10 Comments

Friday's game might have been the best performances I've seen by a Charmin-coached team. The Bears excelled in all facets of the game. Yesterday was one of the most exciting wins of the Charmin era. Michelle came through big time as did Mia defensively. Ionna is a true baller. Huge weekend for Cal. As has been stated, they need more people coming to Haas.

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Shout out to Cal defensive MVP who locked down WSU’s best player and grabbed 3 tough offensive rebounds (she had 4 rebounds over)

We don’t win without Mia today

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Best career game by Michelle on both sides of the court going up against WSU senior athletic center (who was 1-2 inches taller than Michelle)

Michelle also made the game winning rebound and basket in OT, and then helped defend WSU’s drive to the basket to seal the win

She had 4 fouls but 2 were setup/acting jobs by WSU’s center

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Even in the loss to Stanford, you could see both the defensive strategy employed by the Bears, and an offensive set that they worked. Eventually they ran out of steam, and Stanford's out-side shooting was too good. But these last two games, they were competitive and played great defense. If they can work on turnovers and fouls, they could have a good season, particularly at Haas. Unfortunately there are too many talented teams in the conference.

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Ioanna has been so good as a dead eye three point shooter and as a second point guard playing with Lei.

With her, Marta, McKayla adding to Kemery Lei and Claudia - this is the best three point shooting team Charmin has had. Maybe we can pull some of the Pac 12 bigs out of the paint by making a bunch of 3s

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Mia can also hit an open 3

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Unfortunately Mia is shooting 26% from 3 this season and that is the best shooting percentage of her career, so I’m not sold on her being a shooter.

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We need people in the seats at Haas!! Please come see this team play. They are fun to watch. These Bears can score and defend. Deepest team Coach Smith has had in her tenure here. Upcoming home games against the Oregon schools, LA schools and Arizona schools. Help them get to the NCAA Tournament with your presence and loud voices!!! GO Bears!!!

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The Pac-12 women have been absolutely stacked this year though. No team lost more than four games out of conference and a week in every team is still above .500. There could easily be seven or eight teams for the Pac-12 in the NCAA tournament, and Cal has a good shot to be one of them with a few wins against the top tier (Furd, USC, UCLA, Colorado).

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I was quite optimistic about Coach Smith's hire. Glad to see patience through some lean years may be paying off. We may start seeing some poll votes or be outright ranked if we beat one of the mountain schools.

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