Hoping for March run, Cal’s Anigwe eyes legacy
Kristine Anigwe controls a preseason interview almost as well as she dominates the lane during a game.
Ask her 15 different questions, and she’ll find a way to direct each one toward what is seemingly the only subject on her mind.
“We want to win,” Cal’s 6foot-4 senior forward/center said. “We have an urgency to win. We have the mentality that we’re just going to go and attack.
“That might come off as harsh or aggressive, but I’d rather that than be passive and just let things go away. The top teams aren’t letting things go.”
After three years of putting up historic individual numbers
on teams that were middling in the loaded Pac-12, the threetime WBCA All-America selection is ready to prove that the Bears belong with those top teams.
Cal is ranked 24th in the country and is projected by the Pac-12 coaches to finish fourth in a conference that includes No. 3 Oregon, No. 7 Stanford and No. 8 Oregon State.
Twenty-fourth? Fourth? That’s not good enough for Anigwe.
“It doesn’t matter if we win our preseason games,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who we beat. It doesn’t matter if we beat UConn. Winning in March needs to be the goal. If you don’t win in March, your season is over. “That cannot happen.” Already fourth on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,849 points, Anigwe is chasing Colleen Galloway atop the chart (2,320 points from 1978-81). If Anigwe matches her career average of 19.5 points per game, she’ll break the record at the midway point of the conference slate.
Of course, she wants to produce way more than she has in the past, and she’s doing the work to make that possible.
Gym. Weight room. Video study. Massage. Cryotherapy. Meditation. Repeat. “I’ve gained 15 pounds. I’m bigger. It’s almost like: ‘Guard that,’ ” she said. “… I love playing in the post. Even when I face up, I’m always coming back. You can’t guard what you can’t see. When I have my back to the basket, the defender can’t see the ball. I can go right or left.
“I have post moves. I can drive. I can shoot it. And, I have shooters around me.”
The Bears could play with three point guards on the floor at the same time as three-year starter Asha Thomas and sophomore Kianna Smith are joined by graduate transfer Receé Caldwell, who averaged 10.7 points and six assists in 13 games for Texas Tech last season before being injured.
Along with the three point guards, Cal can go small by playing shooting guards Jaelyn Brown or McKenzie Forbes at power forward or go big with CJ West in the frontcourt with Anigwe — giving the Londonborn, Phoenix-raised Anigwe more help than ever.
Cal went 15-17 (4-14 Pac-12) when Anigwe was the USBWA National Freshman of the Year, and barely made the NCAA Tournament after opening her sophomore season 13-0. Last season, the Bears went 21-11 (11-7), but she couldn’t play in the Bears’ first-round loss to Virginia.
“I can be super critical of what I’m doing,” said Anigwe, who has cried at head coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s house after rough stretches and even slept in the gym following losses. “I’m supposed to change this program. I always felt like I needed to play better: ‘It’s my fault. Maybe if I would have had 40, we would have won.’ I had to let that go, find balance, remember the game is supposed to be fun and enjoy it with my teammates. …
“This is our year. I’m going to try to leave a legacy with my team.”