So, you may be wondering why our weekly Top 25 ballot hasn't appeared yet.  Is it because I'm lazy?  That's true, in part.  Is it because I just got NCAA Football for my XBox, and I spent a good chunk of last night using Cal to pummel Maryland into submission, 135-7?  Again, the answer is yes.  Still, there's another good reason why our ballot hasn't appeared:  it's not finished yet.

Each week, Yellow Fever, CBKWit and I put together a Top 25, and then the 3 ballots are averaged to come up with the ballot I write about each week.  In the case of ties, we place higher the team that two out of the three voters preferred.  However, 3-way ties are harder to resolve, especially if all three voters had the teams in different orders.  This week, we had a 3-way tie for #1.

Texas, Alabama, and Florida all received a 1st place vote, a 2nd place vote, and a 4th place vote (interestingly, all 3 of us has Oklahoma at #3), and I know of no good way to break this tie.  We could be like the Big XII South, and just use the BCS standings, but that's a stupid way to break a tie.  Instead, I've decided to ask our tiebreaking voters:  you.

So please, help us out, and vote in the attached poll.  Tell us who YOU think should be #1.  Feel free to leave a comment to try and persuade other readers.  Our final ballot is due tomorrow morning, so I'll go with whatever the results are then.

And to think, my Thanksgiving weekend was going so well.

I drove down to San Diego on Wednesday to visit the in-laws for Thanksgiving, had a lovely dinner, got some drinks with some of her friends, did some holiday shopping, and watched Battlestar Galactica for the first time.  I even taught my mother-in-law how to play Wii for the first time.  That was fun.  I was going to drive back to the Bay Area this morning, hoping to get back early enough to catch part of the Civil War, and then help a friend move on Sunday, but alas, it is not meant to be.  Found out late last night that my car refuses to start, and I don't know why (already tried jumping it).  Gonna call AAA in the morning, but until this gets figured out, I'm stuck in Southern California until further notice.  No plans, nothing to do but sit around and watch a bunch of football today.

So, anyway, here's what I'll be watching:

Broadcast TV:
#22 Georgia Tech @ #11 Georgia, 9:00AM - CBS
Auburn @ #1 Alabama, 12:30PM - CBS
#4 Florida @ #20 Florida State, 12:30PM - ABC
#3 Oklahoma @ #12 Oklahoma State, 5:00PM - ABC

Four rivalry games featuring seven ranked teams, and I'm really only expecting Oklahoma at Oklahoma State to be close.  An upset Cowboy victory would straighten out the Big XII South and send Texas Tech to the conference title game, leaving Texas the luxury of sitting around and waiting for a BCS bid.  Oklahoma, on the other hand, could use some style points to stay ahead of Texas; simply beating the 'Pokes may not be enough to get them to Kansas City.  Either way, I think the only way Texas is denied a BCS bid is if Oklahoma wins, but so poorly that Texas passes them, where the Longhorns somehow lose to Missouri in the title game.

Meanwhile, Alabama and Florida get tuneups before the SEC title game, though, as the cliché goes, rivalry games can be unnecessarily difficult.  I think both the Crimson Tide and the Gators assure themselves of a BCS berth simply by winning today.

Basic Cable:
Virginia @ Virginia Tech, 9:00AM - ESPN
South Carolina @ Clemson, 9:00AM - ESPN2
Kansas @ #13 Missouri, 9:30AM - Versus
Maryland @ #21 Boston College, 12:30PM - ESPN2
Baylor @ #7 Texas Tech. 12:30PM - Comcast Sports Net Bay Area
Kentucky @ Tennessee, 3:30PM - ESPN2
#23 Oregon @ #17 Oregon State, 4:00PM - Versus
Notre Dame @ #5 USC, 5:00PM - ESPN

I hope you get Versus; if you don't, find a friend (or a bar) that does.  With a Rose Bowl berth on the line, I'm expecting this Civil War to be a doozy; let's say ... decided late on some clutch (or not-so-clutch) field goal kicking.  If that doesn't sufficiently intrigue you, know this:  in all likelihood, an Oregon State victory sends Cal to the Holiday Bowl, while an Oregon upset kicks the Bears down to the Emerald.

The rest of the slate features some surprisingly non-intriguing rivalry games.  Battles in Virginia and South Carolina just don't compel me, and calling Maryland at BC a rivalry only proves how screwed up the ACC expansion was.  I will be shocked if ND or Baylor comes within 4 touchdowns of USC or Texas Tech, and the thing that puzzles me most is this:  Tennessee has, like, 4 different rivals in the SEC (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Vanderbilt), and they end the season with Kentucky?  Kentucky?  Maybe I'd care if it were a basketball game...

Pay-Per-View or No TV:
Syracuse @ #16 Cincinnati, 9:00AM
Washington State @ Hawai'i, 8:00PM

Cincy has already clinched the Big East title, making their home game against Syracuse even less compelling.  Meanwhile, Wazzu mercifully ends its season in Hawai'i, which is a pretty nice consolation prize for such a terrible, terrible season of football.

Oh, and when the Civil War is done, since I'll still be stuck in SoCal, I'll turn to my trusty ESPN Gametracker to follow the finals of the Global Sports Classic featuring:

California vs. Florida State, 7:30PM

In case you hadn't heard, the Bears topped UNLV in the tournament's opening game last night (no, those two games last week don't count) 73-55.  I especially liked Jerome Randle's line:

18 points on 5-11 shooting, including 4-5 beyond the arc and 4-4 on free throws, 6 rebounds, 8 assists to only 4 turnovers, and a steal.

5 Bears scored in double figures, and the Cal defense held UNLV to less than 30% shooting.  They take on 6-0 Florida State tonight, and while I think this is a game the Bears can win, they haven't yet played back-to-back games this season, so we'll see how well the defense holds up on tired legs.

Coming up with a Top 25 this week presented me with three distinct problems, each easily ignorable if you didn't want to think too hard about it, but more nagging the more I tried to resolve them.

 • First, how do I find 25 teams that are worthy of being ranked?
 • Second, is Alabama really the best team in the country?  Have they done the most?  Do they have the best résumé, and should I rank them #1 even if I think Florida is a better team and will beat them on a neutral field?
 • Third, how do I sort out the Texas-Oklahoma-Texas Tech mess at the top of the Big XII South?

The first question was the easiest to answer:  simply find out whoever was leading the ACC this week and pencil them in at the back of my ballot.  Yeah, most teams, at this point in the year, have some major black marks on their résumés, and the trick is to simpy sort out those teams with the fewest negatives and the most positives to balance them out.  Besides, worrying too much about the bottom of the Top 25 is something even I know better than to do.

The other two questions, however, were trickier.

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Man, I sleep at the wrong times to do one of these.  I'm almost always in bed before the Daily Show, and by the time I get up in the morning, someone else (Twist) has already done one of these.  I'm only doing this now because I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep.

Anyway, today's DBD will feature less "Gossip Girl" references and obsessing about my facial hair, and more actual information.  Don't get used to it.

With the win over Stanford, Cal can now finish no lower than in a tie for 4th place in the conference, so the Bears can safely ignore the Hawai'i and Poinsettia Bowls, the latter of which will definitely be shopping for an at-large team, while the former only might be.  Cal will fall no lower than the Emerald Bowl, that much I am sure of.  In fact, it seems our bowl destination will hinge almost entirely on the outcome of the Civil War; if the Beavers win, Cal goes to San Diego, whereas if the Ducks win, the Bears stay home in San Francisco.

This conclusion rests on a couple of assumptions, and for a while now I've been looking for some sort of confirmation of them; tonight, I've finally found it.  First, from Okanes' story on bowl possibilities:

Cal, which begins the week tied for fourth place, can't finish second, but the Bears could tie Oregon for third if Oregon State wins the conference and goes to the Rose Bowl and USC places second and is picked for a Bowl Championship Series game. In that event, the Holiday Bowl would get its choice between the Bears and Ducks.

Holiday Bowl executive director Bruce Binkowski said Monday that Cal likely would get the bid because it won the head-to-head matchup against Oregon.

"Historically, what we do in the case of a tie is look at who had the edge head-to-head," Binkowski said. "It's pretty difficult to not take the team that won."

When asked if there was any reason to believe the Holiday Bowl would change that criteria this season, Binkowski said: "No. It's the right thing to do."

Secondly, I wondered if, should the Ducks win and the Bears finish all alone in 4th, whether the Emerald Bowl could reach up from their 5th place selection spot and snap the Bears.  Well, they can, and based on everything I've heard, they almost certainly would.  From the Emerald Bowl's Executive Director:

Q: What are the tiebreakers used to figure out which Pac-10 team goes to which bowl?

Example - two teams have the same record for 4th in the Pac-10. Is it simply head to head? If more than two teams--say three teams--are tied for 4th, what determines who goes to the Emerald Bowl?

Thanks,

Derek

A: Thanks for the question, Derek. The Pacific-10 Conference has a very elaborate tie-breaker formula for the conference championship, but when there are ties for other spots in the conference standings, there are no tie-breaker procedures in place and the bowl partners have flexibility in making their selections.

This year, the Pac-10 bowl lineup is as follows: 

No. 1 - Rose

No. 2 - Holiday

No. 3 - Sun

No. 4/5 - Las Vegas

No. 4/5 - Emerald

No. 6 - Hawaii

No. 7 - Poinsettia

If two teams are tied for second place, the Holiday can take either of the tied teams, and so on. Our case is unique in that the Emerald Bowl shares No. 4 and 5 with the Las Vegas Bowl. Each year, one of us has "priority." Las Vegas has the priority this year; we had it last year and will have it again in '09. 

So, to use your example, if two or more teams are tied for fourth in the league this year, there is no tie-breaker procedure to determine who goes where. We will consult with the Las Vegas Bowl and hopefully decide which team is the best fit for each bowl. If we want the same team, Las Vegas will get the first pick and we will take the other team (or, in the case of a three-way tie, whichever of the teams remain).

There are a couple of other wrinkles in the Pac-10 bowl arrangements. The Sun Bowl, at No. 3, can exercise a "no repeat" clause and bypass the third place team. This happened last year when the Sun passed on Oregon State and we were fortunate enough to be able to select the Beavers.

And if there is one team in fourth place and one or more teams in fifth, either Las Vegas or Emerald can choose a fifth place team, but then the other bowl must take the fourth place team. In other words, the two bowls cannot choose two teams tied for fifth and leave No. 4 behind.

So, really, it's pretty simple, and it pretty much all comes down to the Civil War, Saturday at 4PM.  However, neither the Sun nor the Las Vegas Bowls are completely eliminated.  Here are a couple highly unlikely scenarios that land the Bears in either Bowl:

Sun - Oregon State beats Oregon, but USC loses one of its last two games, fails to earn an at-large BCS bid, and goes to the Holiday Bowl instead.  The Bears are tied with Oregon for third, and since the Ducks went to El Paso last year, the Sun Bowl selects the Bears.

Las Vegas - USC and Oregon State win out, but the Bears lose to Washington, and Arizona State fails to win out and become bowl-eligible.  With 2 teams in the BCS but only 5 bowl-eligible teams, only the Holiday, Sun, and Las Vegas Bowls get Pac-10 teams this year, and the Bears end up in a 4th-place tie with Arizona.  The Sun Bowl takes the Wildcats, and the Vegas Bowl takes the only Pac-10 team left, the Bears.

Neither of these scenarios are likely (UW will be heavy underdogs against the Bears, as will both Notre Dame and UCLA vs. USC), and I very much doubt either will happen, but they're worth being aware of.  Anyway, here's a few more linky-links:

Men's Basketball destroys North Carolina A&T:

Jerome Randle scored 20 points and Omondi Amoke added 11 points and four rebounds off the bench to lead California to an 82-47 win over North Carolina A&T on Monday night.

Patrick Christopher had 10 points and Jamal Boykin had nine points and seven rebounds for the Bears, who committed only nine turnovers while remaining unbeaten under first-year coach Mike Montgomery. Cal (4-0) had 12 different players score, led by as much as 37 and dominated on both ends of the floor while registering its most lopsided win since beating Long Beach State 102-65 on Dec. 28, 2007.

Robert Johnson had 14 points and six rebounds for North Carolina A&T (2-3). Unlike on Saturday when they gave UNLV a scare before losing 71-58, the Aggies weren't much of a threat and trailed nearly the entire game while shooting 33.3 percent from the floor.

The Bears, on the other hand, went into the game ranked second in the country in shooting percentage, a good portion of that due to Randle, who did nothing to hurt his numbers against the Aggies.

Also re: MBB, the article from the Chron:

Cal is four games into the tenure of coach Mike Montgomery, and about the only thing we know for sure about the Bears is that the starters are good cheerleaders.

Cal's starting five were once again in towel-waving mode for the final 7 1/2 minutes of Monday night's 82-47 blowout of North Carolina A&T at Haas Pavilion. They joined the crowd of 6,689 in cheering the three blocks of redshirt freshman center Max Zhang in garbage time.

"The games we've won are games we should have won," Montgomery said. "That's not to say that those teams couldn't beat us, but I would expect us to win."

And from the Cal Bears Examiner:

Montgomery has been preaching defense since before the start of the season and his team seems to be responding.  NC A&T came into the game averaging nearly 40 rebounds, five blocks, and 10 steals per game, but weren't able to come close to that level of play at Haas Pavilion.  It was Cal that looked like the defensive team while grabbing 38 rebounds, six steals, five blocked shots, and forced 19 turnovers.  NC A&T was able to get 28 rebounds, but only one steal and four blocks, well below their season average.

For the game, Cal held the Aggies to 33.3% shooting (19-57) and only 11.8% from beyond the three-point line (2-17).  Jamal Boykin led the Bears with seven rebounds and Jordan Wilkes (2 blocks) combined with Max Zhang (3 blocks) for all of the Bears' shot-blocking.

OK, that's it for my first attempt at a DBD.  How did I do?  At least better than HydroTech?  Wait, wait, don't tell me, I don't want to know.  I'm much to insecure to handle that kind of information.  Just bring me some more links.  Freshmen, more links!

It's Big Game, folks.  Time to take back the Axe!  Time to end this year of ignominy and shame.  Time to do to these trees what we did to those in front of Memorial Stadium.

GIVE 'EM THE AXE!  THE AXE!!  THE AXE!!!

where?

RIGHT IN THE NECK!  THE NECK!!  THE NECK!!!

Verily.

If you haven't heard, our #7 Cal women's basketball team totally destroyed #3 Rutgers in Haas Pavilion last night.  Reader BearStage provided an excellent FanPost report that you should definitely check out.  And if you missed the game, it's going to be replayed on Comcast Channel 400 today at 2:30.

If you're not sufficiently hyped, here are some other games that might interest you:

Broadcast TV:
Michigan @ #10 Ohio State, 9:00AM - ABC
Mississippi @ #18 LSU, 12:30PM - CBS
Stanford @ California, 12:30PM - ABC
Syracuse @ Notre Dame, 12:30PM - NBC
#2 Texas Tech @ #5 Oklahoma, 5:00PM - ABC

Hey, waking up to Michigan - Ohio State isn't that bad, even if it does involve the worst Michigan team in history  (true story -- this Michigan team has lost more games than any other team in the history of Wolverine football).  Then, after Cal takes back this afternoon, head home (or to a good sports bar) for an absolutely HUGE Big XII South clash, with BCS Title Game and Heisman implications hanging in the balance.

Basic Cable:
West Virginia @ Louisville, 9:00AM - ESPN
Indiana @ Purdue, 9:00AM - ESPN
Yale @ Harvard, 9:00AM - Versus
#15 Michigan State @ #8 Penn State, 12:30PM - ESPN
Air Force @ #16 TCU, 12:30PM - Versus
#9 Boise State @ Nevada, 1:00PM - ESPN2
#21 Oregon State @ Arizona, 4:00PM - Versus
#20 Pittsburgh @ #19 Cincinnati, 4:15PM - ESPN2
Florida State @ #25 Maryland, 4:45PM - ESPN

If you don't live in the Bay Area (and thus aren't attending the Big Game), you may end up watching the Big 10 title game (whaaa?  It's not Michigan - Ohio State this year?) between Michigan state and Penn State.  The Nittany Lions can win the Land Grant Trophy and a trip to Pasadena in one fell swoop, whereas Sparty might just be playing the role of spoiler; I'm not sure how the tiebreakers work, but if they win, I think Ohio State goes to the Rose Bowl unless the Buckeyes somehow lose to the worst Michigan football team of all time.

If Oregon State is going to lose, I think it's going to happen tonight in Tucson.  I hope you get Versus, because this is a game worth watching (I love watching BCS dreams die, don't you?).  If you get bored, there are other games on with major BCS implications for conferences you don't care about (Big East, ACC).

Premium Cable:
Colordao State @ Wyoming, 11:00AM - The Mtn.
Washington @ Washington State, 12:00PM - Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
#14 BYU @ #7 Utah, 3:00PM - The Mtn.

Sadly, those of us at Big Game will miss the epic struggle for a win over a I-A opponent that is the Apple Cup.  I can't say it will be good football, but I do think it will be compelling television.

Pay-Per-View or No TV:
North Carolina State @ #22 North Carolina, 9:00AM
Citadel @ #4 Florida, 10:30AM

Why is Florida hosting the Citadel on the fourth weekend in November?  Why does that happen?  Can anyone tell me?

This is the pregame and 1st quarter thread.  Use it to discuss all the pregame and 1st quarter action.  A 2nd quarter thread will appear before the start of the 2nd quarter (hopefully!).

Finally, we've been posting a lot recently.  Check it: Inside The Numbers; YouTube Thurday, Roundtable,  B-Ball Recap; Arizona analysis; Marshawn v. Browns; Top25; Bowl Scenarios; OSU Thoughts; Pete Newell Memories; Big Game Memories

The Bears controlled this game almost from the opening tip.

Sometimes you can learn a lot from watching a 30-point blowout; I'm sure of it.  Thursday night was not one of those times.

Instead, I witnessed the first round of the hideously non-descriptively-named "Global Sports Classic", a marketing debacle if ever there was one.  I have no idea what is 'global' about this tournament, unless you take the Bears' opponent's name, 'Texas Pan-American', literally, and calling the first edition of something 'classic' is just a wee bit pretentious, don't you think?  Moreover, the name of the tournament doesn't even imply basketball; "Global Sports Classic" could just as easily apply to a croquet club tournament in Duluth, MN, as it could to this bizarre manifestation of a college basketball tournament.

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Yellow Fever is on vacation this week, so the task of "Eating the Enemy" has fallen to me.  And by me, I mean AndBears, who did pretty much all of the work in putting this post together.

BAKED RICE PILAF WITH PINE NUTS

2 tbsp. butter
1 med. sized onion
1 (10 1/2 oz.) size can chicken broth
3/4 c. water
1 c. long grain rice
1/2 c. toasted pine nuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In saucepan melt butter. Cook onion until tender. Add undiluted broth and water; heat to boiling. Stir in rice. Pour mixture into casserole. Cover and bake 30-40 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. Mix in half pine nuts and stir. Sprinkle additional half on top and serve.

-----

So there you go.  Tree bits for your meal, and lots of "nut-related" humor besides.  For you vegetarians out there (hi Rishi!), you can replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth.  I'm informed that many vegetarians don't have a problem with chicken broth, but there's a fair amount of debate amongst vegetarians/vegans on this issue.  The best answer I've heard:

You can eat broth. Most cultures would still consider you vegetarian. Don't be giving your power away to a bunch of crazy people. Make you own decisions.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas Tech	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Florida	--
4	Texas	--
5	Oklahoma	--
6	Southern Cal	--
7	Penn State	--
8	Utah	--
9	Ohio State	1
10	Oklahoma State	2
11	Georgia	2
12	Missouri	1
13	Boise State	2
14	TCU	--
15	Michigan State	2
16	Brigham Young	3
17	Ball State	1
18	Oregon State	4
19	LSU	1
20	Cincinnati	3
21	Pittsburgh	--
22	Maryland	4
23	North Carolina	8
24	Miami (Florida)	2
25	Mississippi	1

Dropped Out: Florida State (#20), California (#25).

The top 8 stay the same this week, and most of the rest of the ballot only experiences minor shuffling.  Of course, this is what you'd expect after a week in which none of the top teams were challenged, only one pair of AP ranked teams played each other (#25 South Carolina @ #4 Florida), and only a couple minor upsets occurred (both in the who-wants-to-win-it-not-me-how-about-you? ACC).

This weekend, however, promises a much better slate and a few more answers in several conference races.

- Penn State hosts Michigan State with the Land Grant Trophy and a Rose Bowl berth on the line.  If Sparty can pull the upset, it would create a three-way tie atop the Big TEleveN, and probably send Ohio State to Pasadena.

- Texas Tech visits Oklahoma in a HUGE Big XII tussle.  A Tech win gets them in the conference title game, whereas a loss creates a 3-wie tie atop the Big XII South.  I really don't know who comes out on top there.

- BYU visits Utah in a game with BCS implications.  Utah would basically secure a BCS bid with a win, while a loss would create, in what appears to be something of a recurring pattern, a 3-way tie for first.

- Oregon State puts its improbably Rose Bowl run on the line against Arizona in Tucson, a place where, in recent years, BCS dreams have gone to die.

- Some games will be played in the ACC.  Favorites will lose, and I will continue to not pay any attention whatsoever.

- Meanwhile, Cincy and Pitt lead the Big East, and meet this weekend in Cincinnati to decide the front-runner.  What bugs me about the Big East is that, because they only have 7 conference games, they can schedule up to 5 non-conference games, meaning if they line up a string of patsies, they can almost guarantee themselves a bowl berth.  I don't care how tough your conference is, if you have a 1-6 conference record, you don't deserve to play in a bowl game.

Well, with the last implausible Rose Bowl scenario finally dead, a lot of Cal fans are turning to the rest of the bowl schedule, wondering where they might be making a holiday trip this winter.  Bowl scenarios have always been a complicated mess fraught with complicated contingencies and arcane rules, so it should come as no surprise that there's a fair amount of misinformation and uninformed speculation out there.  Heck, even after spending hours last year researching bowl selection rules, I still had to be corrected by Ken Crawford and Jason Snell, among others.  Thus, to try and clear things up for everyone, I present this concise guide to Pac-10 bowl selection procedures.

First off, the Pac-10 bowl tie-ins for 2008-09 are thus:

#1 Rose Bowl (BCS)
#2 Holiday Bowl
#3 Sun Bowl
#4 Las Vegas Bowl
#5 Emerald Bowl
#6 Hawai'i Bowl
#7 Poinsettia Bowl

I've seen some listings switching the order of the Vegas and Emerald Bowls, or listing them both as "#4 or #5", but the actual arrangement is that the bowls have an alternating agreement with the conference wherein the Las Vegas gets to pick fourth in '06 and '08, followed by the Emerald, whereas the Emerald gets to pick fourth in '07 and '09.

Before we do any other speculating, we need to know if the Pac-10 will get 2 teams in the BCS, and the simple answer is that it all depends if Oregon State wins out.  USC is the only team with any shot at earning one of the 4 at-large BCS spots, so if the Beavs falter, USC will be the conference's lone representative in the BCS for the 6th consecutive year.

However, if Oregon State does complete their improbable run to the Rose Bowl, USC is almost a lock for the BCS.  Not only are they an extremely attractive candidate for any of the BCS bowls, but there really aren't too many other options out there.  Utah will earn a BCS bid if they can beat BYU, and if they don't, Boise State will probably take an automatic bid.  Only 1 non-BCS school may earn an automatic bid in a given year, however, so if Utah and Boise (and Ball State) all go undefeated, it's likely only Utah will get in.  2 other at-large spots will be handed to the runners-up of the SEC and the Big XII South, but each of those conferences can get at most 2 BCS bids.  It's unlikely that any ACC or Big East team will even qualify for at-large status, so the final spot will come down to USC or the Big 10 runner-up, most likely an Ohio State team that got flattened in the past two BCS title games, as well as by USC earlier this year.  Given the choice between USC, Ohio State, and Boise State, I'm pretty sure bowls like the Sugar and the Orange would go with USC.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at the rest of the Pac-10's bowl tie-ins.

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After watching the Bears' frustrating and disappointing loss up in Corvallis yesterday, I needed some relief.  I found some at the bottom of a beer bottle (the first couple didn't have any, so I had to keep looking), but I find the best way to ease the pain of a Cal defeat is to follow it up with a Cal victory.  With that in mind, CBKWit and I headed over to Haas Pavilion yesterday evening to catch the season opener of the men's basketball team versus the University of the Pacific.

The only interesting shot I managed to take the entire game.

Overall, it was a good game, close enough to be interesting, but there was never really a doubt that Cal was in command.  A couple times Pacific got within 6, but it never really felt like they had a run in them, and the Bears were able to hold off the Tigers and give Mike Montgomery his first victory at Cal.  Here are CBKWit's and my thoughts on last night's victory:

- My (Ragnarok's) new favorite player:  Jorge Gutierrez.  By my count, he drew at least 4 fouls in the first half, and his infectious energy is exactly what our defense needs this year.  He sort of reminds me of A.J. Diggs, if Diggs had any scoring ability whatsoever.

- Defense overall was pretty good in the first half.  Only 20 points given up, and I don't think I saw any uncontested baskets by the Tigers.  Not very many open shots at all.  No, Pacific wasn't shooting lights-out, hands in their face or not, but it was definitely a nice defensive effort.

- One critical defensive improvement I noticed was ball pressure.  Cal was pretty terrible in this area last year (watching Mitch Johnson, he of zero outside shot, get 5 feet to operate and feed the Lopez twins with ease comes to mind), but last night our guards (and forwards, when defending perimeter shooters) pressured Pacific beyond the arc.  Braun's area of expertise was supposedly defense, but if you caught any of the games at Haas last year (Stanford, UW, and especially WSU and Oregon), you didn't see much defensive skill or, even more discouraging, effort.  Last night, for the most part, our guys got after it.

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