California dreams: From talented recruits to Pac-12 champions

The California Golden Bears women's basketball team has had a banner year. They won a share of the Pac-12 title, their first in program history. They enter the conference tournament with a program-best 15 game winning streak. Four Bears received All-Pac-12 honors, another probably should have, and the media honored second year coach Lindsay Gottlieb with the Coach of the Year award. Oh, and they beat Stanford.


But a beautifully done post-game Senior Day ceremony made me think back on all they've been through to get to this high point in the program - with hopefully more to come - and why watching the journey has helped make the destination that much sweeter. Looking back at the games of theirs that I've covered over the years and the photos we've accumulated to accompany them, I've tried to recapture the major moments of that journey.

Video: Highlights of Cal's win against Oregon State on Senior Day

The Pac-12 Networks highlight package of Cal's win over Oregon State, featuring clips of Layshia Clarendon coming off screens and shooting off the dribble.

Layshia Clarendon leads Cal to comeback win over Oregon State

The California Golden Bears managed to fight their way back from a 17-point first half deficit to beat the Oregon State Beavers 58-56 in front of a home crowd ready to celebrate their seniors on Senior Day.

A few Swish Appeal regulars were at the game sitting with folks from SB Nation's California Golden Blogs, so for now we'll defer to norcalnick for a summary of the action and a brief assessment of how important senior guard Layshia Clarendon was

...the reason that Layshia Clarendon is the MVP of this team is because when nothing else is working, they can give her the ball and she will go to work.

I've never seen Cal just hand her the ball and let her break down the offense herself so frequently. But it was absolutely the right decision. She finished with 26 points, 18 of them coming in the second half when the offense was "give the ball to Layshia, set a screen, and maybe grab a rebound if Layshia actually misses." It worked to perfection.

After the game there was an absolutely outstanding Senior Day ceremony at Memorial Stadium's University Club, which included beautiful video tributes to Cal's four seniors (and free food, which was awfully tasty). We'll have more on the game and the post-game ceremony later.

For more on Cal, visit CGB's women's basketball section.

Focused Cal team looks to take care of business against Oregon State on Senior Day

The California Golden Bears will face the Oregon State Beavers at 2 p.m. PST on Pac-12 Networks. Although Senior Day offers fans an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of the Bears' talented senior class, the players are approaching it as just one more game they have to win to keep pace in conference play.

California Golden Bears defeat Oregon Ducks 77-55 without injured Brittany Boyd

Even with star point guard Brittany Boyd out due to a groin injury, the California Golden Bears (24-2) managed to keep the Oregon Ducks (4-23) at bay in a 77-55 win, matching a program-record 12th straight, in their seniors' penultimate game at Haas Pavilion.

Surprising statistic: Oregon commits just two first half turnovers

15:55 – 2nd: California 40, Oregon 30. Thomas 9 pts & 5 rebs. Love and Alleyne 5 pts apiece. UO with only 6 turnovers. Cal has 4 TOs.

— Oregon Ducks WBB (@OregonWBB) February 23, 2013

Kudos to the Ducks for only committing two turnovers in the first half. But they managed to commit twice as many within the first five minutes of the second half and find themselves down 49-34 with 12:36 left in the game.

Halftime: Cal overcomes poor shooting to lead Oregon 30-21

After getting out to a 10-0 start, Cal headed into halftime up only 30-21 on the Oregon Ducks after struggling to find their touch from just about anywhere.

By no means was the first half of tonight's game Cal's best effort and it's probably oversimplifying things to say that Brittany Boyd's absence is the reason.

Cal missed a number of putbacks around the basket, open layups, and fumbled solid entry passes that would have led to high percentage scoring opportunities in the first half and shot just 29.3% from the field. Take out senior guard Layshia Clarendon's game-high 12 points on 5-for-12 shooting and the rest of the team shot just 7-for-29.

On the night that Caldwell was honored for scoring her 1000th point, her first bucket off a pair of offensive rebounds in tonight's game ended up being a harbinger for worse things to come: she shot just 2-for-7 in the first half and was at times visibly frustrated after missing layups that she normally makes.

If there's a bright spot, it's that Cal is shooting 4-for-9 from 3-point land led by two apiece from Clarendon and Mikayla Lyles. But overall, it's a game to forget that they're winning against an opponent that is simply that much more inferior.

Cal honors Talia Caldwell prior to Oregon game

Talia Caldwell honored pregame today for passing 1,000 career points. twitter.com/CalWBBall/stat…

— Cal Basketball (@CalWBBall) February 23, 2013

Cal honored senior center Talia Caldwell tonight a few minutes before tip-off with a game ball for scoring her 1000th point against Arizona State when they were last at Haas Pavilion.

Caldwell proceeded to add to both her career scoring and rebounding numbers by scoring the first points of the game after a pair of offensive rebounds. Caldwell helped to get Cal out to 10-0 start with 15 minutes left, but without point guard Brittany Boyd on the floor due to injury the offense sputtered a bit after that and Oregon went on a run to help them tie the game at 18-18 with 4:20 left.

California guard Brittany Boyd listed as day-to-day with groin injury

California guard Brittany Boyd is dressed and available to play against the Oregon Ducks tonight, but will not start due to a groin injury suffered against the USC Trojans last weekend.

According to Cal's SID, they decided not to play her tonight because she doesn't have her full range of motion and they didn't want to aggravate it.

In terms of her availability for Sunday's Senior Day game, her current status is day-to-day. Senior guard Eliza Pierre is starting in her place tonight. Pierre's last start came in the season opener last season against Rutgers.

Pre-game ceremony to start at 5:56

For those actually planning to attend tonight's game, the pre-game ceremony will apparently begin at 5:56 p.m. PST.

Oregon looks to win consecutive Pac-12 games for the first time this season

Ducks at Haas Pavilion for today's shoot-around. Tip-time is 6 pm (PT) for tonight's UO-Cal game. #GoDucks twitter.com/OregonWBB/stat…

— Oregon Ducks WBB (@OregonWBB) February 22, 2013

As described at SB Nation's Oregon site Addicted to Quack, the Oregon Ducks women's basketball team (2-12) just won their first Pac-12 game home game last weekend against the Washington State Cougars. Now tonight, they try for another first against Cal (13-1): winning consecutive Pac-12 games.

Unfortunately, Haas Pavilion hasn't been all that friendly to visitors not named Stanford this season.

For more on Oregon, check out AtQ's women's basketball section.

Video: Talia Caldwell's 1000th career point vs Arizona State

A clip of Talia Caldwell's 1000th career point in a 66-53 win at Haas Pavilion against Arizona State.