BearTalk

In the 100th season of Cal basketball, we continue our countdown of the greatest teams in school history. Today: No. 1. 

1. 1958-59.
   Team’s record: 25-4.
   Achievements: NCAA champion. PCC champion. Leads the nation in scoring defense, allowing 51 ppg. Wins final 16 games of the season.
   Record vs. Stanford: 1-1.
   Record vs. UCLA: 2-0.
   Coach: Pete Newell.
   Top players: C Darrall Imhoff (11.5 ppg, 11.0 rpg), G Al Buch (9.2 ppg), G Denny Fitzpatrick (13.3 ppg).
   Bottom line: Yeah, this is a tough choice, Cal’s only NCAA basketball champion doesn’t go through the backdoor. The underdog Bears, displaying teamwork and suffocating defense, beat Oscar Robertson and Cincinnati in the national semifinals, then Jerry West and West Virginia in the title game.

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   News of the world: Charles De Gaulle is elected president of France; Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500; Fidel Castro takes over as premier of Cuba.
   U.S. president: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
   U.S. population: 177 million.
   Elvis sighting: Stationed in Germany while in the army, Elvis meets Priscilla for the first time at a party. He’s 24, she’s 14. They marry eight years later.
   AP Athletes of the Year: Ingemar Johansson (boxing) and Maria Bueno (tennis).
   Elsewhere in Bay Area sports: Led by quarterback Joe Kapp, Cal makes its most recent appearance in the Rose Bowl, losing 38-12 to Iowa; Willie McCovey wins the 1959 National League Rookie of the Year award after going 4-for-4 with two triples against future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts in his MLB debut; Rickey Henderson is born on Christmas Day 1958.