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Basketball: Pitino, Coach K await Bears
By Jeff Faraudo
Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 4:43 pm in Basketball, NCAA Tournament.
Not an easy draw for the Golden Bears, who face Rick Pitino’s Louisville squad (22-10) in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at Jacksonville, Fla., then the prospect of top-seeded Duke (29-5), led by another coaching icon, Mike Krzyzewski.
Pitino is 38-13 all-time in NCAA Tournament play with one national championship while he was at Kentucky, and Coach K is 71-22 in the NCAAs with three titles. The two have combined for 1,361 college coaching victories.
The Bears, making a return trip to the event, earned a No. 8 seed — more or less what I figured would happen.
If they have any complaint, it’s that they’ve been shipped to Florida — not an easy trip.
The Bears (23-10) arrived at Selection Sunday with an RPI computer rating of No. 20 and a strength-of-schedule ranked No. 8. They won their first regular-season conference title in 50 years and reached Saturday’s championship game of the Pac-10 tournament before losing 79-75 to Washington.
Cal earned its 22nd NCAA Tournament bid, its sixth since 2001.
The Bears have not won a tournament game since toppling North Carolina State 76-74 in overtime in their 2003 opener at Oklahoma City.
I’ll have more later. Newspaper deadline beckons.
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March 14th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Any quotes from Monty/the players?
Real frusterated about some of the teams seeded higher than Cal.
Our guys need to prove all the people who think they are garbage wrong. I guarantee you the CBS/East coast guys are waiting to pounce on the Bears if they lose to Lousiville in the first round.
I have a major chip on my shoulder, can only imagine what the players are thinking.
March 14th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Glad to see the game is on Friday not Thursday. Usually the 8/9 games are on later at night due to the competitiveness of the games. Possible that the game is the last one of the first round even. That benefits long travel and shooter’s legs. I think that if we play well like we have been playing there is no reason we can’t beat these two great coaches’ teams. GO BEARS!!!
March 14th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I watched the Louisville-Syracuse game last weekend. They are tough. The senior white boy, Kyle Kuric, who normally doesn’t do much (3.0ppg) went off for 22 in the second half while upsetting the #1 Orange at the time.
Bench play is what really hurt us in the Washington game. UW out toughed us, grabbing more loose balls and beating us on the boards. That and Randle and Christopher went cold. If they get back to the level we know they can play at and we get solid play from Boykin and Robertson, Cal can play. MSF needs to step it up and be a physical beast in the post and Jorge needs to be a pest on defense. Coming out of the Big East, we know Louisville will play physical. It will be very tough to beat them, but that being said, if we do win that game, we should have the confidence to play with Duke and make some noise in the dance.
Go Bears!
March 14th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
The Gauntlet Is Thrown!
Join espn’s Tournament Challenge group “Bay Area Bracket” to go up against those of us who frequent these boards.
Please limit yourself to ONE bracket entry (none of this hedge your bets crap with different options – so you choose loyalty over accuracy at your own risk) and use your name/title/avatar that you post with on the various Bay Area Comment boards. The more who enter, the better.
Of note, the espn “Bay Area Bracket” group has it’s own message board, a great new feature IMO, so we can talk all the smack we want there.
March 14th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Louisville msg boards seem to indicate the team has trouble with smaller quick teams (good!). I know little to nothing about them, but they apparently arent a real big team but do have a low post big man (need Boykin’s D). I’m not intimidated by this, but think it will take one of our stronger efforts to win. That doesnt mean our BEST effort. I think that would be necessary against a Duke team that has veteran leadership.
March 14th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I think it will take Cal’s best effort to win against any of the teams seeded 12 or higher. The seeds don’t mean a lot because it is all about matchup.
Louisville can win big games and lose against weaker teams. Duke easily could have been seeded lower. We match up better with them than most any other 1-2 seeds.
I’m more worried about what time we play but having the extra day is good.
March 14th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Louisville bad losses Charlotte Western Carolina but they beat Syracuse who beat us. They more or less spit the last 5 games of the season finally losing to Cincy.
This isn’t one of the better Louisville teams but so hard to predict as both Cal and Louisville are erratic.
Looking ahead to the 3 rd game in the South bracket they could have to face Sam Houston.. lol
March 14th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
We play 945 EST. Definitely in our favor as that is normal game time for us. Probably late for louisville. We can stay on western time and not have to adjust our clocks.
March 14th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Seth Davis is a fool. He is still pouting because Cal whipped his beloved Duke in 1992.
March 14th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
I read somewhere today that Louisville is the kind of team that could beat Duke but lose to Cal by 20, i.e., flakey. Lets hope so. The 6:45 PDT start does help Cal.
Go Bears!
March 14th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
I think we’re also a team that could beat Duke but lose to Louisville by 20, i.e., flaky. I think this game can go either way. I like that the national media is behind Louisville – they seem to do well when they’re the underdogs.
March 14th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
When Cal state was chosen
The media was frozen
To choose them is bold
Because in big games they fold
Just watch as that little guy goes cold.
March 14th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
wow, two teams for the PAC 10, four teams for the Mountain West!
I’m having a hard time believing that SDSU and UNLV would have been top-tier teams in the Pac 10.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:08 am
“MoreNCS_are_ignored – troll post blocked”
Beautiful. MikeD (aka greasemonkey dude), I know most football posters have used greasemonkey by now, but perhaps sharing the link with basketball posters would be helpful, since Moren has seemingly taken a sudden interest in balencesto.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:15 am
3rd grade poetry, awesome.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Wiscomcow, I bit on your kind offer to join the bay area bracket group.
Should be an exciting time.