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…)

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. (Click here to read more…)