I kind of didn’t half believe the type of crowd that the Cal women’s basketball team was going to get for its matchup with No. 7 Stanford. But as I sit here in press row with just over 40 minutes before tipoff, I’m in awe.

There has to be already the Bears’ season average sitting in the Haas Pavilion stands. The team just got a rousing ovation as they left the court for its final talk before the game.

There are a lot of kids here, but what can you expect for a women’s hoops game? That’s its main draw.

To give you the scope of the magnitude of this game, columnists from the San Francisco Chronicle and from the San Jose Mercury-News are here. Also, I just passed by a sign reserving a seat for Pac-10 Commish Tom Hansen. Everyone is sending their big guns to this game.

People have bought into the hype of today’s contest.

As for the game itself, I hate to say it but the Card should run roughshod over the Bears. Cal has been chasing Stanford for the last three years and if the matchup from January is any from of indication, the Card should blow the Bears out of the water.

Cal needs to be able to contend with Jayne Appel’s amazing passes out of the double team on the low block. Alexis Gray-Lawson is going to need to shut down…err…slow down the Pac-10’s best player in the Card’s Candice Wiggins.

And oh by the way, Stanford is on roll right now, winning its last 12 games. There’s a reason they’re the seven-time Pac-10 champs.

This game may be over before it begins. But don’t tell the Bears that.