by Michael Duca

photo credit: bing images of Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin

BERKELEY–What the Cal Bear’s Jabari Bird means to the Incarnate Word Cardinals last Wednesday night I’m not sure the word is the Bird. But the word might have rhymed with Bird. That was an embarrassing performance on Wednesday night by the Cal Bears on their home floor at Haas Pavilion.

There’s no way around it and while head coach Cuonzo Martin said after the game that they were happy to get away with the win and he thought they played better in the second half but they played well in spurts. It took almost 30 minutes after the game for anybody to come talk to the media and that was coach Martin.

The players weren’t there until another five or six minutes after that the players that did come in were Ivan Rabb and Jabari Bird both were remarkedly subdued and thoughtful and surprising unguarded and honest. It wasn’t that answer session of platitudes “we got to give the opponent a lot of credit” honestly admitted the Bears should have been able to beat a team like the Cardinals by 20-30 points.

Michael Duca covers Cal basketball and does the Bears podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com take listen below.