A March Retrospective - Looking Back at the Last 60+ Years of Cal Basketball

Jason Kidd battling LSU in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament.

By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com

Well somehow we got through March 2020. The 31 gutwrenching days are behind us. We are left with the economy nearly in shambles, our government in disarray, our families getting sick, and our sports stripped from our televisions. We needed the joyful madness of college basketball in the worst way this March. The only thing that could truly ease the pain of a virtual lockdown of the world was a collection of buzzer beaters and One Shining Moment. But instead, we were forced to trudge through March Sadness 2020 with nothing but heartache and awful statistics from the CDC of what lies ahead. So, in the name of reflection of what once was and what could have been, why not look back at the last 60+ years of Cal basketball and the Bears’ triumphs in the month of March?

This might take a while, so let’s get some sobering stats out of the way early. Since Pete Newell turned in his whistle in 1960, the California Golden Bears have been to the Big Dance just 14 times. On seven of those trips, Cal came home with a first-round tourney victory and on two of those trips they made a magical run to the Sweet Sixteen. Yes, Cal has made some deep runs in the NIT and even won the whole thing in 1999, but much like the Cheez-It Bowl, we aren’t here to discuss that. We are here to relive Cal’s true glory days.  

Pete Newell Sets the Bar High

Now before we dive into the highs and lows of Cal’s (modern-era) past, we owe it to the Old Blues to at least make mention of World War II Era hoops in Berkeley. When WWII kicked off in 1939, the NCAA had just held their first proper basketball tournament six months prior, pitting the Oregon Ducks against THE Ohio State University Buckeyes. Not surprisingly, the Pac-12 school came out victorious.

During that time, the great Nibs Price was roaming the sidelines for the Bears. Nibs had a lot on his coaching plate to be honest. Not only did he coach Cal basketball for 30 years from 1924 to 1954, but he also coached the Cal football team from 1926 to 1930. Suffice it to say, Nibs was Cal Athletics.  

But in his 30 years guiding the Bears basketball program, only once did he make the NCAA tournament, which resulted in a 52-35 semifinal loss to Oklahoma A&M in 1946. Cleary, we were still multiple decades away from an idea of a three-point line at that point, but we were already in the dunking era of basketball! Yes, a 7-foot white dude named Bob Kurland on Oklahoma A&M “accidently” began dunking in the mid-40’s. Dick Vitale would have lost his shit if he were there to see it. Instead, nobody seemed to care. Fundamentals ruled the day in the 40’s.

At the end of the 1954 season, Nibs finally gave up the reins of the Cal program to a guy named Pete Newell who ended up doing pretty well for himself. Newell had just finished two four-year stints at USF and Michigan State before he took the Cal job. After his first year going 9-16, Newell quickly made the Bears into a perennial winner. He ended his career at Cal going to the tournament four years in a row and in 1959 he won the whole damn thing, beating Oscar Robertson’s Cincinnati Bearcats in the Final Four and Jerry West’s West Virginia Mountaineers in the National Title. Ah, Cal athletics in the 1950’s. Trips to the Rose Bowl and basketball National Championships. What a time.

Pete Newell and his players pose with the 1959 National Championship Trophy after beating Oscar Robinson and then Jerry West.

Lou Campanelli Brings Cal Back to Relevancy

After back-to-back trips to the Natty, Coach Newell had seen enough and moved on. This lead to the Dark Ages of Cal basketball. No seriously, it was dark. Cal was suddenly average/bad for 25 solid years after Pete Newell. First it was Rene Herrerias, then Jim Padgett, then Dick Edwards, then finally Dick Kuchen. No matter who the coach was, the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were a dry time to be a Cal hoops fan. Bone dry.

But then came Sweet Lou Campanelli through the door, yelling at whatever happened to be in his way. In his first year, he won more games in Berkeley (19) than any coach had since Coach Newell. The next year, he got the Bears to 20 wins with Kevin Johnson at the point and by 1990 he had the Bears back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in (gulp) 30 years! He rode guys like Keith Smith, Brian Hendrick and Roy Fisher to a 22 win season, culminating with an historic first round victory of Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers. Two years earlier, Knight had won the National Championship at Indiana and in 1990 he had superstar Calbert Cheaney in his backcourt, but it still wasn’t enough to hold off the sturdy Golden Bears from winning a 65-63 battle.

That 1990 triumph over peak Bobby Knight would prove to be the high-water mark of Coach Campanelli’s career, but controversy and scandal was still on the horizon.

Ah yes, the 1992-1993 Cal Basketball season. With all due respect to Pete Newell’s 1959 National Championship run, this has to be the most memorable year in Cal hoops history. You know the story, but it’s too good not to touch on it one more time. Campanelli brings on a young, fast talking, self-assured assistant coach named Todd Bozeman to help him recruit with the big boys of college basketball. It works exactly as planned, as Bozeman manages to convince Lamond Murray, Jason Kidd, Alfred Grigsby, Monty Buckley and Jerod Haase all to come to UC Berkeley to play basketball, none of which had any clue who Pete Newell was.

We later learn that Bozeman literally took a “by any means necessary” approach to recruiting, but that’s neither here nor there for the interest of this story. The fact is, Cal all of a sudden had some true ballers out of the Harmon Gym floor, thanks in large part to Bozeman.

Of course, Kidd caught fire as a freshman and instantly turned Cal basketball into the hottest ticket in town. Fans flocked to Harmon in record numbers to see the show and were subsequently shocked when Coach Campanelli was fired 17 games into the season. Bozeman, just 29-years-old at the time, moved over one seat on the bench and led the Bears on a six-game winning streak to end the regular season and head into the Big Dance.

There, the Bears came from behind to beat LSU in Round 1 of the tournament, setting up a matchup with the vaunted Duke Blue Devils, two-time defending National Champions featuring Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley. Using a 28-point performance from Lamond Murray, a 14 assist effort from Jason Kidd and 13 points off the bench from Jerod Haase, the Bears shocked the world and sent Coach K packing for home much earlier than he was used to. The Sports Illustrated cover shot from that game can only be described using one word: iconic.

Coach K had no answer for J Kidd.

A Story Too Good to be True?

In the Sweet Sixteen, Bozeman’s magic would eventually run out, losing to Rex Walters and the Kansas Jayhawks. But what could go wrong now? Cal’s recruiting prospects were suddenly brighter than ever, Bozeman was officially the full-time head coach, and Kidd and Murray were coming back for another year. The stars were finally aligning for Cal basketball.

Not so fast, my friends. In classic Cal fashion, the wheels fell off quickly and dramatically.

The 1994 Cal basketball season started with the Bears ranked #6 in the nation. Let that sink in for a second. The Bears finished the regular season going 22-7 heading into a matchup with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Cal somehow lost by four. Dick Bennett celebrated with his Green Bay underdogs as Bozeman all but ripped off his tie and stormed off the floor in disbelief. It was a sign of upsetting things to come.

With Kidd off to the NBA, the Bears suffered through a losing season in ‘95, even with the addition of high school All-Americans Jelani Gardner and Tremaine Fowlkes. Unfortunately for Bozeman, it was later revealed that he paid Jelani Gardner a pretty penny to choose Cal over the other college basketball blue bloods.

1996 was Bozeman’s last hurrah and it was a fun one, while it lasted. Shareef Abdur-Rahim arrived on the scene and averaged 21 points as a freshman. Ed Gray transferred to Cal from a Junior College in Idaho and put up 16 a game. Randy Duck was raining from three consistently. Tony Gonzalez was throwing his weight around in the paint. Jelani Gardner was still getting PAID. Yes, it was really fun while it lasted. The Bears bowed out early in the tournament that year to Iowa State. Bozeman was canned at the end of the year and the NCAA made Cal vacate their ’96 tournament appearance. So maybe just act like you didn’t read the paragraph you just read. Moving right along.

Ben Braun Leads Cal into Haas Pavilion

Enter Ben Braun. An opportunistic coach who led the Bears through 12 seasons, including the renovation from Harmon Gym into Haas Pavilion. Braun inherited a scary-good team in his first year in Berkeley and he didn’t screw it up. Ed Gray was a senior on a mission, averaging 25 points a game. Sean Marks began showing his NBA potential, as did Michael “Yogi” Stewart. Randy Duck was Randy Duck. Alfred Grigsby and Tony Gonzalez were both upperclassman at this point. The Bears were effing good.

Ed Gray kept Harmon Gym rocking like the old days.

They didn’t earn a ranking until finally hitting the Top 25 in late February, but Braun had his boys playing with a chip on their shoulder. The result was Cal’s second trip to the Sweet 16 in the 90’s, as they outlasted the Princeton offense and beat Villanova as well, to set up a battle with juggernaut North Carolina in the Carrier Dome. UNC would win that game and make it all the way to the national title with names like Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Shammond Williams, Serge Zwikker and Ed Cota on their roster. Without diving into the game tape too deeply, it's safe to say Ben Braun had no chance versus Dean Smith on this night. A great run it was, regardless.

A year later, the cupboard was bare for Coach Braun. Almost everyone from the Sweet 16 team was gone. Sean Lampley was just a freshman and Geno Carlisle wasn’t exactly Ed Gray. Cal basketball was back to normalcy again. Bruan would have to wait until Lampley was a senior until the Bears would be back in the Dance.

Now in the newly renovated digs of Haas Pavilion, Braun led the Bears to three straight tournament appearances from ’01 to ’03. In 2002 and 2003, Braun used a clutch core of Joe Shipp, Amit Tamir and Brian Wethers to record first round tourney victories over the Penn Quakers and NC State Wolfpack. It wasn’t Duke or Villanova, but it was something.

Much like Bozeman, but without the scandal, Braun finally woke up to the fact that he had a wealth of basketball talent in his backyard and started to tap into it. This led him to his last tournament appearance as the Cal coach 2006. Leon Powe, Ayinde Ubaka, DeVon Hardin and Theo Robertson were all born and bred in the Bay Area. Braun didn’t let them slip away and brought them to Cal. This decision paid major dividends as the Bears kept their head above water in an ultra-competitive Pac-10. Almost everyone was good in the league at that time and Braun’s Bears were one of the best.

Monty Comes Back to College; Cuonzo Brings More Controversy

Despite Braun’s three trips to the tourney and one trip to the Sweet 16, by 2008 his career in Berkeley had run its course. Mike Montgomery was waiting in the wings and although he was a mess coaching the Warriors, we all knew he could get a Pac-12 school to win from his days on The Farm. Much like Braun, Monty inherited a talented team in his first season in 2009. Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher were juniors now and ready to run. Jorge Gutierrez was a freshman. All the pieces were there and the Bears went dancing. A year later, they went again with the same core group, this time beating Louisville in the first round. Randle played all 40 minutes that night, and led the game in scoring along with Theo Robertson.

Jerome Randle electrified Cal fans with his ball handling wizardry.

After a year watching the tournament from home, the Bears reloaded with Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs to give Montgomery two more well deserved years in the tournament. In 2013 the Bears survived and advanced by beating UNLV in Round 1. Syracuse was too much in Round 2. Montgomery was gone a year later.

Cal’s last appearance in March Madness came to us via Cuonzo Martin, bringing us back full circle to a general theme of hope, controversy and heartache in Berkeley. Martin arrived on campus as a fresh, young, talented coach who had just come off a Sweet 16 run coaching at the University of Tennessee. Much like the Cal coaches before him, Martin inherited a very talented roster that included future NBA guards Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird, not to mention Jordan Mathews who would later lead Gonzaga to the National Championship Game. Also true to the Berkeley way, Martin hired a controversial assistant coach to help him acquire the best recruits in the nation in Yanni Hufnagel. Unlike Bozeman, Hufnagel never found himself coaching against Coach K in the Sweet 16, but he did find himself embroiled in a sexual harassment case that threatened the integrity of the athletic program. The more things change…

Hufnagel’s recruiting work brought local blue chip Ivan Rabb in from Bishop O’Dowd as well as Jaylen Brown all the way from Marietta, Georgia. Both of which wound up in the NBA after their time at Cal.

The high point of Rabb and Brown’s collegiate career figured to come in 2016 when they put together a 23-10 season heading into the tournament, then everything unraveled in an instant. The Hufnagel scandal broke the week of their first round game against Hawaii, Tyrone Wallace broke his hand in practice, and Jaylen Brown basically forgot to show up to the game, scoring just 4 points.

The bad taste of that loss to Hawaii still lingers for Cal fans four years later as we watch Jaylen Brown tear up the NBA night after night and Cuonzo Martin count his money in Missouri as a 10th place team in the SEC. The bitter taste wasn’t helped by Wyking Jones who produced back-to-back eight win seasons in Berkeley before mercifully being let go to again pursue his career in show business.

Ironically the last taste Bear fans had of Cal basketball this season was sweet victory over Stanford in an empty arena in Las Vegas earlier this March. As we sit in self-quarantine still licking our wounds from the unprecedented cancellation of March Madness, perhaps we can somehow imagine that Mark Fox would have somehow shocked the world and caught enough lightning in a bottle to send Cal through the Pac-12 tournament field and into the Big Dance for the 15th time since the Pete Newell Era. Likely? Of course not. A blow-out loss to #2 seed UCLA was more likely. But at this point, 40-minutes of live basketball in the month of March would do wonders for the soul. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Jason Kidd beating Duke.  Anything would do, really.  

Senior Kareem South vs. Stanford in 2020.

Section925 Podcast Ep. 139 - Cuonzo Martin

Tripper brings the Section925 Mobile Podcenter inside Haas Pavilion to talk with Cal Basketball Head Coach Cuonzo Martin. The two talk about playing for Gene Keady and rooming with Glenn Robinson at Purdue, what drives his recruiting success, and the future of Bay Area basketball.

“Big Time Hoops on Bancroft Way” - 2015-16 CAL Basketball

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No. 14 CAL's season opener is Friday night vs. the Rice Owls. (Photo by John Polzer of calbears.com)

By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com

Let’s start with some perspective: In the modern era of college basketball, we’ll say after 1960, CAL basketball has appeared in the Sweet 16 just twice. Not once have they marched their way into the Elite Eight. 55 years later, the CAL basketball program is being described around the nation as a shoo-in to make the Round of 16, with realistic expectations of a Final Four run. Loaded with a starting lineup consisting of three potential NBA first rounders, a coach with a proven thirst for winning, and a fan base overdue for success, the vibe has never been better along Bancroft Way.

In his first year at the helm in Berkeley, head coach Cuonzo Martin led a relatively young group of Bears to a 7-11 mark in PAC-12 play. With the return of Jordan Mathews and Jabari Bird, Coach Martin figured to have a solid core to work around for the 2015-16 campaign. Get one year bigger and stronger, sprinkle in some talented freshmen and go at it in year two. That’s the narrative most Old Blues expected to unfold. What happened next, no one could have predicted.

First, Tyrone Wallace announced he would be returning for his senior year. How Cuonzo convinced Mr. Wallace to stay is anyone’s guess. The 6’5” point guard has been described by NBA scouts as someone ready for the League. He averaged over 17 points last year in a tough PAC-12. Most expected him to move on to greener pastures, but Cuonzo convinced him otherwise. The first domino had fallen.

With senior facilitator Wallace committed for one more year, Cuonzo set off into the deep dark waters of big time college basketball recruiting in search of the biggest fish he could find. His SEC roots led him first to Georgia, where he fell in love with All-Everything Jaylen Brown. A top-five blue chip recruit destined for the NBA. A player the likes of Coach K and Calipari and Izzo all salivate over. The type of player that doesn’t move to Berkeley to play amateur basketball for a year. Cuonzo still went after him.

Yet no matter how thick of a sales pitch Coach Martin had up his sleeve, he would need one more piece of bait to reel in a player of his stature. Namely a top-10 national recruit that could help clean the glass, distract the defense and catch lobs for 40 minutes a night. That’s where Ivan Rabb came in.

At 6’11” and skilled, Rabb too had options of his own. Virtually any school in the country was clamoring for his services, namely the Arizona Wildcats. Young Ivan was still undecided when he took the floor of the California State Championship Game vs. So-Cal power Mater Dei. Conveniently, the Saturday night game was played inside Haas Pavilion, in front of a loud, passionate crowd not only rooting for a Bishop O’ Dowd win, but to “Beat L.A.” Rabb clearly enjoyed the atmosphere, winning the game in the final seconds with a clutch free-throw and bringing his Oakland high school their first state title in 34 years. As students and fans rushed the floor to celebrate the triumph, you could almost see Ivan thinking, “Hey, I could really get used to this whole scene.”

Days later, Rabb signed on to be a Bear, spurning Arizona in the eleventh hour. Now with his first big fish in the ice chest, Cuonzo got greedy and went looking for more. If the best player in the nation in Ben Simmons signed with LSU, maybe Cuonzo could convince Jaylen Brown to come to CAL.

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When Cuonzo Martin speaks, people listen. (Photo by John Polzer)

How Cuonzo really convinced Brown to pick CAL is tough to tell. Some point to the fact that Cuonzo had a relationship with him during his days at Tennessee. Others claim that Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a graduate of Brown's Georgia high school, played a major role. What we do know, is that Brown took an unexpected unofficial visit to Berkeley (Brown had to pay) and took a look around the Bay Area and sat down with Coach Martin. Kentucky, North Carolina and Michigan all bent over backward for the ultra-athletic swingman. But, out of nowhere, Jaylen Brown announced he would be taking his talents to Berkeley.

Suddenly, CAL boasted a starting five with three McDonald’s All-Americans (Brown, Rabb, and Bird), as well as two future pros (Wallace and Mathews). After the dust settled from Martin’s unprecedented recruiting haul, Martin said simply, “You work hard, do your job to the best of your ability and it goes back to building relationships over time. Then sometimes you’re blessed with a gift.”

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If looking at the history of CAL basketball tells us anything, it’s that talent matters a whole lot. Certainly, having phenomenal coaches like Lou Campanelli and Mike Montgomery is a blessing and a backbone for any basketball program. But, as most coaches will tell you, it’s the players on the floor that makes the most impact. When Todd Bozeman led the Bears past Duke into the Sweet 16 in 1993, he was only 29-years-old. Surely, Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray were running that show. In ‘97, the last time CAL made the Sweet 16, Ben Braun was in just his first year at CAL. Safe to say Ed Gray, Tony Gonzalez, Alfred Grigsby and Randy Duck were mainly responsible for that run. As these coaches logged more experience in Berkeley, they didn’t necessarily have more success. Talent was the not-so-secret sauce.

Cuonzo Martin seems to understand this trend, judging by the way he’s pursued the best talent in the country to set up his program for success. It also doesn’t hurt that CAL’s second year head coach was a star player himself at Purdue alongside Big Dog Glenn Robinson. Neither does it hurt that he learned to coach under Gene Keady, played in the NBA, beat cancer, and navigated the mean streets of East Saint Louis as a youth. As a head coach, Cuonzo has taken struggling programs in Missouri State and Tennessee and put them back on solid ground. He’s already done exactly that during his short stint in Berkeley.  

The new-look Bears will officially take the floor for the first time together this Friday night at home versus Rice. Ranked 14th in the nation, most hoop pundits foresee a second place finish in the PAC-12 for the Bears behind mainstay Arizona. The main question marks surrounding CAL are whether they will be able to share the ball and defend consistently. Critics also wonder how accurate Jaylen Brown will shoot and how strong Ivan Rabb will be in the paint.

Most of these questions will be answered during CAL’s non-conference schedule starting this weekend. This Monday the Bears will host UC Santa Barbara of the Big West and over Thanksgiving they will square off with San Diego State former Fab-Five head coach Steve Fisher. Most likely, CAL will meet Bob Huggins and West Virginia on day two of their Las Vegas’ T-Day tourney. Other notable non-conference games include a mid-December home game vs. St. Mary’s of Moraga, an ESPN televised roadie at Virginia, and a post Christmas game against Steph Curry’s alma mater Davidson.    

Barring a disaster, CAL will be firmly in the mix when Selection Sunday rolls around in March. If all goes according to plan, the Bears will own a favorable seed heading into the Big Dance, with plenty of late-night SportsCenter highlights already under their belt. As every CAL fan can attest, what will happen in postseason play is tough to tell. God knows Bears supporters have endured their share of heartbreaking seasons (the 2015 Bears Football recent four game skid comes to mind). But will the talent Cuonzo Martin has assembled in Berkeley (he even added Steve Kerr’s son for good measure), the sky really is the limit in Berkeley.

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"For the love of elevation." Jaylen Brown will wear #0 in Berkeley.

“At First Blush” - The Current West Coast College Hoops Landscape

By Connor Buestad (connorbuestad@gmail.com)

With Selection Sunday just one month away (March 15th), we figure it’s no longer too early to dive into a bit of Bracketology with a decidedly west coast bias. Of course, for reasons unbeknownst to anyone, Joe Lundari is the godfather of modern bracketology. And although he currently doubles as a marketing staffer for St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, he still shows love to west coast bubble teams. Namely in 2009 when he punched St. Mary’s (CA) ticket for the NCAA’s in his faux bracket, only to watch in horror when the Gaels were left out of the Big Dance that year. Creighton was the only other school that Lunardi incorrectly invited to the Dance in ‘09.

By mid-February, Lunardi’s bracket predictions start to take shape and at least half-resemble what the actual tournament will look like come March. So let’s take a second to explore what’s been happening out west in the world of college hoops. Who on the left coast should be polishing up their dancing shoes? Some of the names Lunardi has penciled in might surprise you.

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Let’s start in the Big Sky Conference, where the Sacramento State Hornets are having their best basketball season in god knows how long. Led by the sensational scorer Mikh McKinny who played JUCO ball in Fremont before transferring up to Sacramento, the Hornets find themselves in second place in the conference just behind Eastern Washington. Lunardi has liked what he’s seen out of Sacramento enough to put them in the Dance as a 16 seed. This would give them a spot in the first-round “play in” game, and their reward for winning would be a matchup with Kentucky. But hey, YOU NEVER KNOW, right? But first things first, Sac needs to make the NCAA tourney, and this will likely require them to win the Big Sky Conference tournament. Traditionally, the team that wins the Big Sky regular season gets to host the conference tournament. Unfortunately, the “Hornets Nest” only seats eleven-hundred folks. So if they host, they’ll host in Reno, Nevada. Trip to Reno for the 2015 Big Sky tournament anyone??

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Exemplary basketball is also being played down the road in Davis this year. The UC Davis Aggies are sitting atop the Big West Conference with a 9-1 record. This has impressed Uncle Joe enough to grant UCD a 14 seed in the 2015 Dance.

Since becoming a Division 1 basketball team, UC Davis has not had a winning record. However, I suppose that isn’t such a big deal in Big West hoops when you consider Cal Poly made the 2014 NCAA’s while sporting a losing record. They even won their first tournament game.

Irregardless, Davis is really good this year and it is because of their lights out shooting. Who shoots it for them you ask? Hersey Hawkins' son, Corey. The younger Hawkins sports a similar stroke to his father, and after transferring over from Arizona State, he has finally come into his own as a prolific scorer. If the Aggies can win the Big West Tourney at the Anaheim Pond this March, there’s no reason to believe they can’t ride some streaky shooting to the Sweet Sixteen. Now wouldn’t that be something.

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Down the coast in San Diego, Steve Fisher is still kicking at the age of 69 (he turns 70 in March). Suddenly a staple in the tournament, the Aztecs are good yet again, and it is because of their smothering, 40-minutes-of-hell type defense. Colorado State is also a formidable squad this year, thus Lunardi has two Mountain West teams as NCAA contenders (SDSU as a 9 seed and Colorado State as a 10 seed).

College hoops junkies the world over were saddened by the passing of Jerry Tarkanian last week. “Tark the Shark” coached two current Mountain West teams during his career, UNLV and Fresno State. Both of these squads find themselves in the middle of the pack in conference play. Perhaps one of which will make a surprise run at conference tournament title in Tark’s honor? Get out to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas March 12-14 to see for yourself...

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That same weekend in March, Vegas will also host the PAC-12 tournament at the MGM Grand. Last year’s winner was UCLA. This year the prohibitive favorite will be Arizona. The Wildcats are seemingly stacked at every position and are currently 21-3. Lunardi only has them as a 2 seed, but this Arizona team reminds some people of the Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, Miles Simon 1998 team. Well, maybe they're not quite at that level. But a Kentucky-Arizona NCAA battle in 2015 would be a real treat.

Utah is the second best team in the PAC thus far this year with a 9-2 conference record. Even if Keith Van Horn isn’t walking through that door, Lunardi has them as a 3 seed.

As is usually the case the PAC-12, the middle of the conference standings are quite crowded. Oregon, Stanford, Oregon State, and UCLA could all make a case for having a tournament worthy resume. Hell, even the CAL Bears, who are just 6-6 in conference still have a shot at NCAA glory due to their recent five game winning streak highlighted by a slew of last second victories. When the dust settles, Lunardi expects we’ll see just four PAC-12 teams in the Dance. Right now those teams are Arizona, Utah, Stanford, and UCLA.

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The conference that boasts the best team on the west coast is Gonzaga. Well, if you think they’re better than Arizona, that is. The Zags are really damn good again, due in large part to a phenomenal backcourt duo in Gary Bell Jr. and Kevin Pangos. Coach Mark Few also has brought some bench scoring to Spokane by way of Lithuania. Arvydas Sabonis’ 6’10” son, Domantas, is scoring 10 points a game off the bench for the Zags this season. Naturally, Lunardi has Gonzaga as a 1 seed. Whether they finally make a Final Four run is another story entirely.

The mighty Gales of St. Mary’s have managed to retain the second spot in the conference this year behind 20 points a game from senior Brad Waldow. Senior point guard Kerry Carter has also been a leader for the Gaels. Credit Randy Bennett with putting together yet another solid team Moraga. The coach won his 300th game for the Gaels this year and even though he doesn’t have Aussies Patty Mills or Matthew Dellavedova to work with, he’s still winning games.

As always, we endorse an early March getaway to Orleans Arena in Vegas to watch the grossly underrated WCC Tournament. Not only will Zags and Gaels have high powered teams to watch, but BYU certainly will too. The Cougars gave Gonzaga a run for their money in last year’s tourney, and this year should be no different. Senior Tyler Haws is averaging 22 PPG and his running mate Kyle Collinsworth is one of the best rebounding guards in America.

It won’t be long before Championship Week is again upon us and Dickie V is screaming at you on TV from his living room. And he might just be hollering about the UC Davis Aggies and Sac State Hornets out west. That is if they “pass the eye test” over the next 30 days. But whatever happens in the madness of March, Jerry Tarkanian will be watching from heaven with a towel in his mouth.

Local Star Jabari Bird Gets Set to Take Flight in Berkeley

By Connor Buestad (connorbuestad@gmail.com)

The basketball gym at Riverview Park in North Augusta, South Carolina is nothing fancy. It’s the type of sprawling, multi-purpose gym you’ve been to a million times. A place to hold indoor soccer games, summer hoop camps, or a Friday night co-ed volleyball league. It’s your run of the mill suburban rec center that allows weekend warriors to shake off the dust of another long work week and get out and run. This all changes, however, for one week every July. That’s when the best basketball players in the world under the age of 18 descend on North Augusta to compete in the most prestigious AAU tournament there is. They call it the “Peach Jam”.

As you can imagine, for better or worse, Nike has their fingerprints all over the Peach Jam. The flagship tournament marks the culmination of the “Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL)”, which is effectively a group of prestigious AAU basketball tournaments run by Nike designed to highlight the athletes Nike hopes to one day sponsor. In the end, it works out for everyone. Nike puts on the tournaments, players get exposure, and college coaches get to see all the best talent of tomorrow crammed into one gym competing against one another.

Last year’s Peach Jam headliner was undoubtedly Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins. Widely considered the best high school player to come along since LeBron James, Wiggins fell one point short in the tournament championship. He lost to Cal’s Jabari Bird.

Playing for the Oakland Soldiers, an AAU team LeBron once played for extensively, Bird found his team down 50-49 with under 10 ticks on the clock. Bird was being guarded by Wiggins on the left wing when the ball came his way. Without hesitation, he rose up and fired off a three with everything on the line. Wiggins couldn’t help but commit a foul. Bird calmly strode to the free throw stripe, in a sweltering South Carolina gym in July, under the watchful eyes of the Mike Krzyzewskis of the world, and calmly drained the game winners.

Sure enough, before Bird could even board his flight back out to Oakland, The North Carolina Tar Heels came calling, Jabari’s dream school.

“My dream school growing up was North Carolina. I wanted to be just like Jordan,” explained Bird in his high school coach’s office. “They came on too late though. I remember right after we won Peach Jam, I’m on my way home, and I get a text from one of their coaches offering me a scholarship. It was kinda crazy. UNC was a school I always watched growing up. But I had to say no. It was too late.”

Indeed, the 6’6” swingman, who’s always made sure to wear number 23, had worked his whole life to receive that text. For someone to offer him a chance to follow MJ’s exact footsteps and play for the Tar Heels of UNC. But Jabari is serious when he says it was too late. The Vallejo, CA native had promised to be a California Bear, and number 23 is a man of his word.

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In order to connect the dots and fully understand where Bird developed his respectful demeanor, his cool confidence and his Jordan-esque smile, it helps to walk the halls of his alma mater, Salesian High School. Located in the heart of Richmond, the private school of 451 students shares a fence with the neighboring Richmond High School located just steps down the road. The quaint Catholic school features manicured lawns at the base of intelligent architecture. Students walk the halls in traditional school uniforms, while the administration is quick with a smile to the rogue stranger passing by. Principal’s Timothy J. Chambers popular slogan is “come and see”, and to be sure, the school’s excellence speaks for itself.

On the day I visited with Jabari, it was the second day of a new school year at Salesian. The back to school hustle and bustle didn’t stop Principal Chambers from corralling me into his office for a chance to discuss the attributes of his latest student done good.

“He was great,” says Chambers with beaming pride. “I can say that without a qualification. He was a leader. In the hallway, in the classroom, wherever he was. His language, his style, he had no pretense to superiority at all.”

It would be hard to blame Bird for having said pretense, considering his presence on campus. The main entrance to the school opens up to the a trophy case featuring the State Championship trophy Jabari won as a Junior in 2012. Down the hall, a conference room is adorned by a blown up photo of Bird in a McDonald’s apron from a photoshoot he did following his selection as a McDonald’s All-American. Yet despite all this pomp and circumstance surrounding the 18 year old, it hasn’t seemed to have gotten to his head.

Bill Mellis, a former team manager for the Cal Bears basketball team during the Jason Kidd era and current Salesian head coach, jumps at the chance to speak fondly of his former player both on and off the court.

“I’ll just say that for someone that was as recognizable and in the limelight, he is very down to earth. He loved his senior class. Not just the basketball players, but all the way down to the teachers. He treated everyone with respect and didn’t walk around like he was better than anyone else. One of his first year’s here, during a spirit week, he came in a full on purple Teletubby costume. He can laugh at himself. He was never above anything.”

If our location for an interview was any indication (cramped in the back corner of Mellis’ “under-construction” basketball office) Jabari’s reputation for humility in the face of humungous hype certainly seems to hold weight. With his never ending legs and Inspector Gadget arms coiled up like an accordion on his old coaches’ couch, Bird is at ease discussing the long arch of his basketball career.

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The son of a San Quentin Prison guard, Jabari had his old man around in the afternoons to rebound for him when he was itching to get some shots up in the family’s backyard. That’s because his dad, Carl Bird, worked the graveyard shift, in part to have more time to spend with young Bari. It also didn’t hurt that Carl knew his way around a basketball court himself. A 6’8” forward who led the Cal Bears in scoring twice during the 1970’s, Carl was drafted by the Golden State Warriors and eventually cut out a long career for himself in professional leagues overseas.

“My dad always worked with me in the backyard. It would then go to HORSE, and he would always beat me in HORSE, then it went to one-on-one. I’m a little kid, and he’s like 6’8” 240, a big guy, but he wouldn’t let me win. He wasn’t about letting me win. That definitely helped me with my competitive edge.”

Not only did Jabari benefit from patterning his game after his father, he also remembers becoming infatuated by the Greatest Of All Time, Michael Jordan, at a very young age. It just so happened that the youngster grew up to be the same height as MJ, with a similar body-type and style of play.

“Growing up I just watched Michael Jordan videos all the time. I mean, who didn’t want to be like Mike? I remember watching him in the Finals versus Utah. Just as a little kid next to my mom, imitating his moves on the couch, trying to do whatever he did. I even watched Space Jam all the time. I had all his DVD’s. Everything.”

Inspired by Jordan like so many his age, Bird became consumed with the game of basketball, playing any chance he got. Whether it was an outdoor playground in Vallejo, inside at the Mare Island Sports Center, or at an AAU tournament with the Vallejo Hustlers, Bird was rarely seen during his youth without a basketball under his arm.

When it came time to pick a high school to attend, Bird chose Benicia High. A relatively unknown program, Bird’s reasons for attending Benicia were threefold. The school was relatively close by, all his friends were going there, and the coach was the son of Al Attles. The same Al Attles who drafted Carl Bird onto the Warriors decades earlier. After experiencing a five inch growth spurt the summer leading up to his freshman season, Bird became a breakout player for Benicia averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds playing against guys four years older than him. It wasn’t long before he got his first call from the Oakland Soldiers.

“I remember the Soldiers called me after my freshman year, and I knew who the Soldiers were. Carl Foster called me. I was super nervous at the tryout. When I walked into the tryout I saw all these elite guys like Jabari Brown, Dominic Artis, etc, and I was thinking, ‘I’m not supposed to be here’. I don’t want to say I was star struck. But there was just a lot of talent in the gym, Aaron Gordon, everyone. Initially, I didn’t feel like I belonged there.”

Whether Bird felt he belonged or not, he turned in a great performance at the tryout and was able to make the squad. With an alumni list of players that include LeBron James, Drew Gooden, Chauncey Billups and the like, there was no understating how big of a deal it was for Jabari to become a Soldier. For the next three summers, Bird would tour the United States, stopping off at an array of elite tournaments to play the best talent the team could find. Alongside him the entire way was Aaron Gordon, the current Arizona Wildcat who won California’s Mr. Basketball award twice while at Archbishop Mitty in San Jose.

“I was motivated. On the Soldiers I was never known as ‘that guy’. When people talked about the team I played on, in my age group, it was always about Aaron Gordon. And Aaron is a good friend of mine, but at the same time, I see him as a rival. Any accolade he got, I wanted it too. Being on the same team as him pushed me to work hard because I wanted everything he had. I wanted be seen on the same level as him.”

It was that first summer with the Soldiers that Jabari met point guard Mario Dunn. An electrifying player in his own right, Dunn had just finished his first year at Salesian, and continually sung the praises of the school and the basketball program in front of Bird. Because Bird’s coach at Benicia had recently been let go, Jabari figured why not head over to Salesian and chase down a state championship with his buddy Mario. He eventually achieved just that, but not before being embroiled in an alleged recruiting violation.

In what by all accounts was a mix up in the bureaucratic paperwork of the California high school athletics governing body, it was deemed illegal that Jabri had talked to Mario about Salesian before enrolling in the school. Forced to succom to the “Pre-Enrolment Contact” rule, Bird’s Salesian team had to forgo six of their wins that they earned at the beginning of the season. Coming back from a brief suspension, Bird, Dunn and current Oregon point guard Dominic Artis were able to make it all the way to the Division IV State Championship game only to fall short at Arco Arena. The next year, with Artis gone to a Las Vegas prep school, Bird broke through and brought home the elusive State Championship trophy back to Richmond.

Following his subsequent Peach Jam title over Andrew Wiggins, Bird returned home last summer with the world at his fingertips, literally. Virtually any school in the nation had their doors wide open for Jabari, should he have chosen to walk through. Ultimately, he chose to be a Cal Golden Bear, becoming just the fifth McDonald’s All-American to come to Berkeley, joining the likes of Shareef Abdur Rahim, Leon Powe and Jason Kidd.

“Cal was the first college to offer me a scholarship when I was a freshman at Benicia. Honestly, that meant a lot to me. I came into high school as an unknown player, and as soon as I started putting up numbers, Cal came calling and offered me. After that, Washington and Arizona and other schools started calling. But I was always the type of guy who knew he wanted to stay close to home.”

By staying home, Bird became the most heralded Bay Area high school senior to stay local for college since Leon Powe went from Oakland Tech to Cal. Stanford and Cal’s rosters have largely been made up of talent from Southern California as of late, not to mention St. Mary’s looking all the way to Australia to fill out their roster. Last year’s NBA rookie of the year, Damian Lillard from Oakland High, ventured out to Utah to play for Weber State in lieu of staying local. It’s a trend Bird is excited to try to change.

“That is one of my goals. To show kids from the Bay Area following in my footsteps that you don’t necessarily need to go away to play college ball. You can be an All-American, stay close to home, and still accomplish your dreams. Jason Kidd did it, Leon Powe did, I want to do that too.”

While not every superstar from Northern California stays local like Bird, there will be a host of local hoopers doing damage in the PAC-12 this year. Dominic Artis from Salesian will be running the point for Oregon, Aaron Gordon is poised to dominate at Arizona, and Darin Johnson from Sacramento is set to breakout at Washington.

“The PAC-12 should be awesome to watch this year,” says Jason Lincoln, a videographer from the hit YouTube site “Yay Area’s Finest”. “I’ve watched a ton of basketball in the Bay Area over the years, and this is definitely one of the best senior classes I’ve ever seen.”

Lincoln, along with Yay Area’s Finest head honcho Travis Farris, has been filming highlight videos of Bird, his boyhood friend, for as long as he can remember. It’s a passion project that Farris and Lincoln have pushed to become what is now a famed YouTube channel that attracts a cult following of basketball lovers.

“Those guys have been filming me since I was in the ninth grade. I’m all for it and I love supporting it. I think its cool because people say they have all these highlights and want them to get out and Travis and Jason are always there. If you put on a show, YAF is going to put it out.”

Highlight tapes aside, Jabari knows full well that if he expects to send Cal to the Final Four, or find himself on an NBA roster, he has his work cut out for him. Bird’s best attribute is his mid range game. Using his length and smooth athleticism, Bird should have little trouble in college getting off one dribble pull up jumpers and finishing lobs in transition. But there are still some holes in his game that he must fill in order to play at the highest level. Namely defense and ball-handling. Two things Coach Mellis believes Jabari will sure up, so long as he buys into Mike Montgomery’s no nonsense style over in Berkeley.

—

20 years ago, Bill Mellis shared the huddle with Jason Kidd as the Cal Bears knocked off the two time defending National Champion Duke Blue Devils. He watched the magician that is J Kidd pick apart a seemingly helpless Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill. Duke’s chance at an historic three-peat evaporated, while Cal marched on to the Sweet 16. The Sports Illustrated cover photo from that game is prominently displayed in the Salesian basketball office still to this day.

As I finish talking to Bird and he uncoils from his seat in his coaches’ office, Jabari lets out one of his signature smiles as he discusses his Unit 1 freshman dorm arrangement at Cal. Mellis has walked those dormitory halls a thousand times. Eaten at Top Dog down the street, gone to Memorial Stadium every Saturday. More importantly, he’s seen and heard the Harmon Gym crowd explode with noise and spill over onto Bancroft Avenue after another “You had to be there” performance from Jason Kidd. As Mellis and Bird embraced each other a week before Jabari headed off to college, they both knew. They knew the story of the coming years about to unfold was going to be filled with unexpected twists and turns, gut wrenching defeats and historic victories. They both knew it, and were ready for it to begin. But for now, the two could just smile.

"A Team From Berkeley Bound by Tragedy" - The Cal Bears Reach The Women's Final Four

Three of Cal’s players have had family members slain by gunfire (McClureImages.com)

By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com

For as long as Barack Obama has been the President of the United States, he has stayed true to an annual tradition come every March. He takes the time to fill out a bracket.

Not only does Barack spend hours navigating through the Men’s field of 68, but he also makes sure to pencil in his predictions for the women as well. And of course, as with anything the president decides to do, he catches some flack from an opposing side.

Shouldn’t Mr. Obama be spending his afternoon on foreign policy rather than bracketology? Isn’t this just a publicity stunt to win over the 18-34 ESPN demographic? If it weren’t for Title IX, would Obama ever fill out a women’s bracket?

Regardless of where you find yourself in the petty debate, there is no argument when it comes to Obama’s passion and knowledge for the game of basketball. The man knows his hoops. So when he sat down with ESPN to walk America through his Women’s Final Four predictions, it meant something when he chose the California Golden Bears to be one of the last four standing. In retrospect, when one understands the story behind the 2013 Bears, Obama’s upset pick begins to start making sense.

We’ve all heard the rhetoric a million times. Turn on any press conference after an important athletic event and the word “adversity” will start to bounce around like a ping-pong ball. Every team has adversity and every good team ends up overcoming it. But what the Cal Women’s basketball team has experienced goes far beyond adversity. The Cal women have overcome tragedy.

If there was a cover girl for the Bears’ excruciating hardship, that girl would be Tierra Rogers. Now in her Senior year as a scholarship athlete at Cal, Rogers has never stepped foot on the Haas Pavillion floor.

Growing up in the Hunter’s Point district of San Francisco, Rogers was a basketball prodigy from the moment she was old enough to dribble a ball. On the playgrounds near Candlestick Park, Rogers was known affectionately as “The Lady Iverson”. There was nothing Tierra couldn’t do on a basketball court. She was so good, her father, Terray “Tat” Rogers, used to take her to the park and bet other grown men that her daughter could make more than 7 out of 10 shots from the free throw line. It wasn’t that Terray had to do it, but the money was too easy. Tierra was virtually automatic.

By high school, Tierra found herself as the best player on the best team in the nation, the Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep Irish of San Francisco. In 2006, 2007, and 2008, the Lady Irish won the State championship. For two straight seasons in ‘07-’08, Tierra’s team never lost a game. She was a can’t miss star in every sense of the word, but on Jan 12, 2008, things would never be the same for Tierra. This is when two men in hooded sweatshirts rushed at Terray Rogers in the parking lot of a basketball gym. As the gunshots sounded outside, Tierra was in the gym getting ready to play the second half of a regular season game. Terray was pronounced dead at the scene.

In many ways, Tierra was the reason her dad was doing well at the time of the shooting. If it wasn’t for her inspiring potential on the basketball court, her dad might have already been gone well before she reached high school.

Adam Rogers, Tierra’s grandpa and Terray’s dad, was murdered in San Francisco back in 1977. He had been in and out of jail and heavily involved with drugs and gangs. In his later years, Adam had rehabilitated himself to the point where he became a community activist. “Adam Rogers Playground” still stands in Hunter’s Point today for the good things he did, but he ultimately fell short of outrunning his demons.

The same story could be told of Tierra’s dad Terray. Shortly after Tierra was born, her dad was locked up in jail for his involvement with drugs and gangs. When he got out, he followed his father’s footsteps of reinventing himself as someone with a job and a positive presence in the community. Perhaps what truly kept him on track was his daughter and the athletics gifts she had that made everyone in the Rogers family so optimistic about the future.

Just months after her father was murdered outside the gym of one of her games, Tierra found herself inside Arco Arena in Sacramento. Another State Championship would be won for SHC Prep. Another undefeated season in the books. Of course, this time it didn’t feel right. Tierra wanted to quit basketball entirely. The basketball court didn’t serve as a sanctuary for her to remove herself from Tat’s death, it only made the memories more vivid.

A year later, now as a McDonald’s All American, Rogers choose to stay close to home and take her game across the Bay to play for the Bears. Tierra forged a fast bond with the Cal coach that recruited her, Joanne Boyle. Boyle promised her a fresh start. A new school, a new campus, a new home gym to play in.

In late September of 2009, just weeks before Rogers would put on a Cal uniform for the first time, she collapsed during a routine workout and nearly died. Rushed to the hospital, doctors were able to keep the freshman guard alive, but her college basketball career would be over. At the hospital, Rogers would be diagnosed with a rare heart condition, Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia. A defibrillator was implanted and rigorous exercise was deemed out of the question. Overnight, Rogers went from a world class athlete, to someone who wasn’t allowed to run a mile in under nine minutes.

Fast forward four years and Tierra can still be found on the Cal bench, supporting her teammates. Joanne Boyle, the coach that brought Tierra to Berkeley, has since left Cal to coach at Virginia. Somehow, Tierra has stuck it out. Showing up at practices and games week after week, year after year. The University has honored her scholarship all the way through and rightfully so, as Rogers has found a way to make an indelible mark on the Cal program, even without a uniform on.

Rogers starred in high school for the Irish of Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Francisco (photo by Glenn Nelson/ESPN)

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As the Cal Bears sit in their hotel rooms in New Orleans on the eve of the Final Four, there is no doubt some reflection being paid to the greatest season in Cal basketball history. Cal has never appeared in the Women’s Final Four and outside of Stanford, it has been 25 years since a Pac 10 team has made it this deep into the tournament. And while Tierra Rogers wasn’t able to contribute in the box score to help this team accomplish so much, her intangible contribution as an unofficial trauma counselor can’t be measured. Two of Tierra’s current Cal teammates have also lost family members to gunfire.

Gennifer Brandon, Cal’s Junior interior scorer and rebounder, was a young girl living near LA when her dad was shot and killed after being mistaken for an armed robbery suspect. Greg Brandon had recently retired from the NBA, where he played for the Seattle Supersonics. The shooting sent shockwaves through the family and Gennifer’s mother began fighting a battle with alcoholism. Sooner than later Gennifer wound up in foster care. Fortunately, Brandon found her way to Berkeley where she has slowly blossomed into one of the most dynamic players in the nation. If the Bears expect to be the last team standing in New Orleans, much will be due to Brandon’s ability to change the game with her athleticism.

Perhaps the Bears’ fiercest defender also happens to be the team’s shortest player. Senior Eliza Pierre, who with feisty energy, cornrows and a pair of her signature glasses, comes off the bench for Cal and seems to wreak havoc on opposing teams’ point guards.

Sadly, Pierre has been the latest Bear to lose a loved one to murder. In the summer of 2011, Eliza received a call only to learn that her older brother Wilson had been killed in a gang-related shooting at a party in North Hollywood.

Fortunately for Brandon and Pierre, they have not needed to look far for advice on how to get through a basketball season with the unfathomable weight of murder on one’s mind. Tierra Rogers has done it. She has done it as a starting guard for one of the best  Bay Area high school basketball teams ever, and she has done it from the sidelines for one of the most inspiring college basketball teams ever. She has done it and lived to tell about it.

When the Lady Bears take the floor in New Orleans on Sunday evening, it will be a far cry from a half full Haas Pavillion. Instead, it will be under the bright lights of New Orleans arena where the NBA’s Hornets call home. It wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to believe President Obama will be tuning in via Air Force One to check in on his underdog pick that proved him right. As they pronounce in a recent viral youtube video, a team that has been to the darkest of bottoms, is now here. “The whole Cal team is here”, at least for 40 more minutes.

Cal will battle Louisville on Sunday at 3:30 on ESPN for a trip to the National Championship (McClureImages.com)