Calgoldenbear

Bears Best Navy, 74-6, in Varsity Cup Semifinal

calbear1984 — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:35:16 +0000

NFL DRAFT: CAL BEARS TO CHARGERS, TITANS, & RAVENS

calbear1984 — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:34:54 +0000

Gallery: New Cal Uniforms

calbear1984 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:00:20 +0000

NO 1 BEARS vs NO 5 GAELS SATURDAY ON WITTER FIELD

calbear1984 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:59:20 +0000

Cal Women’s Basketball: Building A Legacy

norcalnick — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:00:08 +0000

The 2012-13 Cal women's basketball team will have many legacies. I hope that this is one of them: Or this: That first video was shot by CalBear81 at Pappy's on Sunday afternoon. The second video was shot by myself, as the Bears clinched their overtime win over Georgia. I had just attended the Tiny Bates Banquet in Sacramento, attended by Coach Dykes. When the dinner wrapped up, about half of the crowd piled into the bar to cheer on the Bears in overtime. I managed to capture the moment when the clock hit zero, though as you might imagine, it's a little shaky, what with my nonexistent filming skills and the rush of victory adrenaline. Layshia Clarendon, Talia Caldwell, Eliza Pierre and Tierra Rogers will be leaving, but they will leave with a Pac-12 championship, a Final Four banner, and the knowledge that they galvanized the Cal community behind a women's basketball team to an unprecedented degree. I never thought I would see the day that the Bears could fill multiple bars with rabid Cal fans, or that die-hard football fans would all be desperately checking their blackberries for the score of a women's basketball game. Maybe all of the attention this team has received won't mean anything next year. Maybe season ticket purchases and attendance numbers will stay the same, and maybe everybody will wait until the post-season to tune in. But maybe, thousands of Cal fans were exposed to a fun team with a charismatic young coach, and maybe some will stick around for the entire ride next year. Maybe this is the start of something really special, the start of Cal transforming itself into a pillar program in the world of women's basketball, with the fan support to match. We've talked many times about how Lindsay Gottlieb made no effort to hide the goals for this season: Cut down nets. Be elite. The Bears did that, in spades. Stanford was again the worthiest of adversaries, and their excellence prevented the Bears from cutting down nets when they clinched a share of the title on the last day of the regular season on the road up in Seattle. That didn't stop the Bears from celebrating with a trophy. And in the end, they still got their nets, cutting them down in Spokane instead. A key aspect to the entire story? A Final Four appearance seemed downright impossible just two years ago. Viet Nguyen at Bear Insider did a great job reminding us just how far the Bears had to come:

Cal played out the string, even returning to the WNIT for an embarrassing second-round blow-out loss to future Pac-12 opponent Colorado.

The fallout was immediate. Leading scorer DeNesha Stallworth, the top recruit from that heralded 2009 class, transferred to Kentucky. Soon after, head coach Joanne Boyle also exited, moving to take over Virginia. Rumors swirled about who would transfer next.

The Cal program, which Boyle and company had built into relevance, was on a precipice and barely hanging on.

From there, all the way to the Final Four. Incredible. There are lots of banners and history up in the rafters of Haas Pavilion. But two of them have stand out: Pete Newell's 1959 NCAA championship, and Cal's Pac-10 title in 2010. The Cal women will add the first Pac-12 title to the rafters, and they will add the first Final Four banner as well. Every time I go to Haas for the rest of my life, I'll be able to look up and remember moments from the 2012-13 season, the greatest season a Cal basketball team has had since 1959. I don't know if this year will be a high water mark or the foundation of something even bigger. The potential is obviously there. Whatever happens next, this team's legacy is firmly cemented in Cal history already.

video: Cal women against louisville in final four

calbear1984 — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:37:04 +0000

video: RB Marshawn Lynch views new cal football uniforms

calbear1984 — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:35:34 +0000

CAL WOMEN ON TO FINAL FOUR!

Avinash Kunnath — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 03:56:50 +0000

GO BEARS!

Cal Rugby Wins Inaugural PAC Rugby Conference Title

Berkelium97 — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:00:04 +0000

Cal defeated conference rival Utah 51-29 to secure the inaugural PAC Rugby title. To Utah's credit, that was the most points surrendered by Cal this year.

In its first Homecoming on Witter Rugby Field since 2010, top-ranked California put in a controlled performance and scored seven tries to defeat Utah, 51-24, Saturday afternoon in front of a large crowd despite Spring Break for Cal students, clinching the inaugural PAC Rugby Conference title. ... Saturday was also a high-school reunion for both captains, Cal outside center Seamus Kelly and Utah flanker Mike Juszczak, teammates at Xavier High School in New York City whose former team also enjoyed the contest from the bleachers during their spring tour of Northern California.

"It's something special to play in front of this crowd with my high school here today," said Kelly. "Utah has a talented group and I'm happy we could get this win in front of our fans."

Cal hosts its regular season finale against Saint Mary's on April 13th before embarking on a couple postseason tournaments.

Cal's will compete in the postseason at the Varsity Cup, in which the Bears face Notre Dame in an April 20 super-regional showdown at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The higher-seeded winner between that outcome and that of the Navy-Dartmouth super-regional will host a semifinal April 27, giving Cal and its fans one more possible home game in the postseason followed by the championship on May 4 in Provo, Utah.

After the Varsity Cup, Cal will travel to the Collegiate Rugby Championship 7s June 1-2 in Philadelphia.

A 7s championship would be a fine cherry on the top of this spectacular sundae of a season.

Basketball

The Bears advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history! Cal will face the Bulldogs of Georgia after they upset Stanford.
Coach Gottlieb was speechless after the Bears' win. She did, however, praise the team's improved free throw shooting.

Baseball

Evans Field hosted its first-ever night game. Cal lost to USC 4-3 in the debut.
They turned the lights on and tried again, but Cal lost 9-5.
Back under the sun, Cal defeated USC 15-5.

Softball

Cal survived a pitchers' duel to defeat Sacramento State 1-0. A record crowd of 1,212 watched the game at Shea Stadium during a pleasant Sacramento! afternoon..

Crew

CalBears.com takes us behind the scenes as the men's team prepares to begin the season.

Lacrosse

Despite another solid performance from Megan Takacs (four goals), Cal lost 10-7 to Yale.

Tennis

Swimming and Diving

Tom Shields won his third consecutive NCAA title in the 100 fly.

Bears Dominate 2nd Half, Advance To Elite Eight

norcalnick — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:55:31 +0000

It's a testament to the talent on this team that the Bears didn't play 'Cal basketball' for 20 minutes and still entered halftime tied with LSU, 26-26. The Bears let LSU dictate style and tempo, and the result was a disjointed, ugly game. And then the Bears came out for the 2nd half and ran the Tigers off the floor. 47 2nd half points! Cal picked up the defensive pressure, forced bad shots or turnovers, turned those mistakes into transition opportunities. And those transition opportunities turned into made baskets or free throws, as a slower LSU team struggled to keep up. It's such a joy to watch this team run. Layshia Clarendon is one of the best in-rhytm shooters I've ever seen. Gen Brandon seemingly covers 5 yards with every step. And Brittany Boyd is pure lightning. We've watched teams try to slow the Bears down all year, so on the rare occasions when they can get out and do their thing, you have to sit back and enjoy the show. It's tough to pick out one stand-out player. Clarendon bounced back from a tough, 2 point 1st half to score 18, and quietly managed six huge steals to fuel Cal's transition game. Human double-double Gen Brandon (stop me if you've heard this before) put up a huge double-double. Brittany Boyd kept Cal's offense afloat in the first half, then dictated tempo in the 2nd half, exerting control over proceedings in the way only a special point guard can do. Clarendon in particular impressed me. ESPN talked about how hard she had to work just to get decent looks. Credit LSU's defense for denying her in the first half. From that point on she refused to let that defense stop her, and any slight opening resulted in a jumper falling through the hoop. And of course the Bears got less obvious contributions from everybody else. Talia Caldwell played some great defense on Theresa Plaisance, who finished 5-18 from the field. Mikayla Lyles hit two shots in limited time on the court, including a huge three to stretch Cal's lead when the game was still close. Reshanda Gray was key on defense and on the boards in limited minutes. In the end, Cal shot better, rebounded better, drew more fouls, and forced more turnovers. You do those 4 things, and you tend to win games. And perhaps the biggest reason this win became fairly routine? The Bears hit their free throws. The final line of 26-41 (63.4) is almost exactly in line with Cal's season average, but most of the misses came during the final minute when Cal had a double digit lead and the game was over. Most of the work was done by Clarendon and Brandon - Clarendon taking advantage as the refs finally started to call fouls on LSU's hand-checks and bodying as she tried to get free. Hey Cal fans, remember how disappointed we were when the Bears failed to hold serve to set up the long anticipated rubber match with Stanford? Well, it happened again, but this time it was Stanford who didn't hold up their end of the bargain. All things considered, I'm glad we lost to UCLA and not to LSU. I know nothing about Georgia except that they beat Stanford, so they must be pretty OK. We're playing them with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Just say those words and smile. 31 wins, and the season is still going.