Graduate transfer Caldwell has been on point for Bears
The Cal women’s basketball team has made a habit of running opponents out of the gym in the third quarter.
Search for an explanation for the No. 13 Bears outscoring opponents by 9.6 points per third quarter during the 7-0 start to the season, and you’ll undoubtedly find graduate-transfer guard Recee Caldwell, who has an ability to quickly process head coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s halftime adjustments and put them into action on the court.
“She’s like a coach on the floor,” Gottlieb said of Caldwell, who earned a business degree from Texas Tech in May and arrived at Cal as the program’s first graduate transfer.
The 5-foot-9 guard tops the team in minutes per game (33.8) and assists per game (five), is tied for the team lead in steals (seven) and chips in 4.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Those numbers say nothing of her real impact.
Cal led Cal State Northridge only 31-28 on Sunday, and Gottlieb lit up her team at halftime.
“My role on this team is to be a vocal leader. Every possession, I’m saying: ‘Lock in. Get in a stance. One stop. Right here. Right now.’ ” Recee Caldwell, Cal guard
“‘Step up. Man up. Woman up,’ ” Gottlieb said in recounting her halftime speech. “We have great players at every spot. We need to play harder. We need to be more locked in. We need to not take possessions for granted in any type of way. ‘Step up. Be better.’ That’s exactly what they did.”
The Bears shut out the Matadors for the first nine minutes of the third quarter and turned a three-point game into a 20-point laugher as Caldwell parroted Gottlieb’s message through impassioned on-court reminders.
“My role on this team is to be a vocal leader,” Caldwell said. “Every possession, I’m saying: ‘Lock in. Get in a stance. One stop. Right here. Right now.’ …
“I think I’ve been pretty versatile in my roles. At the previous schools I was at, I was a scorer, and that’s what I was supposed to do. On Team USA, my job is to pass. You come in here, and it’s kind of like the USA team. That’s how I look at it. … Whatever my role needs to be for us to win, I feel like I can fulfill that.”
Gottlieb was on the selection committee for the under-18 national team that Caldwell helped win the 2014 FIBA World Championship. Caldwell, who grew up in Riverside and moved to San Antonio when she was 10, returned to California for a freshman season.
After a debut season hampered by a right knee injury at UCLA, Caldwell transferred to Texas Tech, where her father was on the coaching staff. She posted a teambest 14.5 points per game and earned All-Big-12 honors in 2016-17 and followed that up by averaging 10.7 points and six assists in a season shortened by a shoulder injury.
“She could be our leading scorer. She leads us in assists. She boxes out and rebounds. It’s crazy how one person is able to adapt, flex, bend and be reliable,” said senior forward/center Kristine Anigwe, who leads Cal with 24.3 points and 13.6 rebounds per game. “She’s always very consistent with her leadership role on our team. As you see us grow, you see her being an even better leader. A reflection of her leadership is Kianna (Smith). Recee is showing her what a leader is supposed to be like.”
During one stretch Sunday, Smith was on the floor with four reserves. The typically quiet sophomore combo guard started directing traffic and taking control of the tempo of the game — just like Caldwell.
“I think we have horses on the floor,” Caldwell said. “With all respect, I don’t think there’s a post in the country as fast as Kristine Anigwe or Jaelyn Brown. So, to take full advantage of that, why would we not play fast? Why run an offense when we have them?”