Month: December 2013

By Jeremy Harness

LOS ANGELES – First of all, for those who are reading this, let me wish you a very happy, a prosperous, new year. Hopefully, all of you were able to spend the final day of 2013 with friends and/or loved ones.

For myself, that happening for me was up in the air. However, after battling with scheduling issues at her job, my girlfriend, Montsy, was able to join me down here from Napa along with her mother, Bertha, and her 12-year-old daughter, Angelita, in ringing in 2014 in wonderful fashion.

Being in LA, an area which Montsy is a native, we were obviously out and about, but I was able to ease into the day itself.

After a long night of checking out what LA had to offer – as well as having my phone battery run out – I was thankful that there weren’t any scheduled events in the morning. This allowed me to take in some breakfast without a real time limit, which I found to be extremely refreshing in what has proven to be an all-go, no-stop string of events that I call a life.

Not a whole lot wrong with that, but just sayin’.

The first stop was the Kickoff Luncheon, which was held in the parking lot outside Rose Bowl Stadium. There was one thing wrong, however, as we got ready to leave the hotel at around 11:30: I had neglected to give myself a chance to go back to my room to grab the pair of gold-and-brown sunglasses and the gray fedora hat that I had purchased the day before (in my infinite wisdom, knowing that I was headed to sunny Southern California and not somewhere like Seattle, I had also failed to bring a hat nor shades for this trip, thus the need to buy those items down here) since I figured the shuttle was leaving later than it actually did.

Thankfully, I just so happened to be in the media hospitality room at the time. After polishing off a solid round of the vintage golf video game Golden Tee, I checked with one of the friendly staff members, who informed me that the shuttle was leaving in a few minutes.

Needless to say, there was no time to grab any accessories that I might need, but I digress…

As the shuttle took us down Orange Grove Blvd. on the way to the stadium, I noticed a long line of people with folding chairs and sweatshirts, with the sole purpose of saving a precious viewing position for Wednesday morning’s Rose Parade. This was something that I was accustomed to seeing with fans camping outside of the stadium/arena in an attempt to snag game tickets.

Not only that, but I also noticed a good 30 rows of bleachers on the other side of the street, which made me realize that planning for this parade takes a great deal of advance preparation.

As we got to the luncheon site, the social media session began. Since I’m not one to waste memories and to allow my friends and family to share the experiences as much as possible, I spent most of my time there utilizing both Facebook and Instagram to record the various pictures and happenings.

One of those happenings was the performance of the marching bands, mascots and cheerleading squads of both Michigan State and Stanford. Since the luncheon crowd was split down the middle with fans of both schools, this had the feel of a pep rally. This was also pretty refreshing, since I had not been to a pep rally since my high school graduation 17 years ago.

Before getting back on the shuttle to leave following the luncheon, a buddy of mine by the name of Chance McBride and myself decided to get a sneak peek at the stadium and asked if we could go inside the confines to perhaps snap some photos. However, since neither of us had brought our game-day credential with us, access was effectively denied.

Darn! Well, guess we’ll just have to get to the stadium early enough to take said pictures before the game starts. This, however, may or may not allow us time to do the Rose Parade in the morning, a decision on which I am still battling with as this is being written.

From there, I walked around and took in downtown LA awaiting the arrival of the rest of my little gang, which arrived at around 9:30 p.m. We took a shuttle back into downtown, and after striking out on a couple of places to take Angelita to eat, we settled in front of the Staples Center, where she spotted a young man cooking and selling hot dogs wrapped in bacon on the side of the street.

Cool! Now that that issue was resolved, we caught the shuttle back to the hotel and decided to ring in the new year, safe and sound. As it should be.

The non-conference schedule is over as the Cal Bears defeated Furman by 30 points, 90-60 on Saturday to improve to 9-4 on the season.  Injuries are an issue going into the conference slate with Stanford on tap for the Pac-12 opener Thursday evening at Maples Pavilion. Jabari Bird, the freshman standout, has ankle issues, and Ricky Kreklow broke his hand in practice ten days ago leaving Coach Mike Montgomery grasping for offensive firepower at the wing positions entering the clash with Cal’s Bay Area rival.

Saturday’s win allowed Montgomery to try some new pieces.  Christian Behrens saw action for only the second time this season and Jeff Powers had a big game shooting 3-pointers.  Behrens could provide some much-needed depth in the frontcourt and Powers could help stretch opposing defenses in the absence of Kreklow and Bird.  The senior forward had six consecutive makes from distance against Furman after missing his initial attempt.

With Cal dealing with injuries as well as having a young roster in need of developing chemistry, the non-conference schedule yielded no real breakthroughs.  The Bears lost in Maui to No. 2 Syracuse then couldn’t get past Creighton in Omaha last weekend.   A non-conference schedule that yielded no upsets will put the Bears in a tough spot come NCAA Selection Sunday in March.  And of course, trying to develop chemistry while dealing with injuries is no place to be with the remainder of the Pac-12 season yet to be played.

Montgomery has to be concerned that his young, unproven roster could struggle against the beefed-up competition in the Pac-12.  Currently, you have the number one team in the country in Arizona, and Oregon is undefeated with a deep roster and plenty of firepower. UCLA is hovering just outside the Top 25, and Arizona State, Colorado and Utah figure to make some noise as well. 

The Cal-Stanford matchup gives the conference opener a heightened platform with the renewal of the rivalry as well as an opportunity for one of the two teams to get an early jump into the win column.  Besides the rivalry, the fact that Montgomery has coached at both schools and enjoyed tremendous success in both places provides additional intrigue.  Also, you get the sense that Montgomery left Stanford on less than ideal terms in 2004, maybe a victim of heightened expectations that he himself created with a Final Four appearance and Stanford twice reaching the top spot in the national polls.   

One thing’s certain: the Cal program needs a boost.  With Stanford headed to the Rose Bowl for the second straight season and Cal suffering through a nightmare of a football season, Thursday’s game offers an opportunity for the Cal athletic department to garner a boost and feel better about itself. 

Maples Pavilion has become a tough place for Cal to go a get a win in recent years with Montgomery winning only once there in his five years at Cal. Come Thursday, Cal will look to senior point guard Justin Cobbs first and foremost to provide an offensive spark.  Cal’s leading scorer hasn’t shot the ball well in recent weeks but did have a bounce back game against Furman by scoring 18 points on 9-13 shooting.  Also Richard Solomon will have to stay out of foul trouble and deal with Stanford’s big lineup with help from from forward David Kravish. 

Morris Phillips is filling in for Michelle Richardson this week for the NCAA commentary

By Jeremy Harness

LOS ANGELES – First of all, for those of you who have had the pleasure of reading my columns/stories on this Web site for the past 10 years, thank you so very much. I greatly appreciate your support, and I consider it an honor and a privilege to contribute to Sports Radio Service on a regular basis.

With that said, for the next four days, I will take you on a journey through Rose Bowl Week, as No. 5 Stanford prepares to take on No. 4 Michigan State in the 100^th-annual Rose Bowl Game. And, of course, it will be through my eyes.

My flight down here to Southern California was greatly anticipated, as this was the first time I have flown in an airplane in more than five years. With the exception of a tad bit of turbulence as the plane was starting its descent into Bob Hope Airport in Burbank as well as the fact that I had to surrender a can of shaving cream in Oakland in order to carry on my luggage bag, the flight came and went without a hitch.

The most entertaining part of the flight was when the aircraft touched down in Burbank, the flight attendant announced to the passengers, “We have fulfilled our obligation to get you into Burbank. Our contractual agreement is now over,” to which the majority of the passengers (myself included) responded with wholehearted laughter.

From there, the trip was a lesson in discovery about the LA area, where I had not been in many years. During a conversation about the notoriously-gut-wrenching traffic in this metropolitan area, the driver of the shuttle which took me from the airport to my hotel educated me to the fact that most of the people that clog the freeways on a daily basis are actually inexperienced drivers. This was certainly news to me, since unlike my native San Francisco Bay Area, you almost have to have your own vehicle if you have any hopes of getting around Los Angeles and its surrounding cities.

Once I got to the hotel and got checked in at around 9:20 pm, it was determined that media registration had come and gone for the night, and that it would have to wait until tomorrow morning to become “official.” No worries, however, as a few hours were left to grab a bite to eat and, of course, check out the LA Hotel Downtown.

Boy, is it a beautiful hotel! The people here are quite friendly, and the hotel itself is very spacious, definitely a deserving venue to host the media during the week leading up to the Rose Bowl. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to be right about now.

That is all for the first night, but I promise you, I will have much, much more for you as we get closer to the big game, which is expected to be a knock-down, drag-out brawl between two hard-nosed teams until the final whistle.