First of all, congratulations to both the furd and Cal women.  I did not see the women’s game (I followed it intermittently on gamecast), but a 20 point victory that was a blowout all the way is an achievement.  Good job furds.  To the Cal women, you are still in sole possession of 1st place despite the setback, with all of the road games against top Pac-10 opponents in the books.  Take care of business the rest of the way the conference is yours.

As for the men’s game…WOW.  Wow.  I think I’m still shaking with rage.  For those of you who do not know Dave Libbey, tonight was a great introduction.  He is a referee, and a notorious one at that, even by Pac-10 standards.  You see, little Dave wanted to be a basketball player.  He tried very, very hard, worked on his game with obsessive zeal but despite his efforts, he could not become an impact player.  Now all grown up, Mr. Libbey affects games all the same, but he is not an undersized small forward, nor a great three point shooter.  No, he is what I call an impact referee.  Instead of simply letting the game flow and calling fouls when applicable, Mr. Libbey likes to insert himself into the game.  He likes to dictate the tempo of the game, the style of the game, the emotion of the game.  He is a narcissist, the absolute worst quality in a referee.  The players are the ones who should decide the game but Mr. Libbey likes the attention on himself, when he should be an observer.

Tonight, Mr. Libbey and his crew decided the game by calling 21 fouls (21 !!!!!!!!!) on Cal in the second half.  You might say, "But CBKWit, surely many of those fouls occured in the waning minutes, as Cal tried to extend the game."  You are right.  5 of those fouls did come within the last 70 seconds.  That leaves (only) 16 fouls over the first 19 minutes of the second half.  Stanford was in the double bonus (10+ fouls on Cal) halfway through the second half.  They shot 19 more free throws than Cal, at Haas!

Every time Brook Lopez touched the ball, it was a foul or a bucket.  The refs made sure of this by calling fouls after the play if Lopez happened to miss, a particularly infuriating tactic (witness Hardin’s last foul, after he scored 4 straight points to pull Cal within 2).  On the other end, Randle did a great job drawing obvious fouls on whichever terrible furd point guard tried to guard him, but all of the contact by the furds in the lane was somehow admissible.  Not once did you hear a whistle as the furds pulled us or went through us for offensive boards.  As time expired, all I could do was laugh.

I’m interested in hearing reactions from any lurking furd fans.  If the shoe was on the other foot, I’d certainly be happy (a win’s a win), but I’d also be more relieved than excited and willing to admit that we caught a break.  Maybe I’m crazy, and I’m definitely biased, but that was the worst officiated half of any sporting event I can immediately recall.  Furds, your thoughts?  I also think a "worst officiated game" post/thread is in order; it might be therapeutic

We’ll have more of a recap on the actual game within the next 36 hours.  There were other reasons why we lost the game (notably, terrible rebounding and lack of ball pressure on entry passes), but even though I think it’s time for a new coach, I can’t pin this loss on Braun.  Dave Libbey, I hope you’re happy; all I’m thinking about is you.

It is the best of times; it is the worst of times.  Cal plays Stanford twice today.  In the early game, the FIRST PLACE Bears travel to Palo Alto to play the 7 time defending conference champs.  Sounds like a good game, eh?  Most people, myself included, will not see this game.  Instead, we’ll be gearing up to watch our ninth place bears play our Donald Rumsfeld Employing friends at Haas (see, now you have a new reason to hate the furd.  You’re welcome).

It’s telling to examine what’s at stake for our men’s and women’s teams against the Condi Rice Enabling furds (this is fun).  The women will essentially wrap up the Pac-10 title with a win, taking a 3 game lead with half of conference play completed.  You wouldn’t call it a "must-win," unless the entire phrase reads "must win in order to earn a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament."  The men, on the other hand, must win the late game in order to keep their very slim and fast fadding tournament hopes alive.  2-5 in conference with road games at UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Stanford, and WSU on the horizon does not look promising, especially considering the men were just swept AT HOME by AZ and ASU.  I’m getting depressed just writing this.

Honestly, I am not looking forward to this afternoon; I’m fully expecting a loss to our arrogant rivals (likely even more unbearable now that they temporarily have the Axe) in an sold-out unspired Haas Pavilion.  I signed up for free tickets to the men’s game a couple months ago, when DeVon Hardin was leading the COUNTRY in rebounding and our point guards were dismantling tournment teams like San Diego State and MissouriNevada (hey, if you combine them they might make the tourney).  Fast forward to today: we’d be better off with AJ Diggs running the point and Hardin can only muster ONE rebound (!!!) against undersized, guard oriented ASU.  How many boards will he have against the seven-foot Lopez twins?  0?  -4?  

Across the bay, Boyle’s team will try for their fourth road win in four tries against the top half of the conference.  Throw out the records and standings for a moment - how would we feel if the men’s team had already defeated Arizona, Oregon, and Wazzu on the road?  I’m going with "pretty damn good."  This isn’t to say that Boyle is some superhero goddess like Wonderwoman or Catherine Zeta Jones before Michael Douglas.  Her teams lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament the last two years.  She’s winning games with a core of players (Devanei Hampton, Ashley Walker, and Alexis Gray-Lawson) inherited from the previous coach and her recruting hasn’t been great so far.  Truthfully, I couldn’t care less.  Her team is taking the Pac-10 by storm right now; we can worry about what happens when the aforementioned juniors graduate when it actually happens, and if she doesn’t have players lined up to take their place, maybe some of the (very mild) criticism is warranted.  It’s just fun to have a team that’s dominating in the present, as opposed to one which will dominate in the theoretical future ("next year, with Kamp and Boykin taking Harden’s minutes, Theo healthy, Love, OJ, Bayless, Lopez, and the entire Wazzu team in the NBA, maybe we can finish in the top half of the conference and get past the first round!"  Yes, I have genuinely had this conversation with myself).

It may seem like I’ve given up on the men’s team, and that’s because I have.  Maybe they will pull it out today, and maybe they will steal a game on the road at some point.  Maybe they will even catch fire and earn a 10 seed and first round exit in the tourney.  Maybe It’s time to hire a new coach, but this subject deserves an entire, separate post.  I just know that Boyle’s team, regardless of the outcome today, is in perfect position to win the conference, and that is a far, far, better thing that they do, than Braun has ever done.