Last post, we answered questions about the upcoming Cal vs. Stanford Women’s Basketball game posed by the TwistNHook and Nor Cal Nick of California Golden Blogs. Today they answered our Q’s. The answers were surprisingly intelligent! Hee hee. No, really!
Check out the link below to the story about the Stanford Tree! It’s a classic and they have won a special place in C and R’s hearts, even though they are still from Cal. BTW, C once bet R that she wouldn’t touch the ref as he ran up and down the court when we were sitting court side. She grabbed his pants twice before we had to stop her. He didn't notice but C was sure we were all going to get kicked out. Funny the Tree gets special protection at Cal games!
Here we go (and of course C and R can’t be quiet for more than a paragraph, so we added some comments in parenthesis).
1) A lot was made about the incoming freshmen crew Cal recruited. We have been too busy paying attention to Stanford to notice. Give us a run down on how have the Fab Freshmen have been this year and what they can improve upon for next year.
A: Inconsistent, but not in a way that’s particularly surprising. Unfortunately, one of the seven, Tierra Rogers, was diagnosed with a heart condition prior to the season and will never suit up again. But besides that setback, most events have been positive. The names you’ll hear most often would be Layshia Clarendon and DeNesha Stallworth. Layshia is the best guard of the class and can look pretty great at times, especially when she’s attacking the basket. DeNesha has impressive post moves for a frosh and dropped 30 points on USC earlier in the year. Gennifer Brandon is a great rebounder and is gradually learning to control her explosiveness. Eliza Pierre has great defensive instincts and has been a solid distributor when she plays the point. Talia Caldwell and Brenna Heater are the other bigs. Talia is a solid all-around player with the exception of her free throw shooting. Brenna’s season has been derailed by a number of injuries and her main goal for next season will be to not get concussed again.
(We were very saddened to hear last fall that Tierra Rogers was diagnosed with a heart ailment and could not continue her career in basketball- C and R)
2) This explanation of the PAC-10 standings and the place Cal could end up for the PAC-10 tournament in is form the Cal website: Cal enters the week in sole possession of third place in the Pac-10 standings, holding a half-game advantage over the USC Trojans. Cal and USC both have six losses, but Cal has 11 wins. USC will play a pair of games this week, hosting Arizona on Thursday and Arizona State on Saturday. If Cal and USC end up in a tie for third, USC holds the tiebreak advantage over Cal and would earn the three seed in the Pac-10 Tournament, pushing Cal into the fourth seed. If Arizona State wins both of their games and Cal loses, then ASU and Cal would be tied for third. Once again, Arizona State owns the tiebreak advantage and Cal would be seeded fourth. Cal could also end up as the five seed if ASU, USC, and Cal tie for third place (with a Cal loss, two ASU wins, and a USC victory over Arizona) Between this, the infield fly rule in baseball and the biased way soccer refs call off sides, which is easier to understand?
A: Well, I’m a gigantic basketball nerd, so the only thing I don’t understand about the scenario is the necessity for conference tournaments. I’ll say that the infield fly rule probably causes more confusion. It’s easy to understand soccer calls, but only if you have connections with the Italian mafia that dictate the calls. This question also reminded me that Cal lost to ASU and USC on two different buzzer beaters. So I guess what I really don’t understand is why the cruel hand of fate mocks me so!
3) At the same moment, the Stanford band leaves Stanford by train for the PAC-10 tournament in LA at USC and the CAL band leaves Berkeley by bus for the very same tournament and the train from Stanford is moving at speed of 40 miles per hour, and the bus from Berkeley is moving at speed of 60 miles per hour, except when they got pulled over and ticketed for doing 60 in a 45 MPH construction zone and the distance to LA from Stanford is 370 miles and Berkeley is about 40 more miles up the road and a plane takes 6 hours to fly from San Francisco to New York, and 5 hours to return back. What is the name of the guy in the Stanford Tree outfit?
A: Twistnhook is the most qualified to answer this question, based on his up close and personal relationship with the Stanford tree. And since I majored in Geography my ability to answer a math question died upon my alleged graduation from high school. So I’ll have to make a wild guess…Condleezza Rice?
(No, sorry, we were going for Dayton, Ohio, and Jeff Tedford, but keep that last part a secret-C and R)
4) PAC-10 SCORING RACE- Going into the final game of the regular season, Alexis Gray-Lawson leads the race for the Pac-10 scoring title. Gray-Lawson is averaging 18.1 points per game with Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike at 18.0. Gray-Lawson has scored three more points this season, with 508 to Ogwumike's 505. In Conference games, Gray-Lawson is averaging 20.6 ppg to Oregon's Taylor Lilley's 19.7. Ogumike is in third with 17.9. How long will it be before Nneka gets a foul and Tara VanDerveer banishes her to the bench? Bonus points for correctly guessing the minute mark and estimating how many points she would have scored if not on the bench!
A: Man, Ogwumike burned us for 24 last time, and unless the high pitched cheering of a few thousand children sway the refs, Cal will have their hands full. Hopefully Gennifer Brandon and DeNesha Stallworth are feeling aggressive on offense, because foul trouble would be the best way to take the Appel/Ogwumike/Pedersen monster out. If the Bears can hold Nneka below 20 I’ll be thrilled…but only if nobody else from Stanford scores over 20 to make up for it.
(Ohh, good point. You can stop one of the three trees, but there is always another to take its place-C and R)
5) Predict how many points Alexis Gray-Lawson will drop on Stanford.
A: Well, she scored 37 the last time in Berkeley, but only 9 earlier this year in Maples. Average that out and we get…24? Hmm, that sounds high when she’ll be the complete focus of the Cardinal defense. Lexi is unusual this year in that she tends to score either 35 points or 15, but rarely in between. When she knows she’s on she’ll keep shooting, but when she knows she’s off she usually doesn’t force up a bunch of shots. Cal had better hope she’s on, but I’ll predict a conservative 17 points.
(We’ll take the 17! C and R)See ya Saturday at Cal. Anyone know of a good place to eat in Berkeley?
More Stanford and Cal and Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my, at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
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