Photo credit: @SJSUMBB and @SJSUSpartanFB
On the San Jose State podcast with Ana Kieu:
1. San Jose State men’s basketball lost to the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels 71-64 last Saturday.
2. San Jose State will host the Colorado State Rams tonight at 7:00 pm PT.
3. San Jose State football set its Spring Ball Practice Calendar for the general public.
Ana Kieu does the San Jose State podcasts each week for SportsRadioService.com
Photo credit: @TheCrossover
On the Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O:
#1 The Sacramento Kings had no answer for the Denver Nuggets Isaiah Thomas. Thomas worked the game without head coach Mike Malone who ejected and also the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic helped out on offense for the 120-118 win.
#2 The much improved Kings, despite Wednesday’s loss, played a tight ball game against the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center.
#3 Knowing Malone’s coaching style, was there any advantage for the Kings or did Malone know the Kings’ style of play and knew how to play the Nuggets?
#4 The Kings are looking to get back in the win column. They play at Golden State on Thursday night. What are some of the things they need to do to win in Oakland?
Charlie O does the Kings podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
Photo credit: @SFinformer
On That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:
#1 The Environmental Impact Report on the Howard Terminal location for the Oakland Athletics new ball park will show that the location has had a century worth of toxic dumping there of cancerous material that includes cyanide poisoning.
#2 The chemicals also include manufactured material that was used to help light Oakland street lights at the turn of the 19th century.
#3 A’s president David Kaval said that any clean up cost would be paid privately but the study and length of time of how and how much to do a clean up toxic waste site is still to be mulled over?
#4 Kaval made it clear that costs for infrastructure, transportation, and environmental will be a big job and the timetable for opening the Howard Terminal ball park is estimated in 2033–some 14 years from now.
#5 Amaury talks about his coverage for the Oakland A’s training camp in Mesa, Ariz. for spring training.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish radio talent on 1010 KIQI San Francisco and does News and Commentary podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
Photo credit: @NBA
On the Golden State Warriors podcast with David:
#1 How important is it for Golden State to have Kevin Durant win the 2019 All-Star Game MVP?
#2 Durant made it look easy with his 31 points in the All-Star contest for Team LeBron and also he played against his Golden State teammate Stephen Curry on Team Giannis, who scored 17 points.
David Zizmor does the Warriors podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
Photo credit: @BarDown
By Jerry Feitelberg
Joe Thornton scored a hat trick and the San Jose Sharks erased a three-goal first period deficit, but the Boston Bruins escaped the SAP Center with a 6-5 overtime win Monday night. Charlie McAvoy scored the game-winner with 1:01 left in the extra skate to give Boston the sweep of the trio of California teams and Chris Wagner scored a controversial goal to tie the game late after Joe Thornton’s third goal gave the Sharks a then 5-4 lead.
Joe Pavelski had three points and Logan Couture picked up two in the loss. Neither San Jose’s Martin Jones (14 saves) nor Tuuka Rask of Boston (33 saves) were particularly sharp in net for their respective teams.
McAvoy’s overtime strike came after her and Evander Kane got tangled up in the Sharks offensive end after some physical play. Kane went off for a change, McAvoy stayed on and snuck into the slot for a pass from David Krejci (three assists), with the defenseman’s shot beating Jones for the win with 1:01 left in overtime.
The Bruins put themselves in the position to win despite managing only 20 shots, including four in the second period and seven in the third after Chris Wagner’s career-best eighth goal of the season. Wagner scored with 1:49 left in regulation after batting a puck down from midair behind Martin Jones. Since Wagner hit the puck once more before the puck crossed the goal-line and the official didn’t rule his touch a high stick and a stop of play, the play was not review-able and the game-tying goal counted. It was one of many moments of frustration between the Sharks and referees as Evander Kane also had a late breakaway blown dead after the Bruins net was dislodge and play continued without the net being replaced by a trailing official.
While one point is a small consolation for the Sharks, it was a tremendous comeback effort led by First Star and former Bruin Joe Thornton and teammate Joe Pavekski. With a first goal in toe for Jumbo but the Sharks trailing 3-1 after 20 minutes, the Sharks vets stepped up in a big way down the final 40. Pavelski scored a power play strike, his team-leading 32nd goal, 2:24 into the second to cut the Bruins’ lead to 3-2, but a Jake DeBrusk power play tally, one of three points for the winger, 6:30 into the second put the Bruins back up by two. Thornton scored his 12th goal of the season 3:57 from the second intermission and Logan Couture scored the ultra-rare short-handed penalty shot goal, beating Rask with 25 second left in the period after a Bruin covered the puck in the crease with their hand. Couture’s 22nd goal pulled San Jose down 4-3 heading into the final frame. Couture also assisted on Pavelski’s power play goal.
Thornton brought down a rain of hats with 6:28 left in regulation after doing something he was often criticized for not doing in Boston; he shot the puck. It was a rocket of a shot that may have deflected off McAvoy into the back of the net for Thornton’s first hat trick since 2010 and 13th goal of the year.
Boston held a 3-0 lead with just over 1:30 left in the first. Torey Krug picked up his sixth goal of the year 13:49 into the period on the man advantage, Zdeno Chara scored on a shot off a Sean Kuraly faceoff win 16:26 into the frame and Karson Kuhlman scored his first goal of his NHL career with 1:36 left in the period. Thornton scored with just three seconds left in the period to give San Jose a slight boost heading into the dressing room after the first period.
San Jose sits a point back of Calgary since the Flames won Monday night. The Sharks travel to Pittsburgh to face the former Stanley Cup foe Penguins Thursday, then travel to Columbus for a Saturday matchup against the Blue Jackets and then a Sunday tilt in the Motor City. The Sharks will then face these same Bruins in Boston in just over one week next Tuesday.
Photo credit: @sjbarracuda
By Marko Ukalovic
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Barracuda responded with a statement game of their own against the San Diego Gulls. After getting spanked 48 hours earlier, San Jose served up some revenge in a 5-2 victory over their Pacific Division rival on Monday afternoon at SAP Center.
With the win, San Jose reclaimed second place in the Pacific Division with 62 points while San Diego is currently in third with 60 points. This is San Jose’s second win in seven contests against San Diego this season.
San Diego (27-15-3-3) drew first blood in a wild back-and-forth first period. Adam Cracknell sent a go-ahead pass to Sam Steel from the red line to create a breakaway. Steel skated in and made a quick deke before sliding the puck between the five-hole of Cuda goalie Joesef Korenar (16-5-1) for his 14th goal of the season at the 4:02 mark of the first period.
San Jose (27-12-2-4) received the equalizer when Vincent Praplan fed a pass back to the right point to Jeremy Roy. Roy then sent a wrist shot through traffic that took a tricky bounce past Gulls goalie Jeff Glass (8-6-2) into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season at the 5:48 mark. Evan Weinger received the secondary assist.
“I thought we played a helluva game tonight compared to the one we played other night,” said Cuda head coach Roy Sommer. “Big turnaround. I thought our details were a lot better. We were a lot harder to battle. We played a little reckless. You can win a lot more games than lose when you play like that.”
The Gulls regained the lead just 11 seconds into their first power play of the game. Keifer Sherwood sent a pass from the point over to the left slot where Cracknell one-timed the puck off the pads of Korenar. Sam Carrick was camped out in front to clean up the rebound for his team leading 25th goal of the season at the 8:13 mark.
San Jose would only need 18 seconds to even it back up on the very next shift. Jeffery Viel chased down the puck to the right slot, spun around and fired a cross-ice pass through the crease over to Alexander True, who buried the puck past Glass for his team-leading 16th goal of the season at the 8:31 mark. Anti Suomela received the secondary assist.
“I think it was another great team effort,” said True. “They helped me score some goals, (but) it was a team effort.”
True second his second goal of the game and 17th on the season on the power play. Francis Perron made a nice play to keep the puck in the Gulls zone during a clearing attempt. After skating around a defender, he fed a pass down low to Dylan Gambrell behind the net, who made a sweet backhand pass over to True, who one-timed a wrist shot past Glass at the 12:30 mark.
“To get that big goal was huge for us,” said Perron. “Then after that we just kept on going and kept it (the momentum) going playing a really good team.”
Maxix Letunov gave the Cuda a 4-2 lead with just a minute and half left in the period when he was able to redirect a Nick DeSimone wrist shot from the right point into the upper left corner of the net for his ninth goal of the season at the 18:31 mark. Praplan received the secondary assist for a two point afternoon.
In the second period, the Cuda had two quality chances to extend their lead only to be stoned by Glass. Weinger had a point-blank chance stopped in the first three minutes and Letunov’s wraparound attempt was denied by a sprawling Glass at the six-minute mark.
San Jose cashed in for the second time on the power play. Captain John McCarthy feathered a pass from the point toward the net that deflected off Rourke Chartier and onto the stick of Gambrell. Glass made the initial save, but wasn’t able to hold onto the puck as Chartier cleaned up the rebound top-shelf for his sixth goal of the season at the 10:38 mark.
There was no scoring in the third period as San Jose clamped down defensively only allowing five shots on goal by San Diego.
Tensions were high and things were chippy throughout the game with after the whistle skirmishes behind the net, including Glass taking exception to True barreling his way into him on a rush early in third period.
“We play these guys a lot and I’m sure we don’t like them and they don’t like us,” said True. “It’s going to get chippy out there sometimes and you saw that (out there) tonight.”
Korenar finished with 25 saves on 27 shots to earn his 17th win on the season. Glass made 33 saves on 38 Cuda shots in suffering the defeat.
GAME NOTES: San Jose was 2/5 on the power play. San Diego was 1/4.
Gambrell played his first game since being reassigned by the San Jose Sharks. He now has 30 points in 32 AHL game this season (11G, 19A).
San Diego has out scored San Jose 29-16 in the last six head-to-head matchups.
The announced attendance was 6,027.
UP NEXT: The Barracuda travel out to Iowa to begin a three-game road trip as they take on the Wild on Thursday 2/21 at 5:00 pm at Wells Fargo Arena.
Photo credit: @StanfordMBB
By: Ana Kieu
After a rough road trip in the Beaver State, Stanford men’s basketball rebounded with two straight home wins over rivals USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins, respectively. The Cardinal routed the Bruins 104-80 on February 16th and edged the Trojans 79-76 on February 13th. Not bad for two Bay Area versus Los Angeles style showdowns.
But Stanford (14-11, 7-6 Pac-12) now has a tall order with a brief stop in the desert, where they’ll take on the Arizona State Sun Devils, who currently stand tall with a 17-8, 8-5 Pac-12 record, and pay a visit to the Arizona Wildcats, who are third to last in the conference with a 14-12, 5-8 Pac-12 record. Tempe and Tucson are two different cities that are 100 miles apart, but I doubt the travel time and time difference won’t be factors in the Cardinal’s next two games. The Cardinal will bring a two-game win streak, while the Sun Devils will be looking to make it two wins in a row. ASU last defeated the Utah Utes 98-87 at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on February 16th.
The Cardinal had won five of their last six games, which has been a positive sign for the wishy-washy team even though they likely won’t become a promising postseason contender this year. If you’re antsy for the game, you can check out GoStanford.com for their live countdown to the tipoff. You can thank me later, too.
Not only did Stanford beat UCLA, Josh Sharma–a Cardinal senior center–was voted the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Player of the Week Monday. Sharma led the Cardinal to a sweep of the LA-based schools. The Cardinal’s win over the Bruins was their largest in 22 years. The Cardinal’s currently tied with Colorado and USC for fifth in the conference at 7-6 in Pac-12 play.
Sharma averaged a double-double for the week at 18.0 points per game and 10.5 rebounds per game. He posted his second career double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds in the win over UCLA. His 22-point performance was one shy of his career-high, which was set earlier this season against Long Beach State.
Sharma, the Pac-12’s field goal percentage leader at 69%, finished 10-of-11 from the field in the win over UCLA, becoming just the 10th player in Cardinal history with at least nine field goals made and just one or no missed field goal attempts in a game. He finished Saturday’s win with seven dunks.
Sharma registered 14 points and nine rebounds in the win over USC on Wednesday.
Sharma was recognized by the Pac-12 for the second time this season. He was also named the conference’s player of the week on Dec. 31. He’s the first Stanford player to be recognized with the conference’s weekly award multiple times in the same season since Landry Fields in 2009-10. He’s also the sixth Cardinal to accomplish the feat all-time, joining Fields (2009-10), Matt Haryasz (2005-06), Matt Lottich (2003-04), Adam Keefe (1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92) and Todd Lichti (1988-89).
Photo credit: @SJSUMBB
By: Ana Kieu
Once again, San Jose State men’s basketball has nothing to play for but pride, but I still have to provide some of the best Spartan coverage out there, so there you go. The Spartans wrap up their two-game homestand with a conference matchup versus the Colorado State Rams inside the Event Center Wednesday night. The tipoff has been set for 7:00 pm PT.
SJSU (3-21, 0-12) most recently hosted UNLV (14-11, 8-5 MW) and dropped a 71-64 decision following a promising first half with the Spartans holding onto a mere three-point advantage, 31-28, to the locker room on Saturday, February 16th. Meanwhile, CSU (9-16, 4-8 MW) lost to the San Diego State Aztecs 71-60 at the Moby Arena on Tuesday, February 12th. As you can see, home court advantage failed to help out the Rams, but then again, they faced a challenging SDSU team who currently holds a 16-9, 8-4 MW record.
The Spartans are bottom-feeders as they’ve lost 15 games in a row, while the Rams have dropped three consecutive games. That’s a tough pill for the Spartans to swallow, but hey, it’s NCAA basketball and anything could happen so don’t rule anything out Spartan Nation!
After all, SJSU did play a pretty darn good game versus UNLV last Saturday. Michael Steadman, as you should already know, was being “Steady Steadman” as one of the three Spartans in double-figure scoring with a team-high 16 points and seven rebounds. Moreover, Zach Chappell had his most complete game of the 2018-19 Spartans season with 11 points and season-highs of nine assists AND six rebounds in 29 minutes of play.
The Spartans failed to secure the upset over the Rebels, but there were quite a few silver linings like the two players I just mentioned as well as the reduced turnovers and increased rebounding. Since the Rams are third to last in the conference, I believe that the Spartans can beat them by 10 points or fewer. That being said, my prediction will be a Spartans 70-65 win.
Photo credit: @NBCSGiants
By Jeremy Kahn
When Bruce Bochy arrived in San Francisco to manage the San Francisco Giants prior to the 2007 season, the team last won the World Series in 1954.
Well, that changed within four seasons, as he led the team to the World Series Championship in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Bochy, who is entering his 13th season with the Giants decided that this will be his last season on the bench, as he announced his retirement at his daily press conference.
“In my mind it’s time,” said Bochy, who told the team prior to the teams’ workout at Scottsdale Stadium.
Bochy, who will be 64 on April 16 is only the manager to win three World Series as manager that is not in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York; however, that will most likely change five years from now.
“I haven’t even thought about that,” he added.
Bochy spent the first 12 years of his managerial career as the manager of the San Diego Padres from 1995-2006 that included a trip to the 1998 World Series, where the Padres were swept by the Yankees.
Going into the 2019 season, Bochy is 1,926-1,944, good for 11th place on the all-time wins list.
During his big league career, Bochy played nine seasons for the New York Mets, Houston Astros and the Padres.
Photo credit: @CalMBBall
On the Cal Bears basketball podcast with Morris:
#1 The Cal Bears (5-20) head into Wednesday night’s game to face the ASU Sun Devils (17-8). The Bears are winless in the Pac-12, could they go winless for the rest of the way at this rate?
#2 The Bears’ big highlight in their 89-66 loss to the USC Trojans (14-12) on Saturday night was a three-pointer from Jacob Orender in the closing minutes of the game.
#3 The Trojans’ Benny Boatwright made himself at home with 36 points and 10 assists. With Boatwright, was it a matter trying to contain everyone or was Boatwright USC’s go to guy all night long?
#4 Bears head coach Wyking Jones said that the defensive woes carried into the offensive woes. How so?
#5 It’s off to Arizona State University for a Wednesday night tip with the Sun Devils. What are the Bears’ odds to get their first win this season in this one?
Morris does the Cal Bears podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
