…but it’s not a very big one, so Ragnarok’s advice about not losing to "X State" still holds.  Cal plays its first game in over a week tonight against the Delaware State Hornets, and its first home game since my date with Ragnarok two weeks ago. While hosting the World Pumpkin Chunking Championship is nothing to sneeze at, Delaware’s basketball history is a little less robust.  Two native sons currently play in the NBA, twin brothers Stephen and Joey Graham who attended high school in Florida and college at Oklahoma State.  Delaware State sent THE Emanual Davis (native to Philadelphia, alas) to the league in 1996, where he averaged 4.9 points per game over 6 partial seasons.  Yes, I am grasping at straws.

If only residents of Delaware spent as much time on basketball as they do on pumpkin relocation technology…

The Hornets are 3-6 this year.  Two of those losses are to Pac-10 teams; Arizona St. won 77-38 on December 5th, and USC won by 29 on Monday.  With the Pac-10 looking particularly nasty this year, winning against common opponents is imperative for NCAA tourney selection.  Not losing to very mediocre, small conference teams at home is also pretty important, but it’s a lesson Ben Braun teams don’t always heed.

If history isn’t enough of a cause for concern, consider this:  Delaware State was the preseason pick to win the prestigious Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.  It gets worse - senior guard Roy Bright is the preseason MEAC player of the year, and he even has his own NBA Draft profile page (projected second round or undrafted).  Does this not sound like the type of team that seems to beat us every year?

Well, I may be a fool and doomed to repeat the past, but this Cal team is looking like our strongest in at least 5 years and would be undefeated if not for some seriously home cooked officiating (though 9 turnovers by Randle didn’t help).  I doubt the Pac-10 refs will give Delaware State a 29 free-throw advantage, ala the Kansas St. game, so I’m going on record to predict a victory.   Pretty big limb, I know, but Cal basketball has taught us to be cautious.

Cal continues its homestand against Utah on Saturday.  Utah is another common opponent, with losses to Oregon and UW already, and we get the added bonus of seeing Duke transfer Jamal Boykin suit up for the first time.  Besides being the 2005 California State Player of the Year, he’s already become a vocal team leader, an enthusiastic supporter from the bench, and seems from this interview to fit Braun’s preferred mold of the intelligent and well adjusted player.  These players are easy to like and they’re playing pretty solid basketball.  Go support them and GO BEARS!