I’m sure there was a bit of concern when Trent Johnson accepted the job down at LSU. Why, you ask? Well, because new Cal head coach Mike Montgomery did spend 18 years at Stanford, winning them conference titles and getting them to a Final Four.

So when the current Cardinal coach bolts, I’m sure there has to be some anxiety amongst the Bears community that Monty will renege on his contract with Cal.

And because Montgomery knows that the rumor mill will be working full force after the Johnson announcement, the savvy veteran felt compelled to release a statement through the Bears athletics department. Read the rest of this entry »

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As I’m sure you’ve all heard, Sandy Barbour has pulled off yet another great hire in former Stanford and Golden State Warriors coach Mike Montgomery. This comes as a bit of a surprise—in the week since Ben Braun has been fired, names such as Denver Nuggets assistant Mike Dunlap, Washington State coach Tony Bennett, Villanova coach Jay Wright and Pitt coach Jamie Dixon have oft been mentioned as leading potential candidates. St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett and Nevada coach Mark Fox were also possibilities.

But none would’ve been as perfect of a fit as Montgomery is for the job. He is a track record of success at the college level, he has coached in the NBA (albeit not so successfully), he can compete with the Lute Olsons and Tim Floyds to lure recruits, and he has the name to generate the type of excitement for the program—both within the Bay Area community and on the national stage—that has been absent for years.

Whether Montgomery will have actual success here remains to be seen—he is a grind-it-out, controlling, defensive-minded coach that will be very unlike anything the Bears are used to. Jerome Randle for one won’t be too pleased—if he thought he couldn’t play his type of ball in Braun’s system, he hasn’t experienced anything yet. Regardless, in terms of rejuvenating the program, Montgomery is pretty much perfect.

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Relief and excitement. Those have to be the two words that surround the Cal men’s basketball team after the big news today.

Ben Braun will no longer walk up and down hardwood at Haas Pavilion, getting axed after 12 years as being the head coach of the Bears.

This is what Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said in a statement today:

“This was an extremely difficult decision that was undertaken with great care and diligence. However, in the final analysis, I have determined that it is time for Cal to seek new leadership in our men’s basketball program. Competing for conference championships and a place in the NCAA Tournament are goals and expectations that are embraced at Cal. Unfortunately, we have not been able to consistently meet those expectations in our men’s basketball program.”

One Sweet 16 appearance, no Pac-10 titles, only five invites to the Big Dance in 12 years of service will get you canned. Read the rest of this entry »

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The NIT might be the last thing on your radar at this point in time, but low and behold, the Cal men’s basketball team is drawing some national attention. During the first half of its 68-66 win over New Mexico last Wednesday, Jerome Randle raced up the floor on a Bears fastbreak with one man between him and a trailing Patrick Christopher. Randle passed the ball off the backboard to Christopher who caught it for the slam dunk, sending the one thousand or so Cal fans in attendance into a frenzy. Sunday night, it was No. 1 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the week, not including NCAA Tournament plays. Jamal Boykin had said after the game, “Hopefully that makes the Top 10!” Well, what do you know?

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I hope everybody is enjoying March Madness, the best time of year. Pac-10 teams have performed predictably, with the exception of USC which thoroughly disappointed me and pretty much busted the midwest region of my bracket. Oregon and Arizona never looked impressive in conference play, so there was no reason to expect them to survive even the first round of Tourney play. Washington State, on the other hand, is looking dominant, and how about Brook Lopez’s clutch baseline fadeaway that gave Stanford the win in overtime? I wouldn’t mind seeing either of those teams go deep into the Tournament.

But UCLA. That’s a different story. I couldn’t care less if a Bruins loss anytime before the national title game would bust my bracket. After seeing this for the third time this season, I would love to see UCLA finally fall flat on its face.

Simply ridiculous.

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Yesterday opening game in the NIT was exciting for Cal. Real exciting. It was a nail-bitter. A Thriller. It came down to the wire. It was almost a barn-burner.

But of course I’m being condescending. When less than 2,000 fans show up for a major college basketball game, then why should I be excited? I wasn’t.

The real madness begins today. Read the rest of this entry »

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So Cal has accepted a bid to the National Invitation Tournament and will play No. 5-seed New Mexico on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Since the Bears are the higher seed at No. 4, they will be hosting the Lobos at Haas Pavilion, though with a win, they will likely go on the road as their next opponent will be the winner between No. 1-seed and 2007 NCAA Tournament runner-up Ohio State and No. 8-seed UNC Asheville.

There is really no way to spin it so that a berth to the NIT is a laudable accomplishment. Having said that, there are a few reasons fans should still make it out to Haas Pavilion for one last time this year: Read the rest of this entry »

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So the Cal men’s basketball team will indeed be playing in the postseason… the National Invitation Tournament that is. The Bears will be hosting New Mexico on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

More to come…

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As most of you should know by now, Cal lost 88-66 to UCLA. The game wasn’t even really as close as the final score. In the first 10 minutes the Bears just struggled to get the ball up the court, committing 10 turnovers in their first 19 possessions. Darren Collison’s hounding defense, coupled with some big minutes from Lorenzo Mata-Real in the first half on the defensive end (he had four blocks for the game) allowed the Bruins to rack up easy transition buckets and give themselves a big cushion going into halftime.

That might’ve been the last time we see Ryan Anderson in a Cal uniform, unless the Bears are invited to the NIT or the CBI (whatever that is) on Sunday. Anderson scored 15 points and grabbed seven boards in what might have been his collegiate finale, but he never really got going.After the game, he talked a lot about how Cal’s poor shot selection doomed it against the defensive-minded Bruins. Read the rest of this entry »

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If Cal men’s basketball coach Ben Braun doesn’t make some huge adjustments in the second half, this game could well become a blowout.

The halftime score stands at UCLA 39, Cal 25. Read the rest of this entry »

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