Cal vs. LSU:
Bears’ coach insisted her team was worthy of a spot in NCAA tourney.
Even when the naysayers seemed to be howling their loudest this season, Lindsay Gottlieb maintained her stance on the Cal women’s basketball team making the NCAA Tournament.
After the Bears lost three straight games to open January, the head coach said: “I know we’re an NCAA Tournament team.”
After the Bears lost four of five, culminating with a sweep at the two Washington schools by a combined 28 points at the end of January, Gottlieb said: “I believe this is an NCAA Tournament team.”
After the Bears closed the regular season by losing five of six, Gottlieb said: “I still believe this is an NCAA Tournament team.” She was right, all along. Despite winning only onethird of their Pac-12 games, the talent level of the Bears’ roster and the competitiveness they showed in the nation’s best conference was enough to earn a No. 9 seed in the Big Dance and a first-round date against LSU (20-11) on Saturday in Waco, Texas.
Gottlieb knows what an NCAA Tournament team looks like, having now led the Bears there five times in her six seasons in Berkeley. She took the 2013 team to the Final Four, where Cal led with fewer than two minutes remaining before losing to Georgia.
The current team created many of its highlights early in the season, reeling off a program-best 13-0 start. Cal knocked off then-No. 20 Oklahoma and then-No. 13 UCLA during a season that featured one of the best post players in the country.
Sophomore center Kristine Anigwe, a two-time All-Pac-12 selection, ranks 12th nationally with 21.2 points per game and put up a school-record 50 points against Sacramento State on Dec. 8. She’s still cooking, having averaged a tournament-record 30 points per game in this month’s Pac-12 tournament.
LSU counters with redshirt junior Raigyne Moncrief, a 5-foot-10 guard who averages 16 points per game, and head coach Nikki Fargas, who is familiar with West Coast basketball. Fargas coached at UCLA from 2008-11, going 72-26, making the NCAA Tournament twice and earning the conference Coach of the Year award in 2010.
“Cal has always been a steady team,” Fargas said. “They’re very well-coached. Coming from the Pac-10, they were one of the top teams in the league at that time. I know that this will be a great challenge for our team, and one that we welcome.”
LSU ranks fourth in the country in steals per game (12.1) and 18th in turnovers forced per game (20.5). Moncrief was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, having led the league with 3.4 steals per game.
The winner of Saturday’s game will probably play topseeded Baylor (30-3), which faces Texas Southern (23-9) in the first round. Baylor has won four of its five meetings all-time against Cal, including a 19-point victory in the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament.