The Warriors take care of business and thoughts on the era of an era for Cal Basketball

Now that's what I'm talking about. Things were looking brutal as the Warriors sleepwalked their way to a 26-12 deficit nine minutes in, but woke up after a profanity filled tirade from Nellie, outscoring the Blazers 99-69 the rest of the way en route to a 111-95 win. The third quarter knockout punch (outscoring the Blazers 40-20 in that frame) was nice too, as it gave the starters a chance to rest: Baron only played 27 minutes last night, and Nellie felt comfortable enough give W's fans a rare Bellinelli citing, as the bench warming rookie logged 4 minutes at the end of the game.

Now the real fun begins: the Warriors' next four games are going to decide whether or not they make the playoffs. Hyperbole? Maybe, but check out the team's schedule over the next five days: at Denver Saturday night, home against Dallas on Monday, at San Antonio Tuesday, at Dallas Wednesday. A brutal stretch, especially considering the Warriors are only a half game behind the Mavs and a half game ahead of the Nuggets for the 8th and final playoff spot in the west. If the Warriors can somehow go 3-1 or 4-0 (not happening) over these next four games, they're gold. A 2-2 split is fine, especially if the two wins are against Dallas and Denver. 1-3 and they're in deep trouble, though if they can beat the Nuggets or Dallas for the one win they might still be able to salvage things. 0-4 and this team is done, and its time to start thinking about 2008.

In other news, Cal fired coach Ben Braun earlier this week, ending his 12 year run as head of the Bears' basketball program. This definitely was a needed move, Cal had at least two players with first round NBA Draft potential this year (RYan Anderson and Devon Hardin) and should have finished much higher than 9th in the Pac-10. Its been a long time since Cal was a legitimate threat to go deep in the tourney (I believe Tony Gonzalez was on the team the last time they made it to the Sweet 16), and while Braun had his moments, it was time for him to go.

As for where the program goes from here, the standard California basketball names are being thrown around: former Stanford and Warriors coach Mike Montgomery, former W's and Kings coach Eric Musselman, and former UCLA coach Steve Lavin (please god no). My personal favorite would be Nevada coach Mike Fox, whose taking a program that was an afterthought and gone 81-18 in his first three years on the job, including two NCAA berths. As far as I can tell the best program building college coaches usually rise up through the ranks from smaller schools: the guys who come back from the NBA are usually just looking to pad their wallets before heading back for another run at the big time.