Player Journal Entry: Shantrell Sneed

To read all of Trell's blog entry's from this season, click here to see her blog on CalBears.com

Anytime you win, it’s exactly what you’re looking for. We knew that they were going to present us with some problems because of their size. We did have some mismatches of posts on guards. We knew that we were capable of beating them and we came out with the W.

I think there are a lot of combination of feelings and thoughts right now. I am a senior so having been in this position before, I know what it felt like to lose in the second round last year. I’m paying more attention to detail this year. I’m more focused. I know how important practice and shootaround before the game are. I’m putting a lot of attention to detail in everything from shootaround to scouting reports to hone in on the details. At this point in the season, everyone wants it. Attention to detail is hopefully going to give us the advantage over everyone else.

For the game against Fresno State, our coaches put a lot of emphasis on the fact that if we could take away their three-point shot, we could win the game. The three is where roughly 30 points of their game come from and they were leading the nation in three-pointers made. We knew that it was going to be a big key because that’s how they like to score. You always want to take something away from your opponent, and make them beat you with the next best thing. We definitely did a great job at taking away the three-point shot. I feel like that’s the type of defense that Cal plays.

Against Virginia, we need to shut down its big three players and take away the transition, because that’s the way that they like to score. The transition definitely gets them going. If we can shut down their big three and just make other people score, then we can hopefully be successful.

Go Bears!
~Trell

Player Journal: Shantrell Sneed

Senior forward Shantrell Sneed has been writing a blog for CalBears.com throughout the 2008-09 season. If you’d like to see all of Trell’s blog entries, you can find her blog on CalBears.com by clicking here. Below is an entry that was posted earlier today.

Since I never touched upon this earlier in my blog, I’d like to take this chance to tell you what senior day was like for me. I knew that I was going to be announced first out of the three seniors, but it came a little sooner than I had expected. I didn’t have a lot of time to compose myself. I had told myself that I wasn’t going to cry, but as soon as I looked up at my mom, who was bawling, my tears started coming down. Those are the type of moments that you look forward to as a freshman. You always know that your time is going to come but you can never prepare yourself for what it’s going to feel like when you walk out on the court and you realize that it is really going to be your last game on that floor. There were so many emotions going through me that day. I was just glad that I got the opportunity to play in front of our home crowd for four years and especially on senior day. It was great that our friends, family and fans came out to support us on our last game.

Although our finishes at the end of the regular season and the Pac-10 Tournament were disappointing, we get to play again in the NCAA Tournament. But, from here on out, it’s one and done. There are no more guarantees. Coach says that we have to earn every game from here on out. That’s the type of thought that motivated me. There are no games tomorrow unless we earn it. We don’t get to practice again unless we take care of business.

On Selection Monday, we kind of knew what was going to happen. Our coaches had told us ahead of time that we were either going to get a four or five seed, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. We were nervous about who were going to play. We have some familiarity with Fresno State after playing them last year. We were all happy with the seed that we got and our first-round opponent. We just need to take care of business now.

Last year, we got the opportunity to play down at Stanford and this year, we’re at the Galen Center. It feels like we’ve been playing here for the past two weeks so it feels like a home-court advantage, even though Fresno State is a little bit closer to L.A. than we are in Berkeley. We’re going to have a great fan base to come our and support us. We know the gyms, we know the locker rooms, we know the rims so we feel like we’re at home a little bit. With this being my fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament, I now know the type of dedication and focus that it takes to stay in the tournament. As a senior, this is my last tournament so I want to make that push so that we can go as far as we can and hopefully make it to Saint Louis for the Final Four.

Go Bears
~Shantrell Sneed

Player Journal: Natasha Vital

It’s good for us to play at the Galen Center because we were just here so we’re very familiar with the court, the rims and the locker rooms. We lost last time we played here, so we’re fired up and pumped up to be back out there and be able to play again.

Everyone’s wearing our team shirts. We came up with the idea for the t-shirts at a team meeting a couple weeks ago. We thought we weren’t playing as a unit as well as we could be so we came up with the phrase “The game is simple…with unity.” We can do anything together.

It’s nice to play someone like Fresno State, who is not a complete stranger. We played them last year, and it was a pretty close game. We’re kind of familiar with their style of play, so we’re ready to get out there and play.

We’re anxious to get out there and play. It feels like the week has gone by so slowly! We’re trying to get out there and play. We’re happy the game is tomorrow so we get to play.

Practice this week has been pretty normal for us. We haven’t been running as much to save our legs for the tournament. But other than that, practice has been pretty routine for us this past week.

My favorite part about the NCAA Tournament is playing! I love the atmosphere! It’s so much fun to get out there and play. Everyone’s bringing their “A” game to every single game. I’m excited to get out there and compete.

Go Bears!
~Tasha

Key notes on Natasha Vital:
Position: Guard
Height: 5-8
Year: Junior
Points per Game: 8.7
Rebounds per Game: 2.6
Assorted: Has dished out 99 assists; honorable mention All-Pac-10; honorable mention All-Defensive

To read Tasha’s journal entry on CalBears.com, click here.