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(No TV today. Here is a Livestream Link)
Even during a rebuilding season where the losses keep piling up, it's hard to say goodbye when one of your favorite sports team's seasons come to an end. It was that way with men's basketball last year, the Cal football team in 2012 and 2013... not to mention multiple years lately where my A's and Raiders have stunk...
The Cal women's basketball team limps to the finish line, but that doesn't mean I won't continue to cheer for the Bears and attend their games. They are home for two more against Oregon and Oregon State and then it's on to the Pac-12 tournament where their season will likely come to an end barring a major miracle.
All I can tell you is that Oregon has done pretty well for themselves... they came into the previous meeting on January 17 at 0-5 in conference play (two losses to Oregon State), but that Cal win boosted them to success. They are 8-2 following that Cal win (the losses coming to UCLA and ASU), 9-7 overall in conference play after an 11-0 non-conference slate, so this will be a tough one for the Bears. The Ducks are one of the "First Four Out" according to ESPN's Charlie Creme so don't expect them to just hand this one over.
A win would certainly be the best Cal's has had since the non-conference UCLA game and would be give us Bear fans a lot to cheer about in looking forward to next season, which will ideally have all our players staying and getting some new ones. The Bears couldn't overcome a 4 point second quarter in Eugene in the 69-59 loss, and will need to avoid any big Oregon runs to stay in the game.
UPDATE: Horrible news for womens basketball, even if its a break for Cal, Oregon's best player and senior Jillian Alleyne suffered a season ending injury in practice. My thoughts are with the team in this tough time and I wish her the best.
Speaking of new players, I want to talk about a player currently on the roster... but won't be playing again till next season.
A few days ago, the Guardian posted this article on Chen Yue. I know it was mentioned in a DBD but "ICYMI", I'm going to bring it up here as well. It's a great read on our promising freshmen, who unfortunately suffered a season ending injury back in December. She is taking a redshirt this season and will hopefully be a major force for the Cal women's team the next four years... (Notably, Gennifer Brandon a few years ago also was a 5 year player... although we've seen on Men's basketball and Football some pretty notable players who spent their 5th year at another school... including one I probably shouldn't remind our readers about... hopefully Chen doesn't go that route!)
The whole story is very cool, I won't spoil it, and there's some facts thrown out at us as well. Did you know she has an amazing GPA? Did you know she's the first woman from China to play NCAA women's basketball? That's pretty incredible! And she's a California Golden Bear, and I'm really happy to say that. Feel free to use this thread as a discussion on that article as well, hence why I'm publishing it a little ahead of time.
Anyway yeah... 7PM. Haas Pavilion. Be there, on watch online HERE. KALX 90.7 will have radio. Pac-12 Bay Area will NOT have this game, but will have Sunday's.
Go Bears.