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Golden Nuggets: Big Game Post-Mortem, Baseball and Softball Announce Schedules

Cal Men’s Basketball is doing a great service by playing all the other Bay Area D1 schools this year.

By Nik Jam
Stanford v California Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images

Football

Losing the Big Game in the way the team did is immensely frustrating, and particularly so for any long distance visitors on Saturday…but not having the Axe shouldn’t make this an unsuccessful season by any stretch.

For one, they beat USC, a thorn that hadn’t been removed from their side for 14 years.

For two, they earned a bowl berth to get those much needed off-season practices — how useful they’ll be on offense isn’t clear, but as preparation for the next generation of Cal defenders, they should prove invaluable, regardless of that result.

I get that not beating our biggest rival is upsetting. That they get to extend their record-setting dominance over the Axe, while boasting a fanbase not giving one iota of a shit about football, is doubly upsetting.

But keeping the longer view in line, we shouldn’t forget that Vegas had this team pegged as unlikely for postseason play at all, and this group -- scrappy and as outmanned as they’ve been the last two years -- still gets one more game together. That’s pretty great.

Basketball

  • They may have lost to Saint Mary’s, but Cal did a great service for Bay Area basketball fans by scheduling a game against every D1 opponent. Could it be the start of a tradition?

Baseball/Softball

  • Cal unveiled the 2019 schedule last week, but I forgot about it with all the Big Game hoopla. The Bears open the season with some non-conference games in the state of Arizona. The Bears open the home slate with a unique “home-and-home” series with Saint Mary’s. Thursday and Friday (Feb 28 and March 1) in Berkeley and March 2-3 in Moraga. Conference play starts mid-March with USC and ends in Washington. In early May the Bears will host a 3 game set with the Cardinal.
  • I haven’t seen a release from Cal yet, but the Pac-12 posted the entire conference’s softball schedule for 2019. Looks like the Bears have some tournaments in Boston and Florida, and open Pac-12 play at the end of March at home against Stanford.

Beat the Dons!

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