The Bears will also be bringing a good dose of Cal spirit with them.

The team has a tradition unlike any other — when the postseason rolls around, players spray-paint their tennis shoes blue and gold in honor of the university they play for and represent.

“Everyone kind of puts their own spin on it,” says coach Amanda Augustus, whose kicks are also a bright blue and gold. “But it has to be school colors.”

Some choose an electric gold that mirrors the state’s California poppies paired with a true and bright Yale blue — the two sources that the University of California borrowed its colors from. Other players are a little more subtle, preferring a metallic gold that doesn’t catch the eye as much but still stands out on the courts of Hellman Tennis Complex.

Some players take their Cal spirit beyond their footwear. Sophomore Zsofi Susanyi and freshman Klara Fabikova had blue streaks in their normally blond hair last weekend. Each also painted her nails in the university’s colors, alternating blue and gold for each finger.

Even the athletic tape that the players wore this weekend — normally green or pink — was shades of either blue or gold.

But the longest-standing tradition is definitely the shoes. Augustus says that the tradition predates her time as a player for Cal in the late ’90s. Her coach back then — the legendary Jan Brogan, who led the Bears to 25 NCAA appearances — also couldn’t pinpoint an exact date.

“I would be guessing as I coached for 29 years,” Brogan says. “But I can pin it down to the Lisa Albano era.”

Lisa Albano played for Cal from 1988 to 1992, placing the shoe-painting tradition at more than 20 years old.

Augustus carries on the tradition, having her players lay cardboard down on the track in Edwards Stadium so that they can spray paint their shoes. They have to paint a few weeks before the postseason begins, or else the shoes won’t be dry in time.

But the Bears haven’t had to worry about jinxing their postseason chances or painting the shoes prematurely yet — in Augustus’ six seasons as head coach, her teams haven’t missed the postseason once.

Cal’s rivals have caught on to the tradition and have started doing something similar, but the players maintain that the idea originated in Berkeley.

“We did it first,” says sophomore Cecilia Estlander. “USC and UCLA have kind of started doing it, but we did it first.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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On Tuesday, the selection show for the NCAAs revealed No. 8 Cal would be hosting Stony Brook, Auburn, and Saint Mary’s. The Bears will take on Stony Brook on May 10 at 10 a.m. at Hellman Tennis Complex. The winners of the Cal/Stony Brook and Auburn/St. Mary’s matches will battle each other in the second round the next day.

The team, however, is more concerned with the later stages of the tournament.

Due to the way the seeding worked out, Cal will not face another Pac-12 school until at least the semifinals — should it make it that far. The Bears could face either USC, Stanford, or Arizona State in those semifinals or could see UCLA in the championship.

Only those four Pac-12 teams made the tournament.

“I was a little disappointed to not see more of our conference teams selected,” said Cal coach Amanda Augustus. “Normally we have 7 or so. I think we play good tennis out here.”

Augustus attributes the lack of west coast teams to rules by the NCAA that reward teams for playing easy schedules and therefore amassing impressive records.

“Hopefully they’ll revisit some of these new rules like the .500 rule that I think rewarded teams for going around and playing an easier schedule and scheduling a lot of matches,” Augustus said.

The Pac-12, a tough conference for tennis, doesn’t get the benefit of easy matches. This has resulted in lower seeds for the Pac-12 schools, with USC the highest at No. 5.

But the benefit is that the Pac-12 schools are better prepared for the tough competition.

“I think that’s why our schools always do well in the postseason — because we play tough matches against each other,” Augustus said. “I think it will show by the end of the tournament how strong the 5 teams are that did get selected.”

Meanwhile, the players are not thinking that deeply about the structure of the tournament. They’re just happy to be at home for two consecutive weeks to finish up school before travelling to Chicago for the later rounds of the NCAAs.

“Honestly right now, I’m just thinking about school and finishing up the finals and everything,” Anett Schutting said. “Then I can just focus on tennis.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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The last time the Bears failed to earn the NCAA Championships home court advantage was in 2010, where Cal had to travel to Los Angeles in Southern California. Although the Bears easily swept UC Irvine in the first round, they were immediately knocked out of the NCAAs by UCLA in the second round.

This Tuesday afternoon, the NCAA selection show for Division I men’s tennis revealed that the Bears will leave home for the first time in three years. No. 15 Florida will host Denver, Florida State and No. 18 Cal for the first two rounds of the NCAA Team Championships.

In the first round, the Bears will take on Florida State first, while the Gators will match off against unranked Denver.

If Cal can make it past the first round, the team will most likely battle host Florida — who it will play for the second time this year. On Feb. 16, the Bears took on then No. 11 Florida at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Seattle, where Cal emerged as victors, 4-1.

According to Cal senior co-captain Christoffer Konigsfeldt, the Bears will have a good chance of making it past these first two rounds and advancing to the NCAA sweet 16.

“It was an interesting draw — we didn’t really know what to expect this year,” Konigsfeldt said. “But I think we definitely have a good chance. Florida is the top seed there, and we beat them earlier this season, so we know that we can beat them now.

“It’s a good draw for us.”

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The former Cal wide receiver was drafted by the San Diego Chargers with the 76th overall pick. Allen, the program’s all-time leader in receptions, was the first of four former Cal players to be drafted in this year’s NFL Draft.

“If anyone was going to pick me, I was definitely hoping for San Diego just because of the atmosphere and the place that it is with great weather,” Allen said in a teleconference with Cal athletics.

On Saturday, offensive lineman Brian Schwenke and cornerbacks Steve Williams and Marc Anthony were drafted in the last four rounds of the draft. Schwenke was drafted as the 107th overall pick in the fourth round to the Tennessee Titans, and Anthony was drafted as the 247th overall pick in the seventh round to the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.

As the 145th overall pick in the fifth round, Williams will join Allen in San Diego.

“I’m excited to get down there and compete for a job,” Williams said. “It’s nice to know that Keenan’s going, a player that I played with. I’m just excited.”

The 2013 NFL Draft overall was a weak draft for Cal in comparison to its past years. This draft was the second consecutive year that Cal didn’t produce a first round pick. It was the first time since 2006 in which no Cal players were taken in the first two rounds of the draft.

Three undrafted Cal players were signed as free agents after the NFL Draft concluded on Saturday. Offensive lineman Matt Summers-Gavin, running back C.J. Anderson and fullback Eric Stevens were signed by the Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos and the St. Louis Rams.

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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With CBS Sports ranking Allen as the 13th best prospect — the highest among wide receivers — in the class of 2012, his draft stock was solidly entrenched in the first round.

Fast forward nearly six months, and Allen waited all Thursday afternoon to get that one call from an NFL team, congratulating the former Cal receiver in  being drafted in the first round. Alas, the former Cal receiver never got the call and watched the first 32 picks go by.

Allen’s snub out of the first round was a slow decline rather than a fast spiral down. Injuries to his right knee and concerns about his right ankle concerned many NFL scouts. After injuring his knee while playing against Utah on Oct. 27, Allen has been making a slower than expected recovery. After missing the NFL Combine in February, Allen returned to action in early April at his home in Greensboro, N.C., only to run a mediocre 4.7 40-yard dash time range.

On April 18, a week from the draft, Allen recently went to Indianapolis to get his right ankle rechecked, according to ESPN.

It was not just physical injuries that caused Allen, the all-time leader in receptions in Cal football history, to not getting drafted in the first round. On April 16, Allen was red-flagged for a drug test and was ordered to undergo another test this month. This added more concern for the scouts who were already skeptical about Allen’s fitness beforehand.

With Allen’s omission from the first-round, this marks the second consecutive year in which a Cal football player was not drafted in the first round. The last first round pick from Cal was defensive end Cameron Jordan, who was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2011.

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On Tuesday, the athletic department unveiled the program’s new Jordan Brand uniforms — surely to the envy of the other 11 conference teams as well as MJ himself.

The Bears, of course, are coming off a successful season that saw them finish in a second-place tie in the Pac-12 regular season and advance to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 after a second-round upset of UNLV. As such, Cal, with four appearances in the Big Dance in the last five years, has certainly merited a new wardrobe.

Pac-12 Player of the Year Allen Crabbe announced that he will skip his senior year to enter the NBA Draft, but the freshman class of 2013, headlined by five-star recruit Jabari Bird, should help mitigate the loss of Crabbe.

Another key addition to the Bears next season will be the color gray, which will accent all of Cal athletic’s new jerseys. It is all part of the athletic department’s new visual identity, which includes not just jerseys and the Bear but also updated Cal script and logo.

The uniforms, in a way, personify the Bears’ defense down the stretch of the 2012-13 season. They are certainly tenacious, with big bold golden numbers and a screen of the new Golden Bear image covering the back. That fierce Bear image is also stitched on the shorts, where it will undoubtedly inspire fear in Cal’s opponents.

Above the Bears on the shorts, however, are a series of dots. Perhaps they symbolize the holes often found in Cal’s defense. These dots, with blue and gold on one side of a line, and black and gray, fading away into the Bear, on the other, are quite possibly the most controversial aspect of the new uniforms.

According to CalBears.com, the new men’s basketball uniforms use the “new lightweight material and design” of  Nike’s latest technology, which will “allow for optimal comfort and performance.”

No word yet if the new uniforms will also limit turnovers.

Jonathan Kuperberg used to cover men’s basketball. Contact him at jkuperberg@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanKupe.

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And on Monday at Bristol, Conn., Clarendon did not have to wait long. With the ninth pick of the 2013 WNBA Draft, the Indiana Fever selected the senior.

Accompanied by coach Lindsay Gottlieb and her father to the draft selection show, Clarendon was the highest WNBA pick in program history. After a heroic string of performances during this year’s March Madness that led the team to its first-ever Final Four, Clarendon cemented her draft stock in the first-round range.

With the Fever, Clarendon will likely be utilized as a shooting guard off the bench. With her midrange jumper as her main weapon, she will be an offensive plug who brings speed and energy to the Indiana backcourt.

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Though Cal football coach Sonny Dykes and the new staff released their first depth chart of the year on Thursday, Cal fans shouldn’t get too excited.

The roster did not narrow down the three-way quarterback race between Jared Goff, Zach Kline and Austin Hinder. At this point, it looks like the battle for the position will go down to the wire.

Considering spring practice wasn’t enough for the staff to decide on even the top two candidates in the race, it’s conceivable that they might not pick a starter until shortly before the season starts.

That said, the quarterbacks were not listed alphabetically. Goff was listed before Kline, who in turn was listed before Hinder.

Does this mean Goff is in the lead for the position?

No doubt this will cause endless speculation for fans that are clamoring for an answer, but right now, nothing seems to be certain. Until there are fewer than three names on that list, any of the three could win the starting job.

Meanwhile, there were a few interesting changes.

The most striking was that Richard Rodgers did not make the list of starting receivers. Instead, senior Jackson Bouza claimed one of the inside receiver spots, despite having only played in five games in his career for Cal.

Fans shouldn’t read too much into this change. Rodgers’ place on the depth chart is probably due to the injuries he suffered in spring practice and not due to a decision by the coaches. And in Dykes’ new offense, every receiver is going to see playing time regardless of his position on the depth chart.

The only other interesting note is the relative youth across the roster; only four seniors appear on the offense and defense combined.

This is truly a new team. New players, new coaches, new system, new uniforms — a completely new identity moving forward from last year.

The depth chart can’t tell fans much, but it confirms the new direction that Cal is headed in. Other than that, it’s not useful to read into it too much — the important depth chart is the one released after fall practices, not spring.

Attached below is Cal football’s official depth chart:

Contact Riley McAtee at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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Cal Athletics’ new brand — two years in the making — was unveiled in a landmark event at Memorial Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

While the shiny new uniforms received all the hype — and rightfully so — the revamped Cal brand is about far more than just uniforms. As Athletics Director Sandy Barbour put it, “It takes more than a hat to be a cowboy.”

Linebacker Nick Forbes admitted to needing time to appreciate the new Golden Bear, which is rather simple in its scheme. The fierce rendition is a “powerful, intelligent force,” a stark contrast to the cartoonish image of the old and bumbling Oski.

Yet Old Blues needn’t worry. “This will not affect Oski,” Barbour reassured the crowd. The mascot will still remain on the field for games, though sadly he will not receive a Nike makeover.

The makeover itself, which touches nearly every aspect of the Athletics department, was a massive and “secretive” undertaking between Cal and Nike, according to Barbour. Alumni Jason Kidd and Marshawn Lynch were among the select few who got a sneak peak.

With videos from Kidd and Lynch, along with long-winded poetics from Barbour and Nike Global VP and Design Director Todd Van Horne on Wednesday, there was certainly a mythical hype surrounding this event.

“I’m inspired from that speech,” said Van Horne, as he stepped up to the podium after Barbour’s opening remarks. Van Horne followed up with equally inspiring oratory.

But even those paled in the presence of the student-athlete models who finally brought the new uniforms to life.

As the oft-repeated saying goes, “The devil is in the details.” Yet Cal’s brand overhaul is definitely heaven-sent.

Traditional elements of the Cal look — such as the script and school colors — are only amplified by brand-new lettering. The design of the numbers on the jerseys, according to Van Horne, were meant to be “bold like a Bear, sharp like a claw.”

And, boy, are they ever.

The Bear, with his mouth open in a magnificent roar, surely represents a new age in Cal athletics.

The biggest news might have been the color schemes. Blue and gold are, of course, still Cal’s primary colors, but gray is now a secondary color (technically the second secondary color), along with white. There will be no black uniforms — much to athletes’ relief.

Barbour anticipates that the Bears will “perform well in this new visual identity.” With that kind of prediction, Cal faithful should start making reservations for the 2014 Rose Bowl.

The brand, it seems, is truly a new look for a new era of Cal football.

“It was time for a change,” said wide receiver Chris Harper, who is excited about the uniforms and hopes that the players will wear white socks and white shoes (not black shoes).

While the gray option was perhaps the biggest innovation to come out of this collaboration, the matte helmets were equally enticing. The dull navy really allows the shiny Cal script decal to pop when players are on the field. A 3D rendition of the new bear logo will grace the front.

“It has a texture to it that sets it apart,” Forbes said.

The look impressed both athletes such as Forbes and coaches such as Sonny Dykes and Lindsay Gottlieb. Yet Forbes, who also modeled the look in official photo releases, still feels there is something to be desired. He anticipates the next step in Cal’s rebranding is a new on-field mascot.

“I’m hoping this inspires a real bear,” he said.

Annie Gerlach and Jonathan Kuperberg are counting down the days until the next ‘Gold Out.’ Join in the excitement with them at sports@dailycal.org.

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At the Memorial Stadium Field Club, Athletics Director Sandy Barbour was joined by coaches and members of the media — as well as a few choice athlete-models — in a much-hyped press conference for the even more hyped reveal of Cal’s new look.

Much of the excitement revolved around the introduction of new football uniforms. Along with the recent hiring of head coach Sonny Dykes, new uniforms will go a long way toward creating a program radically different from that of the soured Jeff Tedford era.

But, as Barbour pointed out, the unveiling was “far bigger than new uniforms.” A new logo, new bear rendition and new font were also introduced to the public. The new look is, according to Barbour, a manifestation of Cal’s dedication to improving its reputation without sacrificing its tradition.

Wednesday marked the culmination of nearly two years of clandestine collaboration with Nike on revising and reimagining the Cal brand. Yet this begs a question that Barbour herself asked: “What is brand?”

For Barbour, brand is all about the way Cal is perceived around the world. That means retaining traditional elements of the Cal identity — such as the Cal script and the blue-and-gold color scheme — but streamlining Cal’s numerous logos and designs to create a universal identity.

“Brand is, in essence, a promise of what will be delivered and experienced,” Barbour said.

Nike’s Global VP and Design Director Todd Van Horne discussed in-depth the process the two institutions undertook to create Cal’s brand. It included researching public perception and opinion of Cal’s current identity, creating baseline standards for the use of Cal’s look and “bringing (the look) to life,” according to Van Horne.

Barbour was adamant that both the traditional Cal script and Oski will remain intact as the “cornerstones” of Cal’s identity. While blue and gold remain the primary uniform colors, gray was introduced as a secondary option along with white. The football uniforms also feature new matte helmets with a 3D bear logo at the front.

“It has a texture to it that sets it apart,” said linebacker Nick Forbes.

There is a new bear rendition to replace the cartoonish Oski. In addition, a new font will appear on all uniforms, as well as paraphernalia such as letterhead.

“The curves and angles invoke both a traditional yet modern feel,” Barbour said of the font.

She also acknowledged that the rebranding should influence recruitment. And while Barbour knows that traditional fans and alumni might take some time to acclimate themselves to the new look, she remains convinced that the change is good.

“We do not expect that any visual identity will be universally liked,” she said. “Our goal is to create something that is universally recognized.”

Jonathan Kuperberg used to cover football. Annie Gerlach might get the chance. Contact them at sports@dailycal.org.

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