There was an intimate gathering (about 15 fans) tonight at the Club Room as Haas Pavilion for those folks who got their "Bring A Freakin' Friend" card stamped the right amount of times. Wine was served and poured by Terah Wine Company, a local woman-owned winery. Charmin and Megan (the new GM) spoke. Here's what I remember (after partaking in the wine tastings...)
1) The roster is set at the 14, although 15 is the maximum. Charmin is not expecting to add a 15th. https://calbears.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster
2) Natalia Ackerman has expressed a desire to come back, but won't, due to Grad School stuff.
3) Claudia is looking healthy.
4) For all of you hoping for a Cal/Valkyries co-branding event...circle Wednesday, August 6, Valkyries vs Aces. Details soon.
5) The rules governing International players is still fuzzy, and not fully developed by the NCAA and Congress, regarding compensation. The Collective that was in place last year is gone. Until it's settled there could be difficultly signing a particular Australian player that Charmin is high on.
6) There was a lot of attempted "poaching" (not my word) of Lulu. She is Cal's...for now...

If anyone else who was there has other memories, or wants to correct mine...go for it...

Thanks. Good to hear about Claudia and Lulu.

Any mention of Knowlton's retirement?

No mention of Knowlton in the group talk...perhaps in smaller conversations with Charmin.

Yes, the fundraising campaign was talked about by Charmin for several minutes, interspersed with other campaigns. Focus remains on funding both new locker rooms and having enough money to compete with other schools, both for talent as well as amenities.

I forgot to mention that Megan said that she will be going to Eastern Europe on a recruiting trip later this year. Not sure who else is going.

stu said:

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Thanks. Good to hear about Claudia and Lulu.

Any mention of Knowlton's retirement?

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Charmin was quoted in The Chronicle's story about Knowlton's retirement:

"I'm thankful for everything Jim did to support me," Smith wrote in a text message. "He trusted me enough to give me my first head coaching opportunity and stuck with me as we worked hard to build Cal Basketball back into an NCAA Tournament team. I'm forever grateful."

SFCALBear72 said:

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Great reporting. Thank you!

Did Charmin talk about the Cal Women's Basketball Challenge that is going on right now?

I'm sure that the email I received about it went out to all other season ticketholders. Yet, to date, only 57 donors with 8 days left. We're at 25% of the goal ($150,000).

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The Challenge needs to go out to more than WBB season ticket holders and prior donors. The AD has a bigger list that needs to go to all on any Cal Athletic mailing list

What some people might call "bureaucracy" others might call "standards."

Woodacre said:

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There was an intimate gathering (about 15 fans) tonight at the Club Room as Haas Pavilion for those folks who got their "Bring A Freakin' Friend" card stamped the right amount of times. Wine was served and poured by Terah Wine Company, a local woman-owned winery. Charmin and Megan (the new GM) spoke. Here's what I remember (after partaking in the wine tastings...)
1) The roster is set at the 14, although 15 is the maximum. Charmin is not expecting to add a 15th. https://calbears.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster
2) Natalia Ackerman has expressed a desire to come back, but won't, due to Grad School stuff.
3) Claudia is looking healthy.
4) For all of you hoping for a Cal/Valkyries co-branding event...circle Wednesday, August 6, Valkyries vs Aces. Details soon.
5) The rules governing International players is still fuzzy, and not fully developed by the NCAA and Congress, regarding compensation. The Collective that was in place last year is gone. Until it's settled there could be difficultly signing a particular Australian player that Charmin is high on.
6) There was a lot of attempted "poaching" (not my word) of Lulu. She is Cal's...for now...

If anyone else who was there has other memories, or wants to correct mine...go for it...

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Re: Aussie.... Are we talking about our 2026 commit Perkins?

Great news on Claudia. Even 10-15 productive minutes from a 6'4 body will make a huge difference.

Charmin said she was intentionally not mentioning the name of the Aussie recruit

ncbears said:

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SFCALBear72 said:

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Great reporting. Thank you!

Did Charmin talk about the Cal Women's Basketball Challenge that is going on right now?

I'm sure that the email I received about it went out to all other season ticketholders. Yet, to date, only 57 donors with 8 days left. We're at 25% of the goal ($150,000).

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The Challenge needs to go out to more than WBB season ticket holders and prior donors. The AD has a bigger list that needs to go to all on any Cal Athletic mailing list

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Well, I would hope that the new GM, Meghin Williams, has requested such a mailing.

Since I posted my original message this morning, the donor total now stands at 60 and the dollar amount has jumped to nearly $63,000 (41% of goal)!! Roll on you Bears!

ClayK said:

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So a player wants to come back and can't because of academic bureaucracy? I don't think this would happen at Alabama.

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Could it be something benign like a preferred major not being offered at Cal?

Woodacre said:

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There was an intimate gathering (about 15 fans) tonight at the Club Room as Haas Pavilion for those folks who got their "Bring A Freakin' Friend" card stamped the right amount of times. Wine was served and poured by Terah Wine Company, a local woman-owned winery. Charmin and Megan (the new GM) spoke. Here's what I remember (after partaking in the wine tastings...)
1) The roster is set at the 14, although 15 is the maximum. Charmin is not expecting to add a 15th. https://calbears.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster
2) Natalia Ackerman has expressed a desire to come back, but won't, due to Grad School stuff.
3) Claudia is looking healthy.
4) For all of you hoping for a Cal/Valkyries co-branding event...circle Wednesday, August 6, Valkyries vs Aces. Details soon.
5) The rules governing International players is still fuzzy, and not fully developed by the NCAA and Congress, regarding compensation. The Collective that was in place last year is gone. Until it's settled there could be difficultly signing a particular Australian player that Charmin is high on.
6) There was a lot of attempted "poaching" (not my word) of Lulu. She is Cal's...for now...

If anyone else who was there has other memories, or wants to correct mine...go for it...

---

I'm sure that Jeff Walz was at the head of the pack, with Gottlieb not too far behind.

The world of college sports is becoming so ugly and unappealing.

Woodacre said:

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There was an intimate gathering (about 15 fans) tonight at the Club Room as Haas Pavilion for those folks who got their "Bring A Freakin' Friend" card stamped the right amount of times. Wine was served and poured by Terah Wine Company, a local woman-owned winery. Charmin and Megan (the new GM) spoke. Here's what I remember (after partaking in the wine tastings...)
1) The roster is set at the 14, although 15 is the maximum. Charmin is not expecting to add a 15th. https://calbears.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster
2) Natalia Ackerman has expressed a desire to come back, but won't, due to Grad School stuff.
3) Claudia is looking healthy.
4) For all of you hoping for a Cal/Valkyries co-branding event...circle Wednesday, August 6, Valkyries vs Aces. Details soon.
5) The rules governing International players is still fuzzy, and not fully developed by the NCAA and Congress, regarding compensation. The Collective that was in place last year is gone. Until it's settled there could be difficultly signing a particular Australian player that Charmin is high on.
6) There was a lot of attempted "poaching" (not my word) of Lulu. She is Cal's...for now...

If anyone else who was there has other memories, or wants to correct mine...go for it...

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I'm surprised only 15 fans attended. I probably went to 8 games but only got my passport stamped 5 times when I became aware of the program. I hope they offer the program next year. Did they start the the program at the start of the season?

Go Bears!

ClayK said:

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Some years ago, Duke had a flat-out athletic exemption, which allowed them to admit athletes who didn't meet the standards for other students. (UNC, you might recall, graduated a player who could barely read.)

The devil, as always, is in the details.

If Natalia Ackerman wanted to come back to Cal for grad school, presumably Cal had the program she wanted. At a school serious about athletics, Ackerman would have been enrolled without a question.

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Why would you presume that?
Cal is CLEARLY allowed to admit athletes who "don't meet the standards for other students." "We" get excited on message/recruiting boards when the student has a "solid 3.3" or some other cliche expression. You think a normal student from public HS is getting into Cal with that?? I don't think I would make it with my HS 3.6 either...and I went to a good public HS.
I used to be part of organizing a reception for accepted Cal students in the area, who were still deciding where to attend. The choices were incredible, the GPA's off the charts. That's who the student athletes had to be competing against once they got to Cal. Remind me again-Duke has special classes for athletes too, they don't have to sit side by side with the rest of the incredible student body?
Maybe Cal isn't as flexible on the grad side, but that's not making or breaking Cal recruiting. But once again, the Grad certificate program addressed some of the grad issue-your premise that Cal hasn't dealt with this at all is simply incorrect.
But fine, Cal is going to miss out on some women basketball players because of the academic standards, be it the students don't want that challenge, or frankly, aren't prepared to meet that challenge. Were there different rules in place the year Cal went to the Final 4?

I attended the event and enjoyed it. I was surprised by how few fans were there, but 5pm on a Monday in mid-June is a hard sell for many. One highlight for me was meeting Charmin's sweet dog, Ghost!
The Fight for California Challenge is now almost to $119,000, with over 100 donors. I donated and shared on Facebook after the event. Nice to see there's been a surge.
https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/46583?utm_source=scalefunder&utm_campaign=site_share&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawLDJsBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHgbIMhmC47sSBM9YBEbctx-46s-SFMjMoGvtV3WfQ8F59QugmlH-B-nU4aDd_aem_dA773Q0zpfIMzqZ1R4pxPQ

No need to be rude, even to people you disagree with. This forum is (supposed to be) about women's basketball, not petty squabbles.