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  • Today’s Big Number — 3

    3 -- Conference titles Cal has won or shared in football or men's basketball since 1958 (1975 and 2006 football, 2010 basketball)

    3 -- Minimum number of Stanford players who will be on women's all-conference basketball team (Kayla Pedersen, Nneka Ogwumike, Jayne Appel).

    3 -- Players competing this spring to replace Toby Gerhart as Stanford's No. 1 tailback (Stepfan Taylor, Jeremy Steart, Tyler Gaffney).

    3 -- Pac-10 teams we predict will make the men's NCAA Tournament

    3 -- Aussies in St. Mary's starting lineup

    3 -- Players competing this spring to be Cal's starting QB (Kevin Riley, Brock Mansion, Beau Sweeney, although it will be a shocker if Riley is not the winner)

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All Articles Categorized Under Thoughts and Ramblings

A Stanford walk-on who defies Division I logic

The Strange Case of  Emmanuel Igbinosa cannot quite rival the Benjamin Button story for sheer freakiness, but it’s from the same genre.   And it’s one that probably could only happen at Stanford.
As you may or may not know, Igbinosa was as responsible as anyone for Stanford 70-61 upset of Arizona State in the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday.    ...

Listed Under: PAC 10, Stanford, Thoughts and Ramblings

NCAAs: Finer points to know — and forget

The NCAA Tournament gets under way with Sunday’s selection show.   The games don’t start until four days later, but this phenomenon known as March Madness starts on Sunday.
March Madness, by the way, is one of the terms you will never see on this site again.   The NCAA Tournament has become an unofficial haven for clichés ...

Listed Under: Thoughts and Ramblings

VanDerveer reacts to Griner punch

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer saw the replay of the punch thrown by Baylor’s 6-8 freshman star Brittney Griner  that landed on the face of a Texas Tech player on Wednesday, rocking women’s basketball.
(See video of punch here: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=4963605).
VanDerveer has always been willing to share her opinion on things, and here is what she said about ...

Listed Under: Stanford, Thoughts and Ramblings

ASU player shot 110 percent vs. Stanford

Arizona State center Eric Boateng made 110 percent of his shots against Stanford last Thursday, leading directly to our one question on Rhetorical Tuesday:
Does this mean it really is possible to give 110 percent?
It seems Boateng has given a speck of truth to that trite comment made by athletes who don’t know what to say ...

Listed Under: PAC 10, Stanford, Thoughts and Ramblings

Monday Rehash: Don’t be so negative

A common complaint about sports writers (and there are several from which to choose) is that they are too negative.
To which we at JakesTakeOnSports have two responses:
Response A: That’s not true.
Response B: OK, maybe it is true, but, face it, negative stuff is more interesting.
So in an effort to provide balanced reporting, this week’s Monday ...

Listed Under: PAC 10, Thoughts and Ramblings

Turnover leader as Pac-10 player of the year?

It’s Rhetorical Tuesday, and JakesTakeOnSports has two rhetorical questions to offer:
No. 1: How can a player who leads the Pac-10 in turnovers be a contender for Pac-10 player of the year?
No. 2: How can a player who leads the West Coast Conference in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots, all by sizable margins, and plays for ...

Listed Under: Cal, PAC 10, Stanford, Thoughts and Ramblings, WCC

900 coaching wins, which reminds me . . .

You know the feeling.  You’re sitting in your cubicle at work crunching the numbers of the company’s 2006 inventory, and your mind starts to wander.   One thought leads inexplicably to another and at some point, just to amuse yourself, you try to recall how the thought process started.
That happens to us at JakesTakeOnSports, too, and ...

Listed Under: Thoughts and Ramblings

Monday Rehash: Thursday is big for St. Mary’s

St. Mary’s should comb its hair, straighten its tie and shine its shoes, because it needs to look good for its appearance on national television on Thursday.    The image the Gaels portray during that two-hour exposure may determine whether they get into the NCAA Tournament.
It might seem that with a 21-3 record and no losses ...

Listed Under: Thoughts and Ramblings, WCC

A Thursday of strange hoops happenings

A star player being ejected, coaches planning to go without shoes, a team going more than 10 minutes without scoring and still almost winning, a 35-point performance by a player in a loss, and a player scoring seven points in eight seconds to pull out a game that seemed lost.
 Those were just some of the ...

Listed Under: Cal, PAC 10, Stanford, Thoughts and Ramblings, WCC

How to get some attention — the wrong way

There are several ways to get attention in basketball.  A game-winning shot or an upset win is the more attractive way, but futility can work well too if recognition is the goal. 
So we present several categories of Inglorious Basterds:
 Man of the week: Stan Holt
Holt graduated from USC with honors and is now working on a masters in athletic ...

Listed Under: Thoughts and Ramblings
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