left out it wouldn’t be the most surprising thing to happen.

If either or both lose it gets really close. I still do think California would make it but no one in their right mind would say that they’re conclusively guaranteed a spot.

It’s been nice conversing with some of you. Others, well… I don’t need to say. And, let me state unequivocally: this is a much, much better community than UW Dawg Pound. I’m a bit spoiled because I spend my SBNation time on Japers’ Rink (a site that not only has been named the greatest hockey blog on the internet but has an outstanding community), which never posts BS. As a result, I tend to hold SBNation blogs to pretty high standards :)

Good luck tomorrow, and good luck in the postseason!

…was the opening dunk putback by Amoke. It went thru the cylindar, hit the net with such force that it popped back out and didn’t count. Those would have been the first two points by Cal. CBS had no idea what it was doing. Enberg called it good as play continued, the marked up 2 for Cal on the scoreboard, then reset to 0, then put 2 back up, then removed the score graphic at the bottom of the screen altogether for a while, then put it back up after an apparent discussion in the truck.

They never mentioned the confusion, or showed a replay. But when Randle has the ball at the end, before he got fouled with 4.4, instead of being down 3, we should have been down 1. He makes both free throws (a given) and Cal wins.

That’s how close a game this was. I wish I could hear the selection committee mention that.

What? Cal drops from a 6 seed with a win to a 10 seed on account of a stupid thing like that? Anybody else know what I’m talking about? I said at the time, I hope we don’t need those 2 points later on…"