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Basketball: Five days ’til opener
By Jeff Faraudo
Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 8:53 pm in Basketball, Pre-season.
Coach Mike Montgomery hardly painted an optimistic picture of Cal’s front-court injury situation as the Bears began the countdown to Saturday’s season opener vs. Pacific.
Montgomery said sophomore forward Harper Kamp’s sore right knee continues to pose a problem, and that sophomore center Taylor Harrison is at least a month away from beginning practice.
“We’ve got big-guy issues,” Montgomery said at his Monday press conference. Jordan Wilkes and Jamal Boykin are starting at the center and power forward spots, but there’s no help in the second line at either position.
Kamp, who had arthroscopic surgery in August, played nine first-half minutes in Thursday’s exhibition win over Seattle Pacific, but did not return in the second half. Monty was happy with his play, but reluctant to risk bringing him back in an exhibition game.
Kamp did not practice either Saturday or Sunday, Montgomery said.
“That’s really disappointing because he’s one of our best big guys, one of our best basketball players in terms of how to play the game,” Montgomery said. “That’s something that really has me concerned. We’re going to do everything we can to try to get him on the floor.
“That’s critical for us and concerning.”
Meanwhile, there is no timetable on the possible return of Harrison, who underwent a second surgery last June on his left knee. He still hasn’t practiced at all and the combination of he and Kamp being out greatly limits the Bears’ frontcourt choices.
Small forward Theo Robertson has begun working some at power forward in practice, but it’s a move that would have a domino effect throughout the lineup.
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November 10th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Ben Bore was a disaster, glad he’s gone, but his terrible roster management is going to hamper us for a few years.
Thank you Rice for taking that turd off our hands.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Like many of us, looking forward to a new era of Cal Basketball. The fact that we now have Mike Montgomery on our sideline not only makes us better, but also gives us some good subplots for the season. It will be interesting to see how the team looks and plays in it’s first few games in the post Ben Braun era.
While there are those might feel like Mustang Man, I would hope there are dozens more who do not, and can appreciate Ben Braun for what he brought to Cal. Keep in mind this was the guy who started in a hole – inheriting a Todd Bozeman team on probation, at a university not known as a “basketball school”.
Yet in 12 years, he put up a .587 winning percentage, 6, 20-win seasons, got to the big dance 5 times, an NIT championship, gave us at least a dozen upsets of top 10 teams, etc. He represented the University with class and dignity, and most importantly rebuilt the credibility of the program left bankrupt by his predecessor. We could have done a LOT worse.
We should thank him for a commendable job and wish him well in his new pursuits – not toss off petulant insults. While I’m with the majority that feel Braun’s time at Cal was done, it’s not because Braun was a bad guy or a bad coach – far from it. Sometimes you just need to make a change.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:22 am
LOL…Mustang Man, you’re hysterical..Yes, Ben and his staff did a horrid job of recruiting by position to balance the roster and not redshirting players to allow them to mature.
Monty will turn it around, but yes, it will take a number of years.
November 11th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Just remember MM, you’re still a Furd until you win a game.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
taylor harrison is not a pac10 player
November 11th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Agreed, Taylor Harrison would be lucky to get minutes for UC friggin Santa Barbara.
We have quite possibly the biggest group of stiffs imaginable. Jordan Wilkes has gained 1 pound since he’s been here and is not showing he can do anything other than look like a rail and get hurt.
Max Zhang is ….well we have yet to see, but something tells me he’s a stiff too.
Wow, and they’re all hurt too.
I feel for ya Monty, I really do.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:44 am
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