Dick Vitale's Top 5 for 2008-2009!

As seen on ESPN Sportscenter, assuming key players return, which you cannot assume until the April 27 NBA Draft deadline:

1. North Carolina
2. UCLA
3. Lousville
4. Texas
5. Georgetown

Meanwhile Andy Katz at ESPN.com has picked the Texas as their #1 for 2008-2009. Katz has picked a complete top 25, and it is dramatically different from Vitale's homer-appeaser-sycophant top 5 :)

Of course these preseason picks are beauty contests since we still don't know who will declare for the NBA draft and who will stay in the draft. We can usually get our first "solid" 2008-2009 predictions just before the 4th of July, since the NBA draft takes place in the last week of June.


Traitor Mike's Dilemma?
Trent Johnson of Stanford has spoken with LSU about their job opening. The LSU opening has great potential for post-season success, and unlike Stanford, you are not limited by academics on who you can recruit.

This would be the ultimate irony for Traitor-Mike, as he just took the Cal job. I imagine that if the Stanford job opens, he would bolt California for the Stanford job ASAP. He's not the first coach to pull a switch-a-roo, although he would be the first to do it in such a scenario.

I hope it happens, so we have more drama to talk about :)

Ben Braun officially fired by California Berkeley

As we predicted a few days ago, Cal-Berkeley head basketball coach Ben Braun was fired after 12 (not 15) seasons as the Chief Bear. Story at Sports Illustrated. More on this story at regional website SfGate.com. And also at the university newspaper, the Daily Californian.

So our first of two predictions came true. Which one was our second prediction? Randy Bennett riding his second wave of NCAA Tournament selection success a few miles down the road to take over Cal-Berkeley.

One of the pluses of Randy Bennett is that he looks a bit like Herb Sendek, and if Sendek was able to reboot ASU in just two years...

Ironically this is the second coach Herb Sendek unintentionally managed to get fired. If it wasn't for Sendek's success in Year Two at ASU, the other coaches (Jay John, Ben Braun) could have gotten more out of the usual excuses (tough conference, not easy to do it, east coast bias, etc). But if Sendek turned ASU into a promising and rising program, what exactly has Ben Braun being doing in Berkeley?

But in our opinion the firing offense was poor recruiting decisions. How can you have a team loaded with big men, and yet fail to get enough guards around them? And why was Jordan Wilkes not even given a chance to play through the season when the team was struggling? And the "Omar Wilkes bolted out a year earlier" excuse does not hold water. Wilkes was a wing. The team badly needed a point guard. Both Knezevic and mini-me Randle are backup guards at best. Christopher is a nice Pac-10 caliber player but he is more of a wing-guard.

Is Randy Bennett the next California Berkley head coach?

This is speculative of course, but it was Herb Sendek's success in Year Two at Arizona State that got Jay John fired, and it is Sendek's success that will probably get Ben Braun fired at Cal. If Sendek can do it in two years, why is Ben Braun going sideways for 10+ years?

So why Randy Bennett? For one thing, he is just down the road at Moraga. He has been there for a while, and he has managed to built a top 25 caliber team at two different instances, so his earlier success was not a flash in the pan.

But the biggest reason why Cal should hire Randy Bennett as their next head coach: He looks like Herb Sendek ;-)

Cal is eliminated, Ben Braun to be fired?

Cal's loss to Washington State was not the end of the world. They way they lost was a disaster for a team that has bubble hopes. They got blown out at home by Washington State, an NCAA tourney team, but not one of the Power-16 teams.

This may have perhaps forced the hand of the administration to make the decision to get Ben Braun fired at the end of the season.

But just like Jay John, it's Herb Sendek who is going to get him fired, not himself per say. Why?

Sendek turned perennial Pac-10 bottom-feeder Arizona State into a surprise team and NCAA bubble team in just year two, and on top of that he managed to pick up some nice recruits. Meanwhile Ben Braun has been at Berkeley since the Grateful Dead performed there, and let's face it, the program is trending sideways.

Glaring is his failure to get the proper guards for the program. Guards are much easier to recruit than bigs, but his guards are all Pac-10 bench players at best - other than Patrick Christopher. And while it is true that Omar Wilkes may have surprised some by his departure, he was not a point guard, and this team BADLY NEEDED a point guard.

Especially when you have a boatload of big men that need a point guard to get them the ball! Why have someone like DeVon Hardin when you are letting a 5'6" mini-me throw wild shots all over the place? Nothing against the little guy :)

UCLA at California

This was a relatively low-scoring game, but it was not an ugly game. It was instead an intense game with lots of defense. Once again UCLA "Georgetown'ed" its opponents on the defensive end, and the Cal Bears fell too far behind to be able to make a comeback.

Cal has a really bizarre roster, and don't use the Omar Wilkes early departure as an excuse. They only have one mini-me point guard and a euro-guard and that's it. Typically a team should have at least four guards, not two. On the other hand Ben Braun is loaded in big men, and he doesn't even have room for Jordan Wilkes to play and has a "Yao Ming" red-shirting. With Theo Robertson injured, Braun's options are even fewer on the perimeter.

But Howland won the Ben vs Ben face-off, and managed to sweep their road trip making them the early leader in the Pac-10 ...primaries!

Russell Westbrook continued to have some impressive moments, including a "posterization" (or YouTube'd) moment dunking from Telegraph Avenue. The "Beached Whale" (Kevin Love) continued to be effective while not necessarily dazzling.

Cal at Kansas State

In yet another unofficial Big 12 Pac 10 Hardwood Series Challenge Invitational, the Cal Bears and Kansas State squared off in the snow. The real Billy Walker that was a top 10 2007 recruit when he was in high school showed up with a career high in points and rebounds putting 30 points on the Cal Bears and being very solid at the free throw line. This despite Cal "containing" Beasley to a 19/10 or so game.

Frank Martin reshuffled his line-up and it paid off. The starting gig got Billy Walker fired up, and Clent Stewart returned as he continues to recover from his injury. Also in the line-up he inserted high-energy Merriewether (sp?). If Billy Walker plays at a 20/10 game level, and one of the wings is able to hit three, watch out Big 12!

Cal started each half with spectacular blocks on Beasley from DeVon Hardin. But Hardin got two early foul troubles that essentially removed him from the game. Ben Braun needs to trade two of his one hundred forwards/centers for two guards because he only has two guards and one walk-on. How can a team with so many big men not be able to recruit guards? Hello Ben Braun? And on top of that, Jamal Boykin will become eligible at the end of the semester, giving them anotere versatile team player in the rotation.

Cal looked a lot better than I expected given that DeVon Hardin was taken out of the flow of the game, and Boykin is not there yet. The biggest question mark for Cal is the little guys, Randle is too tiny, Knezevic may be a bit too mid-majorish, and those are the two starting guards at the moment. But Anderson and Vierneisel (sp?) are good ball handlers which can help the situation.

More on this game at GoPowerCat.com, video highlights from Fox Sports, a recap from Pac-10.org, Merc News, and Cal Rivals.