JF: Please forgive my doubting you beat writers in the pre-season poll. You guys thought Cal would finish higher than Stanford and I reasoned why not. Oh, foolish me. Furd looks pathetic at times. Cal looks like a team! I liked that comment I read recently from a Cardinal fan asking to please have Monty back…. They must be suffering over there knowing what he’s done here and what’s become of them. That would be difficult to swallow, you know, if a guy we admired, say Tedford, went over to Furd and brought them glory. OUCH!

Dawkins must have told his players that the TV deal was in jeopardy at halftime, and thus they came out shooting much better to start the 2nd half. See, it’s all in the money!

from Wilner at mercruy:

Final: Cal 74, Stanford 55. Bears could have named their score. Johnny Dawkins is fortunate that Stanford’s a football school.

*** Second-half update: We’ve got five minutes left and Cal’s up 23. One team has improved a ton since Jan. 2, and the other has not.

*** Should have mentioned: I’m tweeting live from Haas.

Cal dominated the first half — more physical, more intense, better execution. Cardinal probably should be feeling good about only being down 33-21, all things considered, while Bears might be thinking they should be up 20 …