California Golden Bears
Overall Rank: #12
Conference Rank: #3 Pac-12
California Team Page
The Golden Bears come into the season looking for their fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and 11th overall. They are coming off of a second place finish in the Pac-12 last season and will look to get past the second round of the tournament behind a seasoned cast.
2013-14 Record: 22-10, 13-5
2013-14 Postseason: NCAA
Coach: Lindsay Gottlieb
Coach Record: 79-24 at Cal and 135-63 overall
Strengths:
The Golden Bears will be huge this year. Of the ten players on the roster, seven stand either 6-2 or 6-3, including all three incoming freshmen. The smallest player however, Brittany Boyd, is the one that will play the largest role. The 5-9 Boyd was a consensus All-American last season after averaging 14.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2.9 steals per game. Her rebounding average was top for guards in the conference. To help Boyd, Reshanda Gray, who was an All-Pac 12 Team member, also returns. She had team-highs of 16.8 points and 8.8 rebounds. Cal also returns a third starter, Justine Hartman. All three starters are seniors and make up all of the upperclassmen on the team.
Weaknesses:
That leaves seven of the ten players on the roster as either freshmen or sophomores. Luckily for the Golden Bears, two of those players, Courtney Range and Mercedes Jefflo, started 10 and 14 games as freshmen and saw action in no fewer than 28 games. While Range only scored 5.6 points, she pulled down 6.2 rebounds per game, which was fourth on the team and had a team-high 20 blocks. Jefflo was second on the team in steals with 40.
Final Projection:
Bringing back its top two starters will be huge for the Golden Bears. However, only three upperclassmen might put too much pressure on the underclassmen to perform. The team welcomes in a highly-regarded freshman class that had the 11th ranked prospect by HoopGurlz (Mikayla Cowling), the 12th-ranked prospect by HoopGurlz (Gabby Green) and Penina Davidson, who is a member of the New Zealand National Team. As mentioned before, all three freshmen are either 6-2 or 6-3. Cal will play a challenging non-conference schedule that includes two tournaments, one in Hawaii where it will face Hawaii and Missouri, as well as the Cal Classic, which includes Creighton, Cincinnati and San Jose State. Kansas and Louisville are other big-time games.
Projected Postseason Tournament: NCAA Tournament
Projected Starting Five:
Brittany Boyd, Senior, G, 14.7 points per game
Mercedes Jefflo, Sophomore, Guard, 4.3 points per game
Reshanda Gray, Senior, Forward, 16.8 points per game
Justine Hartman, Senior, Forward, 3.2 points per game
Courtney Range, Sophomore, Forward, 5.6 points per game
By the Numbers:
Scoring Offense: 69.8 (113th in nation, 7th in conference)
Scoring Defense: 66.0 (140, 7)
Field-Goal Percentage: 39.8 (197, 7)
Field-Goal Defense: 39.0 (112, 7)
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 4.0 (278, 10)
Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: 27.5 (265, 10)
Free-Throw Percentage: 66.5 (263, 11)
Rebound Margin: 5.2 (51, 4)
Assists Per Game: 12.7 (218, 10)
Turnovers Per Game: 14.9 (99, 6)
Madness 2015 WNBA Draft Rankings:
#1 Reshanda Gray
#5 Brittany Boyd
Madness 2014 Women’s Basketball Recruit Rankings:
#9 Gabby Green
#22 Mikayla Cowling
See All Top 44 Women’s Basketball Previews
