Golden Nuggets: Loss to UNLV Raises Questions About the Bears

by Berkelium97 on Dec 25, 2011 3:00 AM PST in Golden Nuggets

Merry Christmas, Cal fans! I hope those who don't celebrate Christmas had/will have a great Festivus, a happy Hanukkah, or a crazy Kwanzaa!

After another blowout loss to a quality team, the Bears continue to raise doubts about their ability to challenge for the conference title. Thankfully (for us, at least), the rest of the conference has raised doubts that anyone will win the conference this year.

— Can they compete on the road? They are 10-3 overall, but 1-3 in games outside Haas Pavilion.

— Can they hang with high-level teams? In two tries against Top-25 opponents, they have been outscored by 56 points.

— Are they capable of winning the Pac-12 title? A tougher question, in my opinion.

Given that the Pac-12 remains winless in 12 tries against Top-25 teams, asking whether there are any high-level teams in the conference is a fair question.

But there will be road games, nine of them to be exact. And teams such as Arizona and Washington will come at the Bears with the same quickness, length and athleticism they saw against Mizzou and Vegas.

And they were not competitive in either of these games.

All that being said, the Cal basketball team would like to wish you a Happy Holidays.

(via calathletics)

After the jump we have a couple presents and some lumps of coal: the football team arrives in San Diego after a mid-flight interruption, Dallas waives Jerome Randle, and Jack Clark talks about rugby's decision to withdraw from the USAR Premier Division.

Football

The team flight had some engine issues which delayed the Bears' arrival in San Diego. They arrived safely and began a full slate of activities starting with a trip to Sea World.
Texas site Barking Carnival previews the Cal offense and the Cal defense in anticipation of the Holiday Bowl.
Jake Heaps will not contribute to the QB logjam at Cal, as he has decided to transfer to Kansas. Faraudo reports that Cal was not interested in Heaps.
CalBears.com has another set of player profiles: D.J. Holt, Marvin Jones, and Mitchell Schwartz.

Basketball

Rugby

The Bears have withdrawn from the USAR Premier Division, though it will not have much of an impact on their schedule.
Jack Clark talks about the decision and talks about the upcoming season.

Baseball

The Bears are ranked 22nd in the preseason poll.

Lacrosse

The Cal Lacrosse team invites the public to participate in the 4v4 Queen of the Turf Play Day fundraiser and Clinic at Berkeley High on January 29th.

Soccer

Betsy Hassett was named an NSCAA Scholar All-American.

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Matchups

Matchups, matchups, matchups, matchups.

Matchups.

There’s no such thing as a generic “high-level team.” If we play some combination of Mizzou and UNLV a hundred times, completely healthy and rested, I’m pretty sure we lose upward of 90 of those games — and I’m also pretty sure the number is significantly lower than 90 if the two teams are Wisconsin and Indiana. So I don’t think the question has much validity, especially with the underlying implication that we’ve proven ourselves a failure against “high-level” competition.

Similarly, for the “compete on the road” question, SDSU is as tough a team as we’ll face in conference this year (and in as tough an environment)…and we played them to a draw. (yes, wins are wins and losses are losses, but one point is insignificant if we’re evaluating a team’s ability to “compete”). The fact that 50% of our road games were against the two teams we’re not going to beat in a packed home gym is just a coincidence of scheduling, not a sign of inherent road weakness.

I prefer to to divide the season to date into the two games against the small, uptempo teams with multiple athletic guards/wings, and everyone else. In the former we got crushed, and this group of players will continue to get crushed in similar matchups. In the latter, the quality of basketball has been very high.

If we stay healthy and focused — I realize those are fairly big ifs — we should continue to play at a high level. Yes, the unluckiness of who we played and the timing of Richard’s in/out will probably suck in three months when we’re doing bracketology, but the non-conference is over, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. So we might as well just beat U$C and go from there.

Go Bears.

by Reef on Dec 25, 2011 6:50 AM PST reply actions

I think we’d have difficulty beating Mizzou regardless, but I think if we played UNLV at home and at full health, it’d be pretty competitive. So, maybe we’d lose 60 out of 100 to them, but no way we lose 90.

"i, for one, welcome our new atomic overlords" - GoldBlooded

by atomsareenough on Dec 25, 2011 8:24 AM PST up reply actions

It is, after all, Christmas Day, and in the spirit of charity and forgiveness, I will refrain from commenting on the Bears BBall team singing abilities.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and….

Go Bears!

by Wilburdog on Dec 25, 2011 8:23 AM PST reply actions

Um, okay....

…..they were all sick and Solomon was injured, but somehow the UNLV game was supposed to tell us something? I think despite all that they were full of poor decisions which can be coached out of them. I’m still optimistic of making the tournament. Beyond that will determine the matchups.

by ososdeoro on Dec 25, 2011 9:49 AM PST reply actions

road game

Cal basketball has yet to win any true road game. Our one out of Haas win was a neutral site game against Georgia in Kansas City.

We have faltered on two road games (both against quality opponent) and the one pseudo-road game against Missouri.

by LEastCoastBears on Dec 25, 2011 12:24 PM PST reply actions

I wouldn’t say we “faltered” against SDSU. We were without a key player and we lost by 3 in a close competitive game.

by fiatlux on Dec 26, 2011 8:34 AM PST up reply actions

I like this Scipio guy. He reminds me of us.

by mrjpark on Dec 25, 2011 1:27 PM PST reply actions

A look at Brian Schwenke

Oceanside’s Schwenke part of veteran Cal offensive line

If there is one strength on the University of California football team, it’s on the offensive line, where six of the Bears’ big ’uns have combined for 145 starts.

Junior starter Brian Schwenke is fourth on that list with 23 starts. The 6-foot-4, 300-pound former Oceanside High star says one of the keys to the Bears winning three of their last four games was that unit’s arrival as a cohesive group. After winning their first three and then losing four of five in the middle of the season, the Bears came back and finished 7-5 and received an invitation to play Texas (7-5) in Wednesday’s Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl at Snapdragon Stadium

by minesweeper on Dec 25, 2011 2:21 PM PST reply actions

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@ Texas Burnt Orange Nation	Wed 12/28	L 10 - 21