After a litany of harassing phone calls, threatening emails, compromising pictures, and threats of being forced to play for Ben Braun again, we finally managed to convince Rod Benson to answer some of the questions that all of you posed here.

Check out Rod's answers after the jump.  Many, many, many thanks to Rod for his help with this, he is a great face for not only sports blogging, but also Cal basketball.  GO BEARS!

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"Plus-minus, the stat that made Shane Battier a New York Times sensation (and Kobe Bryant's biggest annoyance)."

Sports fans are pretty familiar with the metrics we use to judge our basketball players. Points, rebounds, assists have been around for decades, and I can't really imagine them going anywhere.

What people don't recognize is that some of these stats don't necessarily tell us that much about a player. Other than maybe points and shooting percentage, all the other stats have a significant degree of uncertainty to them. The definition of an assist has changed quite a bit from when we were kids (and the arbitrary method in which they are assigned leaves much to be desired).

Take a steal, for instance. Dwyane Wade just had a spectacular season where he recorded 100 blocks and 200 steals (the first time a guard has done that since MJ's peak). However, what it doesn't tell you is how many times Wade gambled for the steal, resulting in leaving his man open for the wide open 3 (we have other stats for that, but that's a different story for a different time), or how many blocks ended up going back to the opposing team, giving them another possession. It's similar in football; although an interception and a fumble arguably have greater impact on the game, it isn't necessarily a sign of great one-on-one defense or good tackling form. These are actions that are being measured, not the effort in between the lines. 

Hence the need for new stats. One of the most prominent is the plus-minus (otherwise known as +/-), which will be the focus of this article.

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Part I

When we left off last, some more Cal B-Ball players were arriving.  Max Zhang had made his instantly recognizable entrance.  And soon, Jorge Gutierrez showed up, looking dapper.

But first, another piece:

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On May 9, 2009, Cal basketball player Jamal Boykin showcased his Barack Obama art at the Alphonse Berber Art Gallery right across the street from campus.  Boykin's art was entirely of the President and his family.  Although some pieces were his work alone, most were combined with a magazine cover or photo.  Look at this piece for an example:

He took the magazine photo, tore out a portion of it and then recreated that portion.  An interesting meld of his work with other parties work.  I asked him about that later and he had some interesting answers. 

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When I was at Cal, basketball was king.  It was the middle of the Holmoe era and at that time, Ben Braun was flirting often with the NCAA Tournament.  Cal also won the NIT Tournament!  And one of the key players during this stretch was Dennis "The Sheriff" Gates.  He was one of the smartest players on the court and people always spoke of how it was likely that he'd become a coach someday.  And lo, he did!  He currently coaches for Northern Illinois University, but did coach at Cal for a time.  Here is some more biographical information from his official Cal bio:

A Golden Bear guard from 1999-2002, Gates was a member of Cal's 1999 National Invitation Tournament championship squad and played key roles on the Bears' NCAA Tournament teams in 2001 and '02. In 114 career games, he had 34 starts and finished with an average of 3.8 points per game, as well as 100 steals and 148 assists.

During his tenure as a player, Cal compiled an 83-46 record, winning 20 games in a season three times. In 2002, the Bears reached the semifinals of the Pac-10 Tournament and the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In addition, Gates was named to the all-tournament team at the Golden Bear Classic in '01-02 after hitting a three-pointer in the closing seconds to beat Penn State, 76-73, in the championship game.

Since graduating from Cal in 2002, Gates spent one year on staff with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers and at Marquette University and Florida State. He served as an intern assistant coach under Alvin Gentry and Dennis Johnson with the Clippers in 2002-03, then was a graduate assistant on Tom Crean's staff at Marquette in '03-04, helping the Golden Eagles to the quarterfinals of the NIT, and a GA under Leonard Hamilton at Florida State during the '04-05 season.

A native of Chicago, Gates was a two-time first-team Pac-10 All-Academic choice and the 2002 Cal recipient of the Pac-10 Medal. He received Cal's Most Inspirational Player Award in 2001, the Pete Newell Award as the team's best defensive player in 2002 and was twice named the Bears' Outstanding Student-Athlete (1999, 2001).

Gates earned his bachelor's degree in sociology in just three years and competed as a master's candidate in education during his senior campaign. He recently completed his Master of Science degree in adult education & human resource development from Florida State University.

From the Northern Illinois Athletic site:

Associate Head Coach Dennis Gates, a four-year letterwinner for at California, enters his second season with head coach Ricardo Patton and the Huskies. Patton promoted Gates to associate head coach in March of 2008.

Gates came to DeKalb after spending the seasons as an assistant coach for his alma mater. Gates brings postseason experience both as a player and coach to the Huskies. As a coach, Gates helped lead the Bears to a record of 20-11 and a berth in the NCAA Tournament in 2005-06. As a three-year captain, Gates played a key role in the Bears' run to the 1999 National Invitational Tournament title, and he helped Cal earn bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and 2002.

"Dennis is a young man that played at Cal, and graduated in three years," NIU head men's basketball coach Ricardo Patton said. "He is a guy that plugs us into Chicago right away and is well-respected among his peers across the country, but particularly in the state of Illinois."

Dennis Gates was kind enough to answer some questions for us and for that we are eternally grateful.  Thank you, Dennis Gates!  And Go Bears!

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More photos » by Elaine Thompson - AP

As it turns out, Tony Bennett would much rather be over at the University of Virginia. Who would have guessed? (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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For several years now, Washington State University has been blessed with something it has often lacked throughout its history; an exciting, contending basketball team, led by a successful head coach who not only won games, but was coveted by other, less successful schools.  Some might say that Tony Bennett was too successful, as he has now been lured away from the Palouse by big money from the University of Virginia.  For a fantastic perspective on the situation, I refer you to Nuss from CougCenter, who whips through the five stages of grief in under 750 words.  Some selected highlights:

Tony Bennett is just like every other coach.

And Washington State always will be a place where successful coaches come to build a resume and move on.

There's really no other way to explain what happened today. We gave Tony everything he asked for -- and even some things he didn't -- and it still wasn't enough to keep a guy we wanted to keep, a guy who professed wanting to be here. We thought we could escape our history, convincing ourselves this was a different era in Cougar athletics as we bought Tony's schtick hook, line and sinker.

Yes, he lied to us, but it's our fault for believing him. You might find that language harsh or too strong, but he's the one who said all those things about Pullman, about Sterk, about the program ... and then bolted today with only a short players' meeting. Those were his words, not ours.

We've all heard this story before; it's one of the most tired storylines in college sports.  The knee-jerk response might be to demonize Tony Bennett for using WSU and lying to everyone about his intentions, or to bemoan the slanted college athletics playing field where big money (and the donors who provide it) rules everything, but I have another, broader target.

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We're not known as the CNN of the Cal Blogosphere (for nothing).  Last April, we were the first organization to break the removal of Ben Braun as the Cal Men's Basketball Coach.  This year, we are the first organization (to my knowledge) to break this year's news: Patrick Christopher will return for his senior season.  Sources VERY close to Christopher confirm that he will be back in blue and gold next year.  While this may have been expected, stranger things have happened and it's great to get confirmation that one of our big guns is coming back.  Christopher and Randle are Cal's best and most important players and will give Cal a chance to improve on this year's surprisingly good showing.  I for one am excited to see what they can do next year.

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

GO BEARS!!

The New Jersey Nets hosted the Kiki (Vandeweghe) Awards on Wednesday night, a fan appreciation night of sorts for season ticket holders complete with random award presentations.  You know, just like elementary school.  And as part of the night, they allowed each fan to bring one item to be autographed by the whole team.

At first I thought it might be fun to bring some NBA logo socks:

Or a Lamond Murray Nets jersey:

via pictopia.com

Or a XFL championship ring.

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