BearTalk

Courtesy of NBA.com, here’s former Cal star Allen Crabbe’s contribution to the “Draft Diaries.”

Crabbe talks about returning to campus for the team banquet, where he named MVP (a surprise, he claims), reflects on his three years in Berkeley and discusses his preparation for the Chicago pre-draft camp and the June 27 NBA draft.

To catch up with Crabbe, click on http://allball.blogs.nba.com/category/draft-diaries/

In honor of Chuck Muncie, who died Monday at the age of 60, we pose this simple question:

Who is the great Cal running back of all-time?

Actually, not that simple because the question covers a lot of years and a lot of talented players, although let’s limit the discussion to the post-World War II era.

The candidates (presented chronologically):

– JACKIE JENSEN: Cal’s first 1,000-yard back  — 1,080 yards, a 7.3 ypc average in 1948 — Jensen played on Pappy Waldorf’s Rose Bowl teams and on a College World Series championship team. Was the American League MVP one season, playing alongside Ted Williams.

– JOHNNY OLSZEWSKI: Led the Bears in rushing in 1950-51-52, including a 1,000-yard campaign as a sophomore, when he was a first-team All-America pick. Played 10 seasons in the NFL.

– CHUCK MUNCIE: Ran for 1,460 yards as a senior in 1975, when the Bears led the nation in total offense and posted an 8-3 record. Was a consensus first-team All-America pick, the Pac-8 Player of the Year and runnerup in the Heisman Trophy voting. Still No. 5 on Cal’s career rushing list. A three-time Pro Bowl pick in the NFL.

– PAUL JONES: A straight-ahead runner, Jones led the Bears in rushing three straight years (1977-78-79) and ranks No. 6 on the all-time list with 2,960 yards.

– RUSSELL WHITE: Cal’s only three-time 1,000-yard rusher, he returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown against defending national champion Miami the first time he touched the ball at Memorial Stadium. Remains the Bears’ career rushing leader with 3,367 yards.

– JOE IGBER: Led the Bears in rushing as a freshman and sophomore in 1999 and 2000 and sits No. 4 all-time at Cal with 3,124 yards. The downside: He played on teams that were a combined 4-29 his first three seasons.

– J.J. ARRINGTON: Had the most prolific season of any Cal running back in 2004, rushing for 2,018 yards with 15 touchdowns as the Aaron Rodgers-led Bears went 10-2.

– MARSHAWN LYNCH: Had back-to-back seasons of 1,246 and 1,356 rushing yards in 2005 and ’06, and sits second on Cal’s career list with 3,230 yards … despite leaving for the NFL after his junior season. Averaged 6.6 yards per carry for his Cal career. Has topped 1,000 yards four of his six seasons in the NFL.

– JUSTIN FORSETT: Played behind Lynch for three years, then ran for 1,546 yards — third-best in school history — as a senior in 2007. Despite three seasons as an understudy, totaled 3,220 yards, third-most by any Cal player.

– JAHVID BEST: Probably Cal’s fastest running back — although Brendan Bigelow might make an argument — Best ran for 1,580 yards and 15 TDs as a sophomore in 2008. He averaged a ridiculous 8.1 yards per carry that season. In parts of three seasons, Best totaled 2,668 yards on 7.3 per attempt.

You may have others in mind, but these are 10 of the most accomplished.

Here is my Top 5: 1. Muncie; 2. Lynch; 3. White; 4. Jensen; 5. Best.

Cast your votes now.

Click here to see a video of Muncie’s Cal highlights.

Former Cal quarterback Steve Bartkowski called Chuck Muncie “the most talented athlete I’ve ever been on the football field with.”

Muncie, one of the greatest running backs in Cal history and a three-time Pro Bowl selection in the NFL, died Monday. He was 60. Family spokesman Vintage Foster of AMF Media Group told The Associated Press that Muncie died at his Los Angeles-area home from heart failure.

Muncie was a consensus first-team All-America and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy for Cal in 1975, then was the third overall pick in the 1976 NFL draft by the New Orleans Saints. He rushed for 6,702 yards and scored 74 total touchdowns during his pro career, much of it spent with the San Diego Chargers.

Chuck Muncie was runnerup for the 1975 Heisman Trophy.  (Courtesy of Cal Athletics)

Muncie’s off-field issues often overshadowed his abilities as a versatile big back with great pass-catching skills. He was suspended for the 1984 NFL season after testing positive for cocaine and later spent 18 months in prison for selling cocaine.

Bartkowski, who played quarterback for 12 seasons in the NFL, called Muncie “one of the most likable, nicest guys I’ve ever been around, which I think was his downfall.

“It was a strength that really became a weakness. I don’t think he ever met a stranger.”

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Roger Moute a Bidias, younger brother of former UCLA standout and current Milwaukee Bucks player Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, has signed a national letter-of-intent to play next season at Cal. We reported his commitment to the Bears last week.

The 6-foot-7 forward, a consensus three-star prospect, is the fifth member of the Bears’ recruiting class that is headlined by top-20 talent Jabari Bird of Salesian High.

Cal coach Mike Montgomery called Moute a Bidias “an extremely athletic young man with great upside. Roger is a very engaging individual that I think is going to be a tremendous asset to the Cal community.”

A native of Cameroon, Moute a Bidias averaged 10 points and 10 rebounds last season at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass.

A year after earning a No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament, the Cal softball team (36-17) was placed in a regional at Ann Arbor, Mich., its 28th consecutive trip to the NCAAs — the longest active streak in the country.

The Bears open play Friday against Central Michigan (33-18) at 4:30 p.m. The game will be shown on ESPN3. Also in the Ann Arbor regional are eighth-seeded Michigan (45-10) and Valparaiso (34-25).

The winner of the Michigan regional advances to play a best-of-three series against the winner of the LSU regional, featuring LSU, Central Connecticut, Louisiana-Lafayette and Northwestern State. 

Cal is aiming for its third straight College World Series bid.

Eight Pac-12 teams were included in the 64-team NCAA field, topped by conference champion and No. 3 seed Oregon and fifth-seeded Arizona State. ASU opens at home against San Jose State.

Stanford also claimed a spot in the event, and will open against Tulsa at Lincoln, Neb.

Senior Ray Stewart, sidelined all last season by a knee injury, won the 110-meter hurdles at the Pac-12 Track and Field Championships on Sunday at USC.

Stewart, a James Logan HS product, won the title in 2011, then missed the 2012 campaign. He ran a lifetime-best mark of 13.43 seconds on Sunday, to beat defending champ Johnathan Carbral of Oregon.

Stewart remains No. 2 on Cal’s career list, behind only Larry Cowling’s 1982 mark of 13.39. By becoming the first Cal hurdler to win the event twice at the Pac-10 meet, Stewart also moved to No. 10 on the all-time confererence list.

Meanwhile, Hammed Suleman finished second in the triple jump with a wind-aided mark of 50 feet, 6 inches, barely missing a sweep of the long jump/triple jump events.

Charnell Price was third in the 100 meters (11.60), fifth in the 200 (23.55) and helped the Cal women to a fourth-place finish in the 4×100 relay (45.24).

One-time basketball career scoring leader Sean Lampley, former NFL standout Todd Steussie and four-time Olympic medalist Heather Petri head the 2013 class entering Cal’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Also scheduled for induction into the 28th class will be track star Rick Brown, softball player Candace Harper, women’s basketball player Trish Stafford-Odom, swimmer Staciana Stitts, and rower and long-time contributor Gary Rogers.

Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 18, at the annual Hall of Fame banquet at the Greek Orthodox Church Conference Center in Oakland. Information on tickets to the banquet can be found online at bigcsociety.org.

The new inductees will also be honored at halftime of Cal’s Oct. 19 football game vs. Oregon State at Memorial Stadium.

Here’s more on each of the eight inductees:

Read the rest of this entry »

Forward Mike Moser, who grew up in Portland, Ore., began his college career at UCLA, and spent the past two seasons at UNLV, apparently will play his senior campaign next year at Oregon.

Moser told the Oregonian he plans to transfer to Oregon, and will be eligible to play immediately if he completes one online class to finish his undergraduate degree.

This is a huge boost for the Ducks. Moser averaged 14 points and 10.5 rebounds as a sophomore in 2011-12, then struggled with elbow and hip injuries this season.

The No. 1-ranked Cal golf team was selected as the top seed in the 54-hole NCAA Pullman Regionals, May 16-18 in Pullman, Wash.

Cal is among 81 teams competing at six regional tournaments. The Pullman event will feature 14 schools, including No. 2 seed TCU. Also headed to Pullman are Saint Mary’s, Pacific, USC, BYU and San Diego State.

The Bears are playing in an NCAA regional for the seventh consecutive season.

“This is always the fun time of the year,” Cal coach Steve Desimone said. “You start with the conference championship, and we were successful there. As we now get to the NCAA Regional, we’re certainly not going to look past that. It will be very competitive. There are some really good teams in the regional. We’re going to have to be ready, and we’re going to have to play well.”

“We haven’t played the course before, but the one thing I’ve heard is that it’s a good, fair golf course,” Desimone added.

Cal has equaled the unofficial all-time NCAA victory record previously established by Oklahoma State in 1985-86 with victories in 10 of its first 12 tournaments in 2012-13. Most recently, the Bears defended their title at the Pac-12 Championship.