Asha Thomas

McIntosh arrives in Berkeley after an accomplished career at Xavier College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was the 2019 6A Premier Region Player of the Year and became a member of the school’s 1,000-point club.

It will definitely be a busy offseason for head coach Lindsay Gottlieb and her coaching staff as they try to come up with a new gameplan for the Bears in the post-Anigwe era.

After missing last year’s first-round loss, Anigwe will definitely want to make an impact for Cal with her fellow senior Asha Thomas and graduate student Receé Caldwell. The Bears will try to control the pace of the game with their experienced players.

The Bears’ outlook will definitely change once this class hangs up its Cal jerseys, and Gottlieb will have a busy offseason creating a different game plan for the young Bears to stay competitive once the era of Anigwe and Thomas is over.

We have seen several times this season when Cal guards dribble around and find Anigwe in the perfect spot or just drop the ball to her on the post, but seeing a guard put a screen for her post player is not an everyday sighting.

The downfall for the Bears was 3-point shooting, as when Anigwe was taken out of the equation by the Cardinal defense, Cal relied heavily on the deep shot. The Bears, however, made only one (yes, one) of their 13 attempts behind the arc in the second half.

Good 3-point shooting teams always have a puncher’s chance against any opponent, and Cal will definitely have one in this tournament. The Bears are a 36 percent 3-point shooting team, but they are shooting a blazing 44.4 percent behind the arc in their four-game winning streak.

Cal finished the conference with a 9-9 Pac-12 record, and a recent increase in performance probably clinched them a berth in March Madness, as the Bears are projected as the eighth seed in ESPN’s bracket predictions.

With less than 30 seconds left, seniors Anigwe and Thomas checked out for their final times in Haas Pavilion, each to standing ovations from the crowd.

After stumbling through one of the toughest four-game stretches of the season with a heart-pounding win and some hard-earned lessons, the Bears are off to Southern California where they’ll look to pick up a couple wins to kick off the home stretch of the regular season.