Women's Basketball v. Oregon State 2.24.13 Photo Essay

Plus Select-A-Seat!

By Twist NHook Feb 25, 2013, 9:12pm PST

What a game! Down 17 against the Beavers, Cal came roaring back to win by 2.

But before we get to that, let's look at Select-A-Seat first. This was an opportunity to upgrade your seats, if need be. For many people, it was frustrating. They came all the way up to Memorial Stadium to find out that they didn't have the opportunity to upgrade like they would like. In the past, opportunities to organize seats came through the internet. This is the first time in my memory that it was done in person.

I went first to the Ticket Will Call, but apparently was wrong to do that.

I was supposed to come up here and register here first. So, I did that!

Then. they told us to head in and get the seats (maybe). They had highlights of Cal football up on the big screens. Apparently, the day before, they had the Cal-OSU MBB game up on the big screens. They also had various Cal players hanging around.

It was actually pretty straight forward once you got in. Went to your section, talked with the employee there and tried to upgrade, if possible. There were little cards for every open seat. It seemed like a rather large amount of time intensive work. It seemed a lot less efficient than doing it online. However, it probably allowed for the opportunity to make personal connections AND resolve any issues in person. So, there are upsides.

And now I have seats!

From there, it was down to the game itself. Pretty solid turn out for Senior Day, the last home game of the regular season.

Here comes the band:

Don't forget to vote for Layshia Clarendon for the Senior CLASS Award! Everybody's great efforts have pushed her into the lead now. Still like a month to go, though!

If you aren't a big Twitter fan, we've started a campaign for her called #LayshiaFacts. It has gotten somewhat popular and become self-sustaining. We're so happy to see other WBB fans (and the team, coach, players, and frigging Pac12 itself!) join in on the fun. The gatekeepers are dead. Anybody can try to start anything now. If it is good, it'll rise to the top.

We're all in this together. Us, the fans, Cal, the team, the Pac-12. Nobody is superior to anybody else. Some might have somewhat larger megaphones, but that only goes so far. It is sort of insane, but welcome to the new way.

Then, the national anthem!

With the Senior Day upon us, Cal honored each senior. They came walking out with family or friends. All videos by valued reader CalBear81:

Here, for example, is Talia Caldwell, with her family.

They gave the fans posters to hold up for the Seniors. Here is the Layshia Clarendon section waving their posters as Layshia comes in.

And here she is!

All the seniors taking photos together.

Of course, CheerSF was there! I have come around on them and will no longer make fun of them for being always so happy. Happiness has a place in this world. Not everybody can be so emotionally empty and full of self-loathing like I am.

LET THE GAME(S) BEGIN!

On the right is Michael Lewis. You may know him as the guy who wrote the books "Moneyball" and "The Blind Side" amongst other things. He is perhaps the world's most popular non-fiction writer of the last 10 years. He lives in Berkeley and apparently comes to a lot of the games. He was there with his son (who had a basketball jersey with the name Lewis on). Oski came over and played around with his son.

How odd it is to have such a jewel of an author sitting so nonchalantly a mere 10 feet from you. BERKELEY!

OSU got out to a big lead early. It looked like Cal had their opportunities. The shots just didn't land. And OSU seemed to hitting some big 3s.

This is a thing they do for the kids where they have to put various items of clothes on and then hit a shot. Normally, the kids are like 10-15 or so, but here they were much younger. They could barely put the clothes on. That jersey was as big as the kid! Very cute.

Boyd, looking pretty buff, on the cycle.

If you couldn't see before, here is a shot of the back of the Cal jerseys. They have this look that is difficult to see. It is kinda cool, but also a bit tough to make out.

By half, Cal was down 12. They had actually cut the deficit some. I had faith that Cal would win. Not joking. I knew we were down 12, but I had that sort of arrogant hubris that we allege the USC fans have. OSU was beneath us. We're Cal! We were better than this and in the 2nd half there would be a "correction."

And there was! Cal chipped away and chipped away. The shots were falling. We still struggled with free throws a bit, though.

Here is Coach Gould (former Cal RB coach and current UC Davis head coach) with former Cal DLineman (and current Saint) Cameron Jordan. Look at the all maroon suit that Gould is wearing. LOVE IT!

The crowd was great. As Cal got closer and closer they got more and more excited. When Cal cut it down to 5, we were going crazy. When we finally tied it up, people were on their feet. It was a great scene there at Haas!

This is weird here. The score was 58-54, but the scoreboard had broken.

The final score was 58-56. The last minute was really stressful. OSU had the last shot and got off a fairly decent shot that didn't go in. Extremely nerve-wracking.

Here is the end of the game: