Here’s a good offseason riddle: How do you congratulate the graduating senior who led the Pac-10 in points per game, carried the Cal women’s basketball team to its deepest run in program history and completely changed the scene of Bay Area hoops?

Awards. Lots and lots of awards.

Local fans and conference foes had taken notice of the forward, who should fare well in the upcoming WNBA draft. The national recognition, on the other hand, was lacking — even with the Bears claiming the No. 3 spot in the country at one point this season.
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Are you in March Madness mode yet?

For whatever it’s worth, here are my predictions as the No. 12 Cal women’s basketball team heads to Los Angeles for the Pac-10 tournament. It’s no field of 64, and there are no eye-popping upsets, but it’s a good warm-up nonetheless.

Let’s get the most important prediction out of the way: You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that Stanford will win this tournament. The Cardinal has owned the conference throughout this decade, and the team hasn’t suffered in the absence of Candice Wiggins. With the help of one of the most dominant centers in the country in Jayne Appel, Stanford has continued its streak of Pac-10 supremacy.

I’ll attempt to answer the more interesting questions surrounding this weekend’s tournament, which begins Thursday night with two play-in games:
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Charlie Creme knows what’s up.

The ESPN bracketologist dropped the No. 9 Cal women’s basketball team to a four-seed in his latest set of predictions, and rightfully so.

Redshirt junior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson suffered a left knee sprain in Sunday’s loss to UCLA, and her availability for Thursday’s game against No. 18 Arizona State is uncertain.

The Bears could probably get through the final weekend of the regular season without Gray-Lawson. Actually, they probably should play the last two games without her so she can recover properly, especially now that the Pac-10 title is a long shot. But Cal won’t last long in the NCAA tournament without their second-leading scorer.

Bears coach Joanne Boyle said Tuesday that women’s college basketball has become “a twelve-month sport,” and the wear and tear has caused several late-season injuries across the country.

Indeed, Cal would have fallen in bracketology as a result of the loss to the Bruins alone, but the injury to Gray-Lawson could be the real issue. She’ll most likely be ready for the conference tournament at the latest, but nonetheless her injury isn’t exactly a timely one for the Bears.

Unfortunately for Cal, though, the postseason won’t wait.

The No. 6 Cal women’s basketball team had more than sealed a win over Oregon on Thursday night at Haas Pavilion, and the majority of the second half was essentially garbage time in an 84-42 blowout in favor of the Bears.

That didn’t matter to Shantrell Sneed.

The backup forward put on a show, scoring 10 points in just 14 minutes.

Of her four field goals, none were more impressive than a turn-around fadeaway jumper along the baseline, a move that has been perfected by Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.

It swished through the net, igniting the crowd and giving the starters — who were resting on the bench — even more to cheer about.

“It’s always great to see the people come off the bench,” junior Natasha Vital said. “We were really excited for them. Trell had a great game, and we were really excited for her — especially that one move she made.

“The Kobe.”

Lo and behold, the Cal women’s basketball team has earned what would be a bronze medal in the national rankings this week. After defeating UCLA and USC over the weekend, the Bears jumped from No. 7 in last week’s AP poll to No. 3.

No. 1? Connecticut, a unanimous choice for the top spot because of its undefeated record and, well, its sheer greatness.

No. 2? Oklahoma. Ring any bells? If not, it should. It’s the team that beat Cal despite a 26-point halftime deficit. We’re still not entirely sure how that happened. Any theories are greatly appreciated.

As the Bears prepare for their upcoming trip to Washington, here are three reasons why coach Joanne Boyle’s squad was awarded the No. 3 ranking:

1. Devanei Hampton’s knee: With the senior center competing at a high level, it’s hard to see Cal running into significant trouble in the second half of conference play. She had back-to-back double-doubles against the Los Angeles schools, looking especially strong on the boards. Hampton really helps the Bears with their inside-out game, forcing defenses to focus on her and therefore leaving the Cal shooters open on the perimeter.

2. Alexis Gray-Lawson’s 37 points against Stanford: Not only did the junior guard’s scoring outburst catch the attention of conference foes, but it forced opponents to worry about yet another offensive weapon for the Bears. On any given night, Hampton, Gray-Lawson, Pac-10 scoring leader Ashley Walker or even Natasha Vital can reach the 20-point benchmark. The team’s ability to attack from all positions should make Cal a tough team to guard as the season goes on.

3. Joanne Boyle: With her team on the verge of breaking a school record for most consecutive victories, Boyle has the Bears playing smart basketball on both ends of the floor. Credit the coach for not letting the team’s success go to the players’ heads.

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.

Look at the final score of Saturday’s game between the No. 8 Cal women’s basketball team and Oregon, and it probably won’t tell you much. 65-50? Doesn’t sound like a nail-biter, but doesn’t sound like an onslaught either.

Look a little closer, however, and you’ll notice a 21-0 run by the Bears en route to their seventh consecutive Pac-10 victory.

21 straight? Where did the Ducks go?

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Do you believe? Entering halftime, the Bears lead 28-20 over the Scarlet Knights.

Again — after 20 minutes of play, Cal is up by eight.

I’m not sure anyone could’ve called this one, and if the Bears can somehow keep up, the win will go down as the biggest in program history.

Whoa.

If you’ve watched Cal over the past few seasons, you know exactly how this team is wired. Not say they’re incapable of winning big games, but I think it’s fair to say that the team hasn’t handled big stages all that well.

Think of the two Stanford games, three if you count the tournament. Then there’s the Tournament, in which the Bears bowed out with a 55-53 loss to George Washington.

During her time here, coach Joanne Boyle has made the program interesting, to say the least. If the Bears can pull this one out, they may be considered “elite.” As of now, they stay “interesting.”

Cal forward Ashley Walker leads all scorers with 11, guard Alexis Gray-Lawson is next with 9. A big part of the Bears’ success so far could be contributed to the fact that both those players have six boards. In a game where both teams are tossing up bricks — Cal is shooting 36.4 percent from the field, and Rutgers 34.6 — the Bears are keeping things very competitive every possession with their guards crashing the boards.

Guard Epiphany Prince leads the Scarlet Knights with nine points on 4-of-9 shooting. She’s the real deal.

If Cal is indeed going to pull this one out, its gonna need more from its guards. Natasha Vital has three points from a lone make from downtown, but is 1-of-4 from the field. Lauren Greif is 0-2 with zero points, and Kelsey Adrian has pretty much the same stat line as Vital with three points on 1-of-2 shooting.

In the first half, the Bears got some help with Rutgers getting in foul trouble early. I’m sure their coaches would fix that in the second half. The Scarlet Knights also showed some gritty press on Cal, which looked flustered by the pressure, though a lot of that was because Gray-Lawson — the team’s best ball-handler — sat out much of the end of the first half with two fouls.

It’s been just a little over three weeks since the Cal women’s hoops team lost in a heart-breaker to GW in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

It was just last week when Tennessee took home its second consecutive national title. But these critics like to start early, as ESPN and SI.com have announced their pre-, pre-, pre-, pre-season rankings for the 2008-09 season.

And where is Cal? ESPN has the Bears at No. 7 heading into next year and Sports Illustrated has Cal at No. 6. (Click here to read more…)

For the first time in about 15 years, the Cal women’s hoops team finds itself in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

But the Bears’ next opponent may give them fits, so much so that ESPN predicts a nice little second-round upset when sixth-seeded George Washington plays Cal tonight at Maples Pavilion.

We’ll see if that happens, but for now, the Bears can relish finally winning a first round game. Some keys for tonight’s game: (Click here to read more…)