The injury bug is back in Berkeley and looking to ruin the men’s basketball team’s season once again. After a closer-than-expected win over Southern Mississippi on Wednesday night, the Golden Bears can ill afford any more injuries.

The Clog got a scare when Ryan Anderson did not accompany the team out of the locker room at halftime. After the Cloggers recited several Hail Mary’s in unison, Anderson finally jogged out—apparently his eyes were bothering him.

Already two expected starters—Jerome Randle (kidney biopsy) and Theo Robertson (hip injury)—are on the sidelines, but they’re both expected to be back for Pac-10 play. Dare we say that with Randle not playing our turnovers will go down? Yea … we’re going to get some hate for saying that.

On top of that, Omondi Amoke underwent surgery for a vascular calf abnormality (five points to anyone who knows what that is).

Also, Taylor Harrison was sitting out of the home opener (in a pink shirt no less, guess he’s too cool for the Jumpman sweats), but the Clog is guessing it’s just his knee flaming up (thankfully not on the level of Shaun Livingston).

Not that anyone cares, except for maybe 30-40 people, but the star of the Cal women’s basketball team, Devanei Hampton, also went down with a serious knee injury a week ago.

In light of these ailments, we scrounged up some money to get the boys a membership at Funky Door Yoga (we’ll try to send them to Bora Bora next year). Somehow we doubt Max Zhang will ever be able to touch his toes even after some intense Bikram yoga sessions.

The Clog would also like to encourage everyone out there with a higher risk for catching the flu to roll up their sleeves and take a trip down to the Tang Center. If our prayers pan out, you wouldn’t want to be stuck in bed while we roll through the Pac-10.

Image Source: Nick Fradkin, Daily Cal
Injuries Abound for Cal in Ubaka’s Final Season [Daily Cal]
Return of Hardin Has New-Look Bears Stacked in the Frontcourt [Daily Cal]

So we guess that that source who told the Chron that DeVon Hardin would stay in the NBA Draft was a little overzealous. Maybe. Just a little bit.

The Mercury-News is reporting that Hardin, though he thinks he can be a first-round draft pick, has taken his name out of the NBA Draft and will return to Cal for his senior season.

bq. “It’d probably be in the early to late 20s, in that range,” the 6-foot-11 junior said of his projected 2007 draft status. “The kind of thing I was hearing was that I was in the mix with a couple guys. That means there’s no gaurantees. I feel like I can make that even better if I go back to school.”

Now his dad, Michael, thinks he can be a lottery pick in next year’s draft.

But let’s just forget about the draft now and talk about what this means for Ben Braun’s Bears.

Now Ryan Anderson won’t have to worry about guarding an opposing team’s best low-post threat. And with Hardin back, Cal gets one of the Pac-10’s best low-post defenders. No scrawny guard will want to venture into the paint if Hardin’s down there guarding the basket.

With Hardin back, we’re going to suggest that the Bears won’t be cellar-dwellers. But how will they fare? If Hardin can actually improve his offensive game, then Cal will be in the top half of the conference. If not? Then … the Ben Braun’s Bears won’t be cellar-dwellers.

Image Source: Julie Himes, Daily Cal
Earlier: Breaking: Hardin Will Sign With Agent, Remain in Draft
Hardin chooses to stay at Cal [Mercury-News]

This is it. This is probably going to be the last WWCS—well, until all the Cal sports start up again in the fall. Like we said last week, it wouldn’t be a problem if the baseball team was in the NCAA tourney (and the College World Series) or if football was a year-round sport. But it was fun. The WWCS will see you in August.

*Leading Off … Pure Dominance*
Let’s just put Alysia Johnson in the Cal Hall of Fame already. Add the NCAA Outdoor championship in the 800 meter to her list of accomplishments. Add to that the fact that Johnson ran the 800 under two minutes! No other Bears athlete has done that.

But Johnson wasn’t the only Cal athlete to take hardware away from Sacramento this weekend. Kelechi Anyanwu took the women’s discus title as well, propelling the Bears women’s team to an eighth place finish at the NCAAs.

The men? Well, they finished 65th.

*Cal Baseball Gets Stiffed*
Okay, so the baseball team got snubbed from the playoffs, which sucks. But now the four guys whom everyone thought would get drafted didn’t.

Four Bears baseball players—Josh Satin, Alex Rollin, Jordan Karnofsky and Brett Munster—all thought that they’d go somewhere in the 50 rounds that comprised the Major League Baseball draft. But they didn’t.

Sucks for them.

*Ben Braun Has Probably Lost His Mind*
Ben Braun has announced a tentative schedule for the 2007-08 men’s basketball team, and let’s just say nothing really jumps out at us, except a Dec. 1 meeting at home against Mizzou.

Now, why do we mention that game? First, it’s the inaugural match for the Bears in the new Pac-10/Big-12 Series. But that really isn’t the point. The point is that it’s also the same day as The Big Game.

Our question, other than the alums and students who love basketball and don’t like football, who’s going to be in Haas Pavilion to watch Braun’s Bears struggle against the Tigers?

*Golden Bears*
_1) Alysia Johnson – track & field_
National champ.

_2) Kelechi Anyanwu – track & field_
Another national champ.

_3) Jeff Kobernus – baseball_
Freshman All-American.

With all the speculation of whether DeVon Hardin is going to actually go pro or stay in school (he has 15 days before he can take himself out of the NBA Draft), it’s been pretty hard to gauge Hardin’s thinking. Until now.

This is what Hardin told Inside Bay Area News the other day:

bq. Unless I’m that No.1 pick, Cal is going to be a top option for me. It’s a good option for me. I want to take my team deep into the tournament, maybe to the Final Four, be a lottery pick … I expect great things from this team.

Right. We expect great things also. (Read: No, we don’t). More on that later.

So it looks like Hardin’s going to come back to Cal, because we all know that he’s not going to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

Hardin will visit nine cities and meet with 16 teams in the next two weeks, trying out for scouts and trying to woo them with his great defensive ability and hustle on the offensive side of the ball.

But he wants to take Ben Braun’s Bears deep in the tournament? We know most people here at UC Berkeley are ambitious. They have dreams. They want to be future leaders and all that bullshit. But taking Cal (a team coached by Ben Braun mind you) deep in the tournament is close to impossible as Marshawn Lynch coming back to play for the Bears football team next year.

Sure Ryan Anderson is a poor-man’s Dirk Nowitzki. Sure Ayinde Ubaka is long gone. But reaching the Final Four? Along with being the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, it’s all locked up for Hardin. (Read: Never in a million years).

Earlier: Hardin Really a First Rounder? ESPN Thinks So
Hardin set to woo pros, but figures to stay at Cal [Inside Bay Area]

On Tuesday, the Clog talked up the world’s most famous giant, gay, British, ex-NBA basketball player. Here’s our interview with one John Amaechi.

Clog: What do you think the biggest myth we fans buy into about the NBA?

JA: Uh, that they do it for nothing.

Clog: Do the players care?

JA: Deeply yes. A vast majority is highly professional in some of the ways the other leagues are not. That’s not–it’s not fairy tale land. It’s not this place where people are so in love with sports that they care about nothing else.

Clog: At our school, you spoke of the business culture of the sport. About how fans want to believe that players are caught up in winning, when the players have been conditioned to care about making money. Does any particular example of this sterile business culture stick in your mind?

JA: Is there nobody who watches basketball games and realizes it’s a corporate sport? It’s full of corporate sponsors. Executives sit in the front row.

Clog: You spoke of certain players dumbing themselves down, specifically mentioning Mark Jackson. Why do you think they do it, and are there any other guys like that whom you could name?

JA: There are lots of guys who are much sharper than they come across. I don’t know about naming them. Why do they do it? There’s a prerogative for people to just fit in, and being that person who writes poetry or goes to the theatre or studies, the person who’s smarter, it doesn’t do him any favors to stick out like that. People want to be outstanding for their athletics alone.

Clog: Now, we at the Clog sort of feel that David Stern is out of touch with basketball fans currently. Perhaps this is because a fear of black hip-hop culture has clouded his recent judgment. What is your assessment of the commissioner and the job he does with promoting a largely black league to a largely white audience?

JA: I think that he does a very good job. He’s taking basketball from the brink of collapse to being unbelievably popular. And yes, he’s selling black athletes to white consumers. I don’t think he has tremendous fear, but he worries about the corporate image of the sport. You can’t scare off the sponsors.

Clog: Any other thoughts on the commish?

JA: I’ve always had a good relationship with him, not equipped to know about his business acumen. My absence from any official NBA stream of info was kind of odd.

Clog: You played with Tmac (Tracy McGrady) for a year. Bluntly put, is he as self-absorbed as he seems? Any stories?

JA: One of the hallmarks of being superior in every way is that you are more focused inwardly than others. It seems to be one of things that comes with the territory

Clog: We were also wondering what John Stockton was like?

JA: John Stockton, like, I don’t really have any nuggets. He was just a consummate professional, and I don’t know. He had a family or was interested; he wasn’t involved in the trappings of the NBA.

Clog: And as long as we’re mining for a little NBA dirt, there’s a famed NBA groupie culture obviously. How exactly does it function? And do most players, um, how will we say this, engage in it?

JA: Wholeheartedly it exists. No, it’s not a question of not engaging or engaging. It’s just constantly around. There are people who hang on in different careers, and basketball has its very share. I’ve heard more stories than I’ve seen.

Clog: We can’t let you go without at least one question about the issue everyone asks you about. Well, it’s tangentially related. It seems that people in our culture can often get caught up in battling what they perceive as hatred or bigotry in arts or entertainment. But often, misogynistic and homophobic frat-guy focused commercials get a free pass. What’s up with that? Any thoughts?

JA: Um, I do think that there is a feeling that some people mistakenly think political correctness has run rampant, and now people can express more freely. And there is freedom of speech but you have to accept the consequences. And certainly commercial people are trying to be clever and cute and get a rise. And certainly commercials have drawn that kind of attention.

Clog: Why do you think quasi-gay cultures like sports and frats so often have homophobic elements? Any theories?

JA: I don’t think they are. I think it’s a great excuse for society that they can complain that sports are really the homophobic bits and not everything else. Sports are a reflection of society. It’s condensed into a smaller space. Society isn’t blameless when they see ugliness in their sports.

Interview Recap:

Obviously, we wanted cool NBA insider info from the Amaechster (damn, why does this compelling character not have a sick nickname?). We were tired of the cliché questions regarding Tim Hardaway and what not. We just wanted juicy NBA dirt. Actually, juicy dirt sounds really fucking unappealing.

Anyway, at his talk on campus in April, Amaechi was affable and candid. In this interview, he seemed somewhat cranky and very much guarded. Perhaps our crappy, rambling questions were to blame. Or maybe the grind of a book tour has worn down the formerly loquacious master of the baby hook.

No, it was definitely our crappy questions (none of which pertained to his book, by the way). And it may have been foolish of us to secretly hope for Amaechi to say something crazy like, “By the way, Yao Ming is actually in the closet.”