California Golden Bears point guard Brittany Boyd stepped onto the court at Maples Pavilion at Stanford University for the first time on Saturday with a confidence and poise that would make a number of more seasoned point guards jealous.

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It's a crying shame that national television audiences were deprived of seeing the California Golden Bears take the Stanford Cardinal to overtime at Maples Pavilion in the first of two games this year between two of the biggest rivals on the West Coast.

Thankfully, Shannon (@sgc72) invited me out to Maples Pavilion for the game and was a wonderful host for the afternoon (as usual). There's still more actual basketball analysis of this one to come, but for now here are a few of the photos from my day at The Farm (wearing blue and a subtle yellow, pseudo Cal colors) as well as a few random videos...not that my amateur photos are any consolation for this game's absence on the TV screen.

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C&R of the Stanford Women's Basketball Blog and Norcalnick of California Golden Blogs have already done a great job of previewing this afternoon's Cal - Stanford game with their two-part Q&A (Part 1 | Part 2).

The Big Game is obviously a big game for Bay Area fans but this edition is made even bigger by the fact that the Golden Bears (6-2) are currently second in the Pac-12 conference standings to the mighty Cardinal (8-0) - an upset this season would not only mean bragging rights in a heated rivalry, but also giving themselves some sliver of hope for actually keeping pace with the conference juggernaut.

Alas, this game didn't get a television slot, but I'm headed to Maples Pavilion to watch the game today so I wondered: how exactly might Cal pull off an upset? While the Q&A's already addressed using the Tonya Harding strategy, I turned to the statistics to take a closer look at that question.

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I've grown to love the Ogwumike sisters in the three live games I've seen of them while in the Bay.

They're hard to look away from, and hard not to notice on the court. Heck - even when they're on the bench, my eyes have been diverted in large part to the presence of Nneka and Chiney. As great as "The Sisters" (as I heard Tara VanDerveer refer to them) are, Stanford - the team - concerns me.

And particularly when looking ahead to Tuesday's game against Tennessee.

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The California Golden Bears opened up a three-game home stand against the Santa Clara Broncos in a Saturday afternoon tilt at Haas Pavilion.

I've heard of this amazing dancing horse mascot that Santa Clara has, but Bucky did not make the trip across the Bay to showcase his talents. The three point game of the Broncos, however, was in full effect as Santa Clara drained 10 (of their 22 attempted) bombs from beyond the arc. However, the game took a 'live and die by the three' vibe as the ponies ended up on the short end of the 75-58 final score.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, their inside game that created 33 points for 6-4 junior center Ruta Zurauskyte in their last outing was primarily nonexistent throughout. Zurauskyte was held scoreless and attempted only three shots in the contest. Lindsay Leo also struggled in the interior, going 1-for-6 for the Broncos.

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So I went to the storied halls of Maples Pavilion to watch the No. 5 ranked Cardinal worked their magic. Stanford took care of UC-Davis 93-44, but it wasn't necessarily as magical as you might expect.

Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Big 12, or jaded into expecting to see a top-tier program run a fast-paced exciting game. This is not what you get when the Cardinal take the hardwood. You get slow, steady, businesslike. You get almost ... unimpressive ... looking basketball - that is until you look at the scoreboard and stat sheet. You get magic, but not necessarily from specific plays and players, but maybe from whatever Tara VanDerveer does to make these women wins for her night after night, and year after year.

I was trying to put my finger on what makes this team unimpressive when I see them in real life and I just can't really do it. They play solid offensive basketball, shooting a consistent 54.5 percent in the first half followed by 54.8 in the second. They hold on to the ball and make mostly smart decisions, committing just nine turnovers in the contest. The defense was effective in holding UC-Davis to 36.2 percent shooting and forcing14 turnovers. Stanford had four players in double digits and outrebounded the Aggies 47-16.

Sounds great, right? But for some reason, I just wasn't overly impressed.

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SB Nation blog California Golden Blogs contributor norcalnick picked his Golden Bears to finish third in the Pac-12 in his Pac-12 women's basketball preview and wondered if he might've been a homer for picking Cal third.

Maybe, but there's a lot of reason to have high expectations for Cal in the Pac-12 standings, perhaps even higher than last season.

Part of that is because of what might be obvious: both Arizona State and UCLA suffered major losses of different kinds in the offseason leaving room for someone to move up into the top of the standings this year. But also because Cal might have filled a major hole this year: ball handling.

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Rarely in sports do we witness a sign of true sportsmanship quite like what happened at the University of San Francisco after suffering a 100-45 loss to the Stanford Cardinal this past December.

It was Tara VanDerveer's 800th win and USF had planned for the loss, held a post-game ceremony, and USF employees were passing out cardinal red "800" signs to help fans create an atmosphere appropriate for the moment. And,  by all appearances, former Stanford players Jennifer Azzi and Katy Steding couldn't be prouder to be part of that win even as losing coaches.

Many had expected the milestone to occur at either DePaul or Tennessee in their previous road games, but hitting the milestone against former players with Stanford and USF fans joining together to celebrate the milestone added a nice touch to an already special moment.

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