recee caldwell

After missing last year’s first-round loss, Anigwe will definitely want to make an impact for Cal with her fellow senior Asha Thomas and graduate student Receé Caldwell. The Bears will try to control the pace of the game with their experienced players.

The Bears’ outlook will definitely change once this class hangs up its Cal jerseys, and Gottlieb will have a busy offseason creating a different game plan for the young Bears to stay competitive once the era of Anigwe and Thomas is over.

We have seen several times this season when Cal guards dribble around and find Anigwe in the perfect spot or just drop the ball to her on the post, but seeing a guard put a screen for her post player is not an everyday sighting.

The downfall for the Bears was 3-point shooting, as when Anigwe was taken out of the equation by the Cardinal defense, Cal relied heavily on the deep shot. The Bears, however, made only one (yes, one) of their 13 attempts behind the arc in the second half.

Everything is in place for Cal to snap its road losing streak and go to Las Vegas with a four-game winning streak, and the Bears are likely looking to raise some eyebrows in the conference championship.

After another 0-2 weekend, the Bears now sit at 5-9 in conference play and have dropped to ninth place in the Pac-12. While they’ve remained competitive against the top tier of the conference, their only win against the top six teams was on a buzzer-beater versus Stanford.

Cal closed out the toughest stretch of the season, playing four top-10 matchups and managing to steal one game. Even though the weekend ended with two losses, the Bears gained a lot of learning experience by going head to head with the top teams in the nation.

Whatever the outcome and whomever Cal faces, the Bears will need to bring their best performance on the court every game from now on, but it is especially crucial against two top-10 teams this weekend.

The Battle of the Bay is around the corner, and this is one battle Cal (13-6, 4-4) cannot bear to lose. The Cardinal will visit Haas Pavilion on Thursday for round one of the home-and-home before the Bears head down to Palo Alto on Saturday.