A quick look at Hartford, the Tuesday opponent for the Bears

Hartford is pretty bad. They are 2-8 against a weak schedule, and ranked 275th in the KenPom ratings.


Joe Zeglinski will run the point, and he has an assist rate in the Top 500 in the country. The Bears have two in the Top 150, so it’s not as if that’s an overly impressive stat for Zeglinski. Morgan Sabia is a 6-8 senior who will man the point. He blocks shots and plays good defense while shooting 55% from the field. Milton Burton and Anthony Minor also man the guard/forward spots, while Genesis Maciel complements Sabia in the lineup.

Say one thing for this team: they’re experienced, and they don’t lose by all that much. While all the team’s they’ve lost to our bad (expect Florida State), they’ve been in every game they’ve played (except FSU). Considering the Bears have had problems putting away any team this year, including the Cal Polys and UC Davis’ of the world, this could spell a close game in Berkeley.

While there is little chance of the Bears losing (3% chance of losing), one has to wonder if the Bears will find themselves in a battle. Hartford, like us, plays awful offense and better defense (Hartford is nowhere near Cal in defense, though). It could be like the 51-41 affair we found ourselves in against Cal Poly.

How is Cal doing at this stage in the season?

Does Mike Montgomery have the Bears in a spot where they want to be?

At the time, California is 6-5. Using only KenPom ratings, they’re ranked as the #75 team in the country. Assuming a victory over Hartford, the Bears would be 7-5 going into Pac-10 conference play. His ranking project them to go 7-11 in Pac-10 play, leaving them at 14-16. Ignoring the projections; has this been a successful non-conference season for Cal?


First, the expected: if one had to forecast the W-L of Cal in the non-conference, you’d probably put victories over CSU Northridge, UC Davis, and Cal Poly in pen. Question mark games would be New Mexico, Southern Mississippi, San Diego State, and Iowa State. Expected losses would be Temple and Kansas. Notre Dame would probably also in the expected loss category, while Boston College probably be there too. Looking at that, you’d expect a record around 5-6.

But looking at the numbers, you have to factor in that the team’s they beat are better than expected. Iowa State, SDSU, New Mexico, and even Southern Miss are surprises in the way they’ve played recently. The Golden Bears have quality wins over Temple, New Mexico, and Iowa State. The only “bad” loss is Southern Miss, who’s actually having a fine year at 9-2. 3 good wins, 0 bad losses? It’s not great, but considering the youth we have it’s definitely what we’re looking for.

An outright success this start is not, but it is definitely not a failure. A 10 win conference season and 2 conference tourney wins would have the Bears at 19 wins, which would be a huge success. When it’s all said and done, Mike Montgomery has done a fine job and the Bears are right where they want to be.

For now

This blog is on hold. I just don’t have the time to maintain it. Maybe I’ll be back soon, maybe I’ll never come back. All I know is that I’m too busy to give the effort required to do what I want to do with the blog.  

Cal loses heartbreaker, 10-9

Okay, sure I was as depressed as anybody last night after the pick and the loss. But for 58 minutes, Cal football was awesome again. Sure, it sucked our offense couldn’t score and we had some problems with the kicking game, but overall I enjoyed that game. I don’t really enjoy getting our butt handed to us (Nevada) or just dominating somebody (Colorado, UC Davis). For 58 minutes, I was in love with Cal football again. Not to say I had fallen out of love, but all I know is that I had some great moments of us dominating that Arizona offense.
Not to say that I enjoyed the end of it. I hated the end. It was the kind of kick you in the nuts game we’re used to being a Cal fan. But after the throwing of things, I realized that this kind of performance is the kind of thing we needed.

Our defense needed to step up. It did. Kevin Riley needed to quit making a crucial mistake. He did. Our offensive line needed to show it could hold up late in the game. They did; they sucked early, but we dominated late when we needed to drive.

So sure, I’m mad. If Giorgio Tavecchio hits one of two really easy kicks, I’m dancing like a madman and celebrating. And if Marvin Jones catches that football, or heck even knocks it in any direction other than one he did, we might be celebrating. The fact is, college football is built on the successes and mistakes of college kids. CALM DOWN EVERYBODY. Go Bears! Beat the bye week!

Cal crushed by Nevada, 52-31

Okay, let’s first fire whoever makes our schedule. A road game against a quality WAC opponent? Why? Why? Why? Just dumb. Make them come to Memorial, not a home and 2 home for us.


Moving on: Come on, Clancy. 52 points? 6.4 yards per rush? 497 total yards? Nevada’s good, but they should not score 45 points on our defense. Our linebackers were ill-prepared, and it just wasn’t a performance we needed. Our offense may be pretty good, but not a 52 point offense. Our coverage was pretty bad too.

It’s easy to blame Kevin Riley for this. WE NEED TO MATCH THEM TD FOH TD! Please, calm down. Coming into the game, if you told me we scored 31 points, I would be pretty confident that we were in the game or won it. We should not have lost by 21. We had over 500 yards of offense. The pick 6 was a potential 14 point swing, which would make it potentially 38-45 final. A 14 point difference changes the whole complexion of the game. And I subscribe to the idea of turnovers=luck largely. Riley’s 3 INTs are painful, but fixable.

Shane Vereen was awesome. One of the few bright spots. If we needed a reminder, Shane Vereen is still awesome.

Okay. Maybe we if we had Mike Mohamed, we win the game. Get well soon, Mike. Just everybody take a deep breath. I was pissed last night, but remember: this has no bearing on our Rose Bowl hopes. Sure, it looks bad and casts a shadow on our season, but if they play like the team we saw the first two weeks we’re still in this thing. Facing Arizona, at Arizona coming off this loss, will be crucial. Win and the season’s back. Lose, and question marks start to rise. Go Bears!

Nevada-Cal: TONIGHT!

The rare Friday game; can’t remember the last time we played on a Friday. I don’t like it, but ESPN coverage!


Anyway, what we should be watching for is the defense, specifically the run defense. The Wolf Pack have a great rushing game, 2 1,000 yard rusher. If we can stop them and their very good passing attack, our defense is pretty darn good. If our offense can’t score relatively easily tonight, then we’re going to have some problems this year.

ADDED: Mike Mohamed is out. Defense, it’s time to step it up. LET’S DO THIS! GO BEARS!

Cal enjoys victory over Colorado, 52-7

I’m not going to post stats on this one; I’m just going to give my impressions.


Cal just dominated the game. Colorado’s offense didn’t do anything, and our offense was able to get much of what they wanted to. Sure, the run game was struggling, but Vereen didn’t get many opportunities. Riley really impressed me; maybe he can be the quarterback we all thought he would be. As a whole, I liked what I saw from the wideouts although I wasn’t overly impressed by one of them. Our backups did far better.

But our defense was incredibly impressive. Rodney Stewart did absolutely nothing at 2.7 yards per carry, and his teammates did less. Hansen averaged under 5 yards per attempt; that’s ridiculous. Maybe Colorado is that bad, or maybe we’re that good. All I know is our defense dominated a Big-12 squad.

The more I see this team, the more I love them. Go Bears!