If the feature on his style wasn’t enough, then you are in luck. Patrick Christopher actually called me at about 10 p.m. on Friday night after the interview, asking if I would email him the questions, so he could maybe add a little more than what he had said in the 15 minute interview.

The guy is a catch. For an athlete to do this is above and beyond any and all expectations. My dad once told me of a famous Milwaukee Brewer (hint: he’s in the Hall of Fame now), who spit on my father’s  shoes when he tried to ask him a few questions for a feature.

Needless to say, Christopher is a gem. So as a sort of thank you to P. Chris here is how he responded via email to my questions. Most of these never made it to print. So here goes (consider all answers sic’d):

How would you define your style?

I would define it as versatile, classic, timeless, confident, daring. It’s probably more Euro because I prefer my clothes to fit slim. Versatile: because I’m not set on one style of clothing. I love a well tailored suit, but a vintage T, some levi’s and a pair of purcell’s or Air Force One’s can also get the job done. Classic: because Class never goes out of style. You can’t go wrong. Timeless: I would say because with certain things I put together comes from different era’s, and that ties into classic clothing. Confident: simply because I think I can pull anything off.

A guy may look at me like what the heck am I wearing and I’ll get a compliment from a girl. At the end of the day, I dress for myself, but people always have something to say no matter what you do in life. So with that being said, a compliment from a girl can max out 100 guys looking at me crazy. And I say daring because I’m not afraid to dress. Most males in America are afraid to dress because the perception that they may think other people have about them. And that’s something I would say does not effect me. When you allow people to influence you, you turn into them and not yourself.

(Click here to read more…)

Barack Obama unveiled his NCAA tournament bracket picks earlier today in the New York Times and in a 10-minute spot with Andy Katz on ESPN.com, strengthening his hold on the title of “Coolest President Ever.”

The President picked a Final Four of three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 — Louisville, Pitt, North Carolina and Memphis. He has the Tar Heels winning a North Carolina-Pitt championship game. But out of the few upsets that he picked, one of those, inexplicably, was No. 7 seed Cal losing in the first round to No. 10 seed Maryland.
(Click here to read more…)

On Monday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association named Cal men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery a finalist for the Henry Iba Award, coming one step closer to proving that good work doesn’t go unnoticed even in the Pac-10.

Montgomery is one of 10 finalists for the award, which is given annually to the Association’s national coach of the year. He and Utah State coach Stew Morrill are the only two finalists whose teams aren’t currently in the AP Top 25.

(Click here to read more…)

Jamal Boykin didn’t steal the show in the January 10th 88-85 triple-OT win over Washington (no, that job was left for Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher, who scored 68 of Cal’s 88 points to beat the Huskies — not to mention, D.J. Seeley, whose three-point play at the end of the second overtime kept the game alive).

Perhaps that is because triple-overtime games ain’t no big thing for the Bears’ 6-foot-8 power forward. After all, he has been there, done that when it comes to the OT trifecta, as he revealed to the Bay Area press on Tuesday afternoon.
(Click here to read more…)

You can read the story here, and if you want more, click the link below for the full interview.

It’s really a tough situation for the sophomore. You’d like to applaud his dedication to this team, as well as the game of basketball in general, but it definitely isn’t a straightforward, “feel good”-type of story. Every minute he sees on the court Thursdays and Saturdays are threats to his health, and it appears there won’t be any real resolution to the injury.

But to me, that’s what makes him a compelling interview. That’s life — nothing’s quite black and white.

You get gray, gray and more gray.

Almost nine minutes of gray.

Harper Kamp - Jan. 26, 2008

I caught up with Jordan Wilkes earlier this week, chatting about his recent play and how Cal’s posts have evolved throughout the season.

Wilkes will be one of the nicer guys you meet. There may be questions about his game, but there’s no question that he’s a quality kid, one that’s surely excited to return home to Los Angeles this weekend.

Jordan Wilkes - Jan. 26, 2009

Well the Cal men’s basketball team is heading off to play UCLA and USC, and along with them goes basketball beat writer Andrew Kim. Before Kim jumped on a plane for LAX, I caught up with him to see what he thought about the Bears getting off their recent snide.

Among utmost importance for the Bears is the status of point guard Jerome “Bulldog” Randle. Cal’s leading scorer was injured towards the tail-end of the Oregon State game and was seen limping from time-to-time against Oregon two days later.

Next up for Randle is the task of trying to handle Darren Collison. The Bruins’ speedster is expected to be a first round pick and would be difficult for even a healthy “Bulldog” to contain let alone one with an iffy hip.

As Kim and I discuss, coach Mike Montgomery may be forced to play Jorge Gutierrez for extended blocks of time given Randle’s situation. Given Gutierrez’s recent performance last weekend, such an occurrence will be a wild card for Cal as there is no telling how the freshman will react with the spotlight on him in Pauley Pavilion.

Musings of a Moose, Episode 2, Part 1
Musings of a Moose, Episode 2, Part 2

Back to back losses to Stanford and Oregon State didn’t seem to hurt the Cal men’s basketball team’s image too much, at least in the eyes of Joe Lunardi. ESPN’s resident bracketologist still has the Bears as a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament as of Monday morning.

Cal is one of only four Pac-10 teams in the projected bracket. UCLA, experiencing a mini-meltdown partway through conference play (which in Westwood means a 15-4 record) is a No. 7 seed, current Pac-10 leader Washington is an unlucky No. 8 seed and Arizona State is a No. 4.

Women’s hoops, meanwhile, was a projected No. 3 seed on Jan 20—the last time that Charlie Creme updated his prognostication of the Madness. That was before the Bears swept the Oregon schools on the road last weekend, so we’ll see if they snag that coveted two-seed this week.

The Cal women are also tabbed at No. 7 in the latest AP poll.

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. (Click here to read more…)

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.