Golden Nuggets: Still Reliving the Washington Win

• Nam’s weekly novel has an optimistic outlook on Cal’s November schedule now that the Bears have righted the ship.

They could win out against a down USC team, a Colorado squad that slipped up badly this week and could spiral, a WSU offense they dismantled last year, and hosting rival Stanford.

They could lose out against a USC team that will probably have fired Clay Helton before we can pounce on him, a Colorado squad that’s feisty as hell, a revived WSU team looking for payback after last year (and is already double digit favorites ahead of next weekend), plus a Stanford group that still presents some matchup issues.

Granted, going 0-4 would be an unacceptable and deeply disappointing season result, but that still feels possible, albeit unlikely.

Either case is still on the table at this point, not to mention everything in between.

The bigger takeaway – besides the one that Evan Weaver had to seal the game, that is – should be that there are possibilities at all ahead of us, after we thought the season nearly dead; which means, that there should be an interesting month of football ahead, regardless..

• Two fourth down plays for Washington proved key to Cal’s win as the defense brushed off the first conversion and made a huge stop in the second one that rattled the Washington offense for the rest of the game.
• The Five Things that Cal needs to do to beat Wazzu is up.
• Can’t play Washington State and not think about the late Tyler Hilinski. This week happens to be Disability Awareness Issue for the Daily Cal, so Josh Yuen wrote about the impact of Hilinski’s suicide on the Washington State team and campus. Shailin Singh has a similar article on athletes and depression, although it doesn’t mention Cal or WSU.

Basketball

• 5 Questions Facing MBB as the season begins today.

Can these Bears shoot straight?

Cal finished last in the Pac-12 last season in all three shooting categories: .406 from the field, .286 from beyond the 3-point arc, and .675 at the free throw line.

Considering the Bears expect to rely on perimeter players this season, those numbers are going to have to be markedly better.

Darius McNeill made a Cal freshman-record 67 3-pointers last season, but converted just 35 percent. Can he do better having shifted from point guard to shooting guard? Top returning scorer Justice Sueing shot just 31 percent from deep and guard Juhwan Harris-Dyson was 0-for-13 on 3’s.

Rugby

• Also a part of the Disability Awareness issue, the Daily Cal caught up with Robert Paylor on his recovery.

Beat the Pioneers!