Stanford vs Cal Preview

Most of C and R’s fans know we have been working with Swish Appeal, which is building up articles on Women’s PAC-10 basketball and the WNBA. Well, Swish Appeal put us in touch with…the enemy. Namely, TwistNHook and Nor Cal Nick of California Golden Blogs.

At first C and R challenged them a free throw shooting contest but our pleas went ignored. Then they challenged us to answer five questions and ask five of them about the Cal vs. Stanford Women’s Basketball preview. They drew first. Below are their questions and our answers and then our questions to them. Okay, although they are the enemy, they are extremely funny and witty and their questions are no exception. C and R tried in vain to ask similar silly questions and answers, but I am afraid we failed. Oh, check out Nor Cal Nick’s introduction at their Cal vs. Stanford Preview. Plus their use of clip art is hilarious.

Here are CGB Qs.
1. I've heard a rumor that Jane Appel is a space alien from the planet Xyanatron. I believe this rumor to be true, because no human could play as well as her. What evidence do you have that Stanford has not been playing with an illegal alien recruit the entire time??????

A: Her green card

2. Stanford is in a weird position - clearly the #2 team in the nation, but behind a historically great team they've already lost to. What would qualify as a successful conclusion to the season for Stanford fans? National Championship or bust?

A: Between National Championship or bust, C and R will always pick National Championship. Honestly, we hope to meet UConn in the final game and not embarrass ourselves.

3. Besides UConn, the only time all season that the Cardinal came close to losing was on the road against UCLA. Is there anything the Bruins did in that game that Cal could learn from when they try to pull the upset?

A: We don’t know because the game was NOT TELEVISED! All we saw was that stupid Gametracker with the little red and blue icons running around and jumping whenever there was a shot. If you want to stop Stanford, you have to stop the little red icons from shooting and make the little blue icons get every rebound.

4. Stanford will be losing Jayne Appel and Rosalyn Gold-Onyuwe (and potentially JJ Hones, Michelle Harrison and Melanie Murphy, depending on whether they decide to return). Any chance some other team has a shot at winning the conference next year, or will a whole new set of blue chip recruits fill the gaps?

A: Cal Golden Blogs, meet incoming freshmen Chiney Ogwumike, Nneka’s inch taller and just as good if not better than sister. Nneka’s sister, meet the Cal Golden Blog boys. Now jump over their heads.

5. Predict a final score.

A: C will eat one hot dog with lots of mustard,
one soft pretzel with lots of mustard,
and garlic fries.
R will have a sprite with lots of ice
and popcorn.
C wins the Pepto Bismol.
Oh, And Stanford 86 Cal 67

Here are C and R's Qs for CGB:

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.

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?

3. At the same moment, the Stanford band leaves Stanford by train for the PAC-10 tournament in LA 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?

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!

5. Predict how many points Alexis Gray-Lawson will drop on Stanford.

We’re still waiting for your answers, boys…(We think they had a little trouble on the math portion)

More Stanford Goodies at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog