DBD 2.21.12 Can Linsanity co-exist with Carmelo, Baron, and A'Mare?

MBB to take on Mountain schools:

BERKELEY – The Golden Bears (22-6, 12-3 Pac-12) seek to set a season-high winning streak of six games when they head to Salt Lake City to face Utah (5-21, 2-12). Cal tied a Haas Pavilion record with their 17th win, this season, in a 77-63 victory against Oregon State, but the Bears have suffered two of their three conference losses on the road.

Cal has reached the 22-win mark for the third time in head coach Mike Montgomery’s four years at the helm; a first in program history. Utah is in the middle of a seven-game skid that started on Jan. 26, but has earned each of its Pac-12 victories at home, this season.

The Bears will need to maintain their momentum down the stretch to stay in the hunt for the first Pac-12 regular-season title as they are currently tied with Washington for first place. Each team will finish the regular season with three road games, including a meeting with their respective rivals. Cal will continue to lean on its seniors Jorge Gutierrez and Harper Kamp as the regular-season race comes to a close.

Gutierrez ranks second on the team with 13.6 ppg and adds 5.3 rpg. He also leads the Bears in steals with 33, this season. Kamp has been the model of consistency and is the only player to have started all 28 of Cal’s games, this year. He puts in 10.8 ppg and 5.1 rpg.

Clarendon named Pac12 pow:

BERKELEY – California Golden Bear junior guard Layshia Clarendon was named Bank of the West Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 13-19, Commissioner Larry Scott announced today. Clarendon averaged 24.5 points and 5.0 rebounds, while leading the Bears to two victories last week.

Clarendon (San Bernardino, Calif.) sunk five threes en route to a season-high 27 points in the 83-71 win over Oregon. She was 10-for-18 from the floor, eight of those attempts coming from three-point range. She also grabbed four boards and handed out five assists. In the 75-68 win over Oregon State, Clarendon made key free throws down the stretch, holding off a late surge from the Beavers, and was 9-for-13 from the charity stripe for the game, tallying 22 points. With the wins, Cal maintains a two-game lead for the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Life Pac-12 Basketball Tournament and also gave the Bears their fifth 20-win season in six years.

Softball crushes LSU:

HENDERSON, Nev. – With an impressive, six-run first inning, the No. 1/3 California softball team cruised to a 14-3 win against No. 24 LSU on Sunday morning.

Cal got incredible bat performances from Jace Williams, Breana Kostreba, Jolene Henderson and Frani Echavarria- all of whom homered with all but Henderson’s jack coming in the top of the fifth.

“Pac-12 versus the SEC is always an intense match-up,” Williams said. “The way we won was a perfect way to win a perfect weekend. This year’s team is incredibly talented and I know we all enjoy that ginormous target on our back. That’s the difference, this team enjoys and embraces pressure. I’m so stoked on this team and out great team win today!”

After the Tigers put three runs on the board in the bottom of the third, the Golden Bears tacked on two more runs in the fourth. It was not until the fifth inning, when Cal posted a lofty six runs in the top of the fifth to get the mercy victory.

Williams led the way with five RBI while Kostreba knocked in four.

Baseball swept Pacific:

No. 22-ranked Cal broke open a 3-3 game with six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning -highlighted by RBI hits from Derek Campbell, Darrel Matthews, Chadd Krist and Andrew Knapp – on the way to a 9-3 win over Pacific Sunday (Feb. 19) at Evans Diamond. With the victory, the Golden Bears swept the series from the Tigers, winning 9-1 on Friday in Berkeley and 6-3 Saturday in Stockton as well.
Junior right-hander Logan Scott (1-0, 1.0 inning, two hits, one run, one strikeout) got Sunday’s win for Cal despite giving up the tying run in the top of the eighth inning on Pacific’s Tyler Sullivan’s pinch-hit RBI single. But the Bears exploded for the six runs off of the Tigers’ relievers John Prato Matthews, Kyle Shaver and Paul Moeller. In the eighth, sophomore shortstop Campbell had the tie-breaking RBI single, junior left fielder Matthews had a two-run triple, Krist had an RBI double to left center field and Knapp had a two-run single to center field.

Krist’s double was his third of the season and the 49th of his career, moving him up to a tie for sixth on the Cal career list with Reid Neumann (1989-92), who was a left fielder on the Bears’ 1992 College World Series team. Krist also led Cal with three hits on the day (3-for-5), while Campbell and Matthews had two hits apiece. Krist led the Pac-10 last season with 27 doubles.

Cobbs named Pac12 pow:

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – California men’s basketball sophomore guard Justin Cobbs has been named the Bank of the West Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for Feb. 13-19, Commissioner Larry Scott announced Monday, Feb. 20.

The second-year Golden Bear guided Cal to a home sweep of the Oregon schools, starting with a close 86-83 victory over the Ducks on Thursday. Cobbs posted a career-best 28 points on 13-for-19 shooting (.684) and dished out eight assists. He also tied a career-high for steals with four and grabbed three rebounds.

On Saturday, the Los Angeles native registered the second double-double of his collegiate career with a career-high 13 assists and 10 points in Cal’s 77-63 win over Oregon State. He also tied a career-best with five rebounds and went 4-for-4 from the foul line. Cobbs’ 13 assists against the Beavers were the most by a Cal player since Jason Kidd had 13 in 1994.

Over the two games, Cobbs averaged 19.0 points on 16-for-26 (.615) shooting, 10.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.0 steals. He also went 5-for-5 from the free-throw line

Mens swimming loses Big Meet:

STANFORD, Calif. — The Big Meet ended as it began: full-throated whistles punctuating the electric air, a spirited anchor leg from a charging challenger, a raucous crowd’s crescendo as two competing hands reached for final wall in sync. For three minutes each, two relays befit the Cal-Stanford rivalry at its best.

Unfortunately for the No. 6 Cal men’s swim team, the events in between on Saturday couldn’t match the excitement of the relays, and the Bears fell to No. 3 Stanford in their regular season finale, 146.5-96.5.

"We wanted to win," said junior Tom Shields. "I mean, a score’s a score. It doesn’t matter too much to us at this point. But we really, really, really wanted to win."

Daily Cal baseball photo gallery

Video of senior night celebration

DC on WBB free throws:


In just one trip to the Northwest, the Cal women’s basketball team showed it can win games scoring from inside the paint or beyond the arc.

On Thursday, the squad faced an Oregon team led by former NBA coach Paul Westhead and won using a barrage of 3-pointers to take down the Ducks, 83-71.

Two days later, the Bears entered Corvallis, Ore., and went back to their standby of pounding the ball in the low post. They took only eight 3-pointers, hitting on five, and got to the free throw line 33 times, starting off the game 7-of-7 from the charity stripe. The result: a 75-68 victory over Oregon State at Gill Coliseum.

DC on mens golf:

A beautiful view was not enough to distract the Cal men’s golf team last week in Oahu, Hawaii. The No. 10 Bears defeated an 18-team field in the three-day John A. Burns Intercollegiate tournament that came down to the final day of the competition.

The victory, the Bears’ third of the season, made it two consecutive seasons in which the Bears have won the tournament. The win also tied a team record for the most tournament wins in a single season, a record that has been matched in the both the previous two years.

The Wednesday through Friday tournament, held at the Turtle Bay Resort on a course designed by golf legend Arnold Palmer, was full of tough competition. Participating in the tournament were numerous top teams including, No. 12 Texas A&M, No. 14 UNLV, No. 17 Duke and No. 25 New Mexico.

The Bears also bested Arizona after falling to the Wildcats by a single stroke just a week before. The Wildcats finished the Hawaii tournament in tenth place, scoring 40 strokes higher than the Bears.

Twist, you wanna hide my DBD? We can use it tomorrow.

Mens Gymnastics wins Big Meet:

The third time was not the charm for the Cal men’s gymnastics team against Stanford this season. The fourth and fifth times that the Bears matched up with their Bay Area foe, however, turned out pretty well. Cal wrapped up a five-meet season series with Stanford Saturday with a win in Palo Alto. The No. 5 Bears, coming off a win against the Cardinal Feb. 12, secured a second straight victory with a score of 344.900-343.600.

The Bears scored higher than the No. 4 Cardinal in four of the six events. Cal won the rings, floor, parallel bars and horizontal bar. They came up short on the pommel horse and vault.

The pommel horse loss was a rarity, as senior Glen Ishino placed only fourth in the event. The pommel horse is usually the U.S. men’s national team member’s strongest event.

Compared to the pommel horse loss, the victory on the floor event was a different kind of unexpected. The Cardinal are one of the best tumbling teams in the country and are led by the defending national champion in the event, Eddie Penev.

DC on lacrosse:

The Cal lacrosse team’s winning strategy of spreading the ball out became apparent in just the first minute of Sunday’s season opener when the squad scored a goal.

The Bears dominated their first MPSF match with draw control and ball possession to begin its conference season with an 18-6 victory over the St. Mary’s at Recreation Field in Moraga, Calif.

"By winning the first draw and moving around the ball as much as we could, we created extra opportunities for ourselves to get the ball down the field," said coach Ginger Miles. "With that first draw, we controlled the ball, which meant controlling the court and controlling the game."

Junior midfielder Melissa Humphrey led the Bears with nine points — three goals and six assists — to tie a Cal single-game record. Junior attacker Alexa Rozelle scored a game and career-high six goals, the most a Cal player has scored in a match since 2009.

DC on softball:

Another weekend, another sweep.

The No. 1 Cal softball team continued its pillaging of any and all comers Sunday in Henderson, Nev., with a resounding 14-3 victory over No. 24 LSU.

"I thought they were definitely one of the better teams we played this year," said pitcher Jolene Henderson. "Fortunately, we matched their intensity and produced well to get the victory."

The occasion for the contest was the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic, which brought together 18 Division I softball teams to face off against one another in a round-robin tournament style.

Sunday’s win came after another 4-0 showing from the Bears, who, thus far, have steamrolled every opponent that has stepped up to the plate. After a 2-0 win on Friday in which National Player of the Week Valerie Arioto launched two more bombs, Cal had a doubleheader against two California universities, surely exhausted from playing five games in seven days. The fatigue did not seem to be much of an issue, with the Bears disposing of San Jose State 7-0 and UC Riverside 10-0.

The Bears tacked on six runs in the top of the first inning Sunday, leaving the outcome of the contest in little doubt. Redshirt senior Jace Williams kicked off the scoring with a two-run double, and freshman infielder Breanna Kostreba immediately followed with a run-scoring single. After Williams scored on a wild pitch, Henderson finished off the inning’s scoring with a two-run home run, officially making the top of the first a crooked inning.

Dubs beat Clips:



Sick days: For those of us who are so blessed with a) a job and b) an employer who provides sick days, they’re golden. For those times when the workday is just too much to bear but you haven’t bothered to schedule a vacation, when the prospects of spending 8+ hours dealing with the pointy haired boss are overwhelming, they’re a life-saver, a chance to break from a routine long enough to regain some needed balance.

Occasionally, you can use them when you’re actually sick.

For those of us who have grown sick and tired of seeing Andris Biedrins provide a whole lot of nothing (and alas even I now just wonder who will offer us that broken toaster so we can be rid of the dead weight), his sick day provided exactly that break. Well, perhaps not for him, as apparently his illness is real I don’t actually wish ill health on him, but for the rest of us, it seemed to bring some new health to the team. We were rewarded with Ekpe Udoh’s first start and were, in return, rewarded with a win against a visiting Clippers team that is no longer the joke that they’ve been for, well, for about as long as our Warriors have been a joke.

Sactown Royalty talks about mistakes:


I like to think that fans of Sacramento Kings basketball have learned over the past six years to excuse losses and losing. We learned long ago that Rebuilding has a best friend named Defeat, and that they hang out all of the fricking time. Most of us accepted in 2007 that the team faced a dark future and needed to get worse in order to get better. So we hung on as the expensive pieces were pawned for basically nothing — Mike Bibby and Brad Miller literally got the team nothing in return — and the first set of building blocks (Kevin Martin, Quincy Douby, Spencer Hawes) were cast aside for newer, ‘better’ ones. We survived 2008-09, somehow. We came to terms with a long twilight, and prayed hard for a forthcoming dawn.

But one thing that’s proven more difficult is excusing mistakes. It popped up Sunday when Tyreke Evans made a bad foul that essentially cost the Kings the game against Cleveland. Evans rapped Kyrie Irving with Sacramento up one and just seconds left. Irving hit his free throws, and the Kings didn’t get a shot off on the other end. It was a bad, bad play from Tyreke.

Manny Ramirez Officially Signs with Oakland A’s

In the worst kept secret of the offseason, Manny officially confirmed signing with the A’s to Pedro Gomez today. As for whether or not Manny is really a different person as Gomez claims in the video, I don’t really care. To me this move makes sense in quite a few ways. First and foremost, it costs the A’s nothing really other than $500 K which I think Lew Wolff burped up after his breakfast burrito this morning.

SSR talks Lakers-Blazers:

For this version of the Los Angeles Lakers, the run might be just about over. By that I don’t mean to suggest the Lakers don’t have a shot at a deep playoff run this season. They do. But when the Staples crowd gets another chance to watch the Lake Show in person, the team they see might be different – perhaps radically so, maybe just around the edges – than the one they watched on Monday night. If this was a swan song, it was a pretty lovely tune.

For one night at least, we got to see what Mitch Kupchak envisioned when he put this roster together. The blitzkrieg started with Andrew Bynum, as it always should. He had a direct hand in the Lakers’ first 10 points. After three straight baskets to give the Lakers a 6 to 3 lead they would never relinquish, Drew’s offensive rebounding led to consecutive second-chance hoops by Pau Gasol. Bynum’s physical dimensions and hunger for the ball were put to excellent effect, and it doesn’t even bother me that he only took seven shots (really nine, if you include free-throw possessions). In this instance his low shot total was less about guys not looking for him and more just taking advantage of the holes he opened in the Portland D. In large part because Drew was so assertive early on, the Lakers enjoyed clean passing lanes and open looks from beyond the arc the rest of the night. The big man got to feed early, so everyone else got their fill later on. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

Clips lose to Dubs:

1st qtr..
Cp3 starts out hot…milph points out cp3 doesn’t wear his knee sleeves until 2nd half but is wearing them in the 1st tonight. Not sure what that means. Cp3 got message. He is involved in every score so far. Udoh with 8 early pts in 1st quarter! Foye struggling from field including an awful baseline pass to no one. Udoh outhussling dj on offense. BTW How does Udoh have more offensive game than dj!? Lessons learned: stay up on the 3 pt shooters.
Lessons learned: Someone guard Udoh!
Cp3 is a beast when engaged early!

2nd qtr
Paul stays in.. Vdn needs him and gives bg a breather. Offense sputtering with mo, bled, cp3 martin and reggie early in 3rd. 2 3s in row by paul. Has not missed any shot except for ft. Fnally gets a break at 20 pts. Helps the team climb back in game. No one can stop ellis. how do you not count pauls 3 when fouling dj!?Cp3 shoots Lesson learned:
Refs do not handle on the fly/smart plays like paul’s back-to-back 3 pt tries at the end of the half! How can you not allow the shot to count on the 1st foul and NOT call a foul on the 2nd!?

3rd qtr
Missed most of this period, but did catch the worst outlet pass ever by Deandre! Cp3 cooled off this qtr. and seemed tired.
Lesson learned: Bedtime can sometimes take longer than the half-time show!

McC talks Melky:

Think back to what the front office was like after the Aaron Rowand deal was signed, sealed, and delivered. There were people who thought it was a good idea. If there wasn’t a yelp or a holler, there was at least an earnest fist-pump or three. Aaron Rowand, baby. This helps the team in some capacity. Good on us.

Which is to say, bigger isn’t necessarily better. Rowand was coming off a career year when he signed with the Giants. It was a bold move. Drinking the styrofoam cocktail that’s left in the container after you put some chicken on the grill: also a bold move. The Giants didn’t need a bold move like that this offseason.

The Giants could have made a big move just to make a big move. They tried that once.

Gary Matthews, Jr.! … dammit so much how about Juan Pierre? … you gotta be kidding me, okay Aaron Rowand! … YESSSSSS SCORRRRRRE AWLRIGHT FOLKS
/dunks ball through Nerf hoop on back of office door

I’m glad they didn’t try it again. It wouldn’t have been pretty. As such, maybe we should welcome Melky Cabrera with open arms. He didn’t come over on a seven-year deal. He wasn’t acquired for Gary Brown. He’s a one-year challenge player who was traded for a one-year challenge player. In theory, the Giants trading a bottom-rotation starter for a offensive-minded corner outfielder makes all sorts of sense.

Today – 2/21
CSKA Moskva v Real Madrid – 18:00 CET/9:00 PST
Napoli v Chelsea – 20:45 CET/11:45 PST

2/22
Marseille v Internazionale – 20:45 CET/11:45 PST
Basel v Bayern – 20:45 CET/11:45 PST

TrueBlueLA talks Jamey Wright:

Wright has also been durable since joining the bullpen, tied for Matt Guerrier for the third most relief innings in baseball from 2008-2011. What a difference five years of age and outperforming ones peripherals make, as Wright (4.25 ERA, 4.35 FIP, 4.25 xFIP during the last four years) is on his second consecutive minor league contract while Guerrier (3.23 ERA, 4.38 FIP, 4.25 xFIP from 2007-2010) cashed in to the tune of three years and $12 million last year.

Trivia

Wright allowed 13 unearned runs in 2009, setting a Royals record for a reliever, the highest number of unearned runs allowed by a major league reliever since Tony Castillo allowed 14 for the Chicago White Sox in 1997.

Contract Status

Jamey Wright signed a minor-league contract with an invitation to big league camp in spring training, with a reported out clause at some point in March per Tony Jackson of ESPN LA, meaning of Wright isn’t added to the active roster by the specified date in his contract he can opt to become a free agent.

Sharks are in Ohio!

Tough test for the…

Big game tonight with…

Alright, Columbus sucks and everyone knows it. Last in the West, grasping at straws. Looking to trade anyone with a heartbeat. Rick Nash and Jeff Carter on the block, organization in shambles.

The perfect slump-buster.

Granted, the Sharks aren’t the best of the best right now, but they’re still sitting in third in the West… precarious as that spot might be. The Phoenix Coyotes are hot on their tails, just two points behind after going 8-1-1 in their last ten. However, the Sharks do still hold two games in hand on Phoenix (and Los Angeles, who can’t score a goal to save their lives), and the current streaks that both San Jose and Phoenix are on are unlikely to continue for much longer.

While I do admit that Phoenix is a better team than I originally gave them credit for (they looked on the fast track to a league-last finish after they lost 6-3 against the Sharks in San Jose’s home opener), assuming that they’ll continue to earn points in 90% of their games is ridiculous. And even if you’re the most pessimistic of Sharks fans, assuming that the Sharks will continue to drop games after playing like an very good team much of the season is unrealistic as well.

unfortunately i couldn’t make the game, but it’s crazy how much Berkeley has changed in a year. i’m starting to “get” the attraction of constants like Top Dog, etc that you know will always be there (knock on wood).

also, i miss berkeley :(

For soccer fans, a new sbntion soccer blog

Supreme Court to hear case about using race in college admissions

In a potentially momentous decision, the Supreme Court will once again confront the issue of race in university admissions in a case brought by a white student denied a spot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas.

The court said Tuesday it will return to the issue of affirmative action in higher education for the first time since its 2003 decision endorsing the use of race as a factor in freshmen admissions. This time around, a more conservative court is being asked to jettison that ruling and outlaw affirmative action in the university setting.