Bulletin board material

Michelle Smith (San Francisco Chronicle) writes that ESPN's online poll to pick the winner of Saturday's Stanford/Cal game, which the Cardinal are currently leading 60%-40%, makes the Bears feel like an underdog. She draws a parallel between the poll and the ESPN panel of analysts who unanimously picked the Cardinal to defeat the Lady Vols in last year's championship game. Read more...

Such opinions have little significance. The panel of analysts was four people. The Stanford/Cal poll has drawn about 2800 votes. But basketball is a game of the mind as well as of athletic skill, and anything may motivate a player or a team to make the extra effort that wins close games.

Ashley Walker provided some bulletin board material for the Cardinal after the Stanford/Cal game a month ago. Speaking of Alexis Gray-Lawson's amazing 37-point game and the game against Stanford two years ago in which she scored 30 points, Walker said, "This is one of the teams she feels she kind of owns."

A Cal player owns Stanford? GO CARDINAL!!