DoubtfulBear said:
bluehenbear said:
We won this season! Now it's time to win the all time record against 1944 Baylor! Golden Bears vs. Bears, who will claim the WOAT title?
Fox likes to make excuses, but the 1944-45 Baylor Bears definitely had an excuse. WWII screwed up things for them. It wasn't just a matter of bad recruiting although they had coaching issues (and there was a mid-season change). Yes, all teams had to deal with WWII, but luck hit the Bears really badly that year in terms of roster make up. And they went 0-17 overall, 0-12 in conference.
I guarantee you, however, that their 0-5 OOC was a harder schedule than Cal's 11 game schedule this season, although those Baylor Bears racked up some pretty horrible losses. Oklahoma A&M under the legendary Hank Iba was in the first of two consecutive NCAA championship seasons and beat Baylor 63-16 in the OCC season opener. Baylor lost to Rice twice, 95-24 and 68-26, and lost twice to Arkansas 94-28 and 90-30. They were bad.
In spite of the fact that there was no "portal" around, there were returning military personnel to help build a roster, and the 1945-46 Bears followed up the 0-17 (0-12) season with a 25-5 (11-1) record, winning the conference championship. Only 8 teams went to the NCAA tourney, Oklahoma A&M winning it all. The Baylor Bears lost in the first round by 15 to the eventual champs, but the Cal Bears under Nibs Price lost in the next round (the semi's) to Oklahoma A&M by 17.
The 1944-45 Baylor season was not due to a program in the tank, but the circumstances of war hitting the Baylor roster harder than others. Do not expect the 2023-24 Cal Bears to turn things around in the same manner as the 1945-46 Baylor Bears.
It is hard to judge teams from different eras, and the last year of WWII was a really odd time in sports. Given the circumstances of the 44-45 Baylor Bears, given a Cal 22-23 schedule with 6 OOC cream puffs, and given a 22-23 Pac-12 conference that has plenty of teams that are mediocre to poor power conference teams, I think the 22-23 Cal Bears need to win at LEAST 2 games if not more to truly let the 44-45 Baylor Bears keep the WOAT title. What's truly worse, 0-17 in 1944-45, with a tough OOC schedule (even with a lot of BAD losses), or 2-30 in 2022-23, with a 6 OOC creampuff schedule and a conference that will rank either 5 or 6 out of 6 power conferences? Not that the 1944-45 Baylor Bears deserve to have anything taken away from them.
Even with 3 wins, Cal at least should get WOAT title in the modern era of college basketball, however you want to define that -- shot clock/three point shot/64+ NCAA tourney teams, or something else. The Bears definitely have a strong chance at a history making season!!
