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.”

In a few hours, the interview I did with former Cal linebacker Worrell Williams will be incarnated into article form. Sort of.

Sorry to say, but Alex Mack was not available for comment before the combine. But expect a story sometime after. In this line of work, you can’t take no for an answer, especially from agents.

And nobody knows Anthony Felder’s contacts, except that he’s somewhere in Pheonix.

Good luck to the Bears graduates at the combine.

President’s weekend came and went pretty fast, but in those three days of gloriousness was the always entertaining NBA All-Star weekend.

The Daily Cal’s 2007/2008 Mr. Nice Guy Award Winner Jeff Goodman and I picked up our conversation by discussing the slam dunk contest. No way was it as good as last year’s in terms of pure dunking, but Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard getting into character was a nice touch.

From there i went on to ask Jeff, who is a Lakers fan, what his take was on the seemingly rekindled friendship between Shaq and Kobe. After a few years of feuding the two were back on the same team exchanging high fives along with the sharing the MVP trophy.

In the world of Cal sports three teams—men’s and women’s basketball and women’s swimming—had rendezvouses with Stanford on Valentine’s Day. Jeff was in attendance at Maples Pavilion for the women’s basketball loss to the Cardinal and gave him some insight into who is the head honcho in the Pac-10.

Shout-outs this week go to Jason Richardson, whose dunk contest wins were always underrated (this one gets me pumped every time I see it) and Jeff’s girlfriend Sarah Weinstein.

***A note about some technical difficulties. The plug-in will be changed soon so that you can listen to the audio as a continuous stream instead of multiple parts. Additionally Firefox-users are having difficulty opening the stream. They should right click on the link and download the podcast.***

Musings of a Moose Pt. 1

Musings of a Moose: Pt. 2

Musings of a Moose Pt. 3

Alright, folks, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover in your Friday Cal baseball update, so let’s hit the ground running.

I got a chance to sit down with outfielder/first baseman/pitcher (yeah, I know) Blake Smith and center fielder Brett Jackson earlier this week, and the duo were both revealing and pleasantly talkative. There are too many great quotes to fit in just one blog post, so I’ll include more in another update down the road.

First off, the big news: Smith is indeed slated to start this season.

“I think tentatively I’m set to start on Sunday against Vanderbilt,” Smith said. “I’m excited. It’s going to be interesting to see how it works out.” (Click here to read more…)

Just got off the phone with graduated senior linebacker Worrell Williams, one of five Cal players that were invited to the 2009 NFL Combine.

Talked a little about his brother, what it was like playing at the East-West game, and a topic that seems to be the favorite amongst Williams and Follett, Bears linebacker coach Kenwick Thompson.

He also told me that Anthony Felder, whose whereabouts had been much of a mystery to the media, is in Arizona training in a small facility that hosts “only about nine people.”

The story will run early next week, but here’s an interesting snippet:

I asked Worrell to name his prediction for next year’s starting four, and he named Mikey-Mo(hamed), Devin Biship, Eddie Young and the young Mychal Kendricks.

(Click here to read more…)

As part of our recent coverage of NFL Combine participants, today’s paper includes the story of psychotic linebacker Zack Follett.

Just kidding. Zack is actually a very nice guy, and he told me today that he’s surprised a lot of people he met for the first time since the end of the 2008 season.

Best of luck to Follett, and hopefully I’ll be in touch with Alex Mack and Worrell Williams over the weekend, if not, early in the coming week. Anthony Felder’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

Tony, if you’re out there, give me a call. Or e-mail.

Spoke to Rulon Davis today, and I’m speaking to Zack Follett tomorrow (Thursday), so expect a story soon about that, too.

Just as a reminder, the NFL Combine starts next Wednesday, and five Cal players — Davis, Follett, Worrell Williams, Anthony Felder and Alex Mack — will participate.

Just got booked tomorrow (Wednesday) for a noon interview with Rulon Davis, senior defensive end for the Bears.

This is kind of last minute, but feel free to holler (akim at dailycal dot org) if you want me to ask anything specific. And unless you want to see me killed, no questions about detailing his military service, please.

Story about his draft whereabouts will run on Thursday’s paper, or if you can’t wait that long, check the Daily Cal website around 1-2 a.m. I’ll try to post up the audio, too, as a packaged podcast.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s fascinated with the guy … so hopefully others share in my excitement. I’m getting in touch with Zack Follett’s representative tomorrow, so look for a weekly update on the NFL guys … provided that I’m successful dealing with these agents.

Just got off the phone with defensive end Rulon Davis’ agent, and the word is that the senior is working out in Los Angeles alongside Zack Follett and Worrell Williams, among others.

I’ll be in touch with Rulon either later tonight or sometime tomorrow, so keep posted.

In case you haven’t seen, here’s Davis’ official website.

It links a couple videos from yours truly and the great men at California Golden Blogs, which just posted some highlights of Tyson Alualu, perhaps a 2010 draftee. Check it out.

I sat down with coach David Esquer the other day to discuss the early developments of the Cal baseball team. Here are some of the highlights of the interview:

On adjustments to the pitching and defensive lineups:

“We’ve probably got to try to establish the pitching roles. We’ve got guys who’ve put themselves in position through the fall, but nothing’s in stone. (There will probably be) a couple infield adjustments. Try to put people in the right spots, but we’re gonna have a few kids who’ll play multiple positions. No lineup will be set until 20 games into the season, I would imagine. It’s not gonna happen quick. We’re not gonna come out of the chute and play the same lineup every day.” (Click here to read more…)