Cal Will Face USC Thursday At Noon In 2011 Pac-10 Tournament

by Avinash Kunnath on Mar 5, 2011 8:01 PM PST in California Golden Bears Men's Basketball

The Pac-10 tournament path is set for Cal. As PaulThomas pointed out, Cal earned a 4/5 seed the moment the Washington St. Cougars fell to the UCLA Bruins. For the California Golden Bears to get to the Pac-10 tournament championship and get their chance to dance to March Madness, they will have to face the USC Trojans in their first game and [most likely, barring a major upset] the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night. Cal is either the fourth or fifth seed (doesn't really matter which), and they will play USC (who is also locked into that 4/5 seed positioning). The game will be Thursday at noon PT on FSN HD (CSN Bay Area).

Although Cal went 1-3 in their games against USC and Arizona, the point differential was negligible in each match up (loss by 2 in Tucson immediately after the transfer of Gray Franklin, win by 2 in LA, loss by two in triple overtime vs Arizona in Haas, loss by three vs USC in Haas without Allen Crabbe). Cal only has probably at best a 20% chance of getting that far, but that's far preferable than being on the other side of the bracket and having to face a Washington Huskies team that has owned us this season.

If we had to envision the best-case scenario for the Bears to win the Pac-10 tournament, this is the one. Obviously it's never fun to play USC at Staples, since they generally play well there, but if we can beat USC in Galen, we can do the same in Laker-ville.

It's going to be one fun ride. GO BEARS!

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No Reason Not to Beat the Trojans

Given the importance of Crabbe to this team, the loss in Berkeley to USC without him is irrelevant.

Crabbe today played probably his most complete game yet this year against Stanford, and is making progress by leaps and bounds right now. His rebounding was great, his shooting was also great, with more variety, from floaters in the lane, to pull up 15 footers, to left handed layins in traffic. I thought his defense looked really good, as well. He is now the highest perecentage foul shooter on the team.

The Bears are in excellent shape to take down the Trojans. If they don’t have a 50-50 chance against U of A in the next game, it is mainly because of the lack of depth that works against them in games on consecutive days.

by Jimes-boy on Mar 5, 2011 8:45 PM PST reply actions

So, if $C beats UW, we #5?

Is that because U$C would have one more win (they have played 1 more game) overall?

CALIFORNIA ANGELS . . . ANAHEIM DUCKS . . . CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS

by AndyHogan14 on Mar 5, 2011 9:15 PM PST reply actions

*we are #5

CALIFORNIA ANGELS . . . ANAHEIM DUCKS . . . CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS

by AndyHogan14 on Mar 5, 2011 9:15 PM PST up reply actions

We would be the five seed under the tiebreaker rules. Since we split the head to head meetings, the next tiebreaker is to compare records against the other conference teams starting at the top. Since SC beat Arizona and we didn’t, they get the nod.

Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.

by Ohio Bear on Mar 5, 2011 9:17 PM PST up reply actions

Here is a link showing the the Pac10 Tournament schedule.

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by TwistNHook on Mar 5, 2011 9:17 PM PST reply actions

USC won at Washington on Saturday night

We are the # 5 seed.

Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.

by Ohio Bear on Mar 5, 2011 9:42 PM PST reply actions

#5 . . . bring it $C!!!!

CALIFORNIA ANGELS . . . ANAHEIM DUCKS . . . CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS

by AndyHogan14 on Mar 5, 2011 9:45 PM PST reply actions

Clearly a different team than the one that played Stanford last time

It’s pretty fitting that Cal’s second-leading scorer in that game was Gary Franklin… and Cal got blown out.

What’s really a shame is that Montgomery— understandably; I’m not blaming him— treated the team as not really being a realistic contender and wasted so many minutes on Franklin trying to develop him for the long-term. On a team trying to make the NCAA tournament, he’d have been benched, surely no later than after the Boston College game. And who knows how many more games the Bears might have won without Franklin playing the role of Sir Shoots-a-lot? Forget Kansas and SDSU, just beating Southern Miss and Stanford would have this team easily into the field of 68.

And despite all of that, Franklin transfers. I mean, what an ass.

"We don't want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object," said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group.

by PaulThomas on Mar 5, 2011 10:39 PM PST reply actions

Remember, that early in the season Smith was looking like a lost cause. So it’s not like we had a ton of depth at the guard spots to let us bench Franklin. We were running out Nigel and Murray for some minutes each game as it was…so benching one of our heavy minute guys would’ve stretched that rotation even thinner.

And FWIW, didn’t Franklin play OK that SO-Miss game? I recall him hitting some big 3’s

CGB's #1 Indian

by boomtho on Mar 6, 2011 10:42 AM PST up reply actions

No, Franklin was kind of brutal in the So. Miss game. He went 1 of 8 from the field and scored 5 points in 24 minutes.

That was the game where Nigel Carter stepped up big time off the bench, went 4 for 4 from 3-point range, and scored 16 points. And Kamp didn’t miss a shot in that game.

Shoulda won that game. Sigh.

Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.

by Ohio Bear on Mar 6, 2011 11:25 AM PST up reply actions

Ah OK, thanks for the correction. The So Miss game was the foul-fest right? What an awful game to see in-person. If any game was crying for a DVR, it was that one

CGB's #1 Indian

by boomtho on Mar 6, 2011 1:45 PM PST up reply actions

Yeah, huge foulfest. It was brutal.

Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.

by Ohio Bear on Mar 6, 2011 2:37 PM PST up reply actions

Very happy to see Washington on the otherside of the bracket

I was surprised by how close the UCLA-Wazzu game was with Wazzu without Klay Thompson. Anyhow, I do think Cal has a decent chance to beat USC on Thursday (but it might be another close one) and we will got from there. The early start may neutralize the home court factor as the matinee crowd are usually more tame.

Go Bears!

by LEastCoastBears on Mar 5, 2011 11:10 PM PST reply actions

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Golden Bears Football Schedule

Fresno St.	Sat 09/03	W 36 - 21
@ Colorado The Ralphie Report	Sat 09/10	W 36 - 33
Presbyterian	Sat 09/17	W 63 - 12
@ Washington UW Dawg Pound	Sat 09/24	L 23 - 31
@ Oregon Addicted To Quack	Thu 10/06	L 15 - 43
USC Conquest Chronicles	Thu 10/13	L 9 - 30
Utah Block U	Sat 10/22	W 34 - 10
@ UCLA Bruins Nation	Sat 10/29	L 14 - 31
Washington St. CougCenter	Sat 11/05	W 30 - 7
Oregon St. Building The Dam	Sat 11/12	W 23 - 6
@ Stanford Rule Of Tree	Sat 11/19	L 28 - 31
@ Arizona St. House Of Sparky	Fri 11/25	W 47 - 38
@ Texas Burnt Orange Nation	Wed 12/28	L 10 - 21