for Cal and the sky's the limit for the kind of success we can have
as a women's basketball program."

   So far, Gottlieb's players appreciate a new approach for this
program.

   "It's about trust," freshman guard Erika Johnson said. "She
trusts us and we have to put equal trust in her. We all want the
same goal. If you don't buy in, you're not going to get anything
out of it."

   In the coaches' office, there's a binder full of everything the
program will stand for with Gottlieb and her staff running the show
-- Cal's vision for this season and beyond.

   "We spent August and September figuring out who we are, what we
are, what we do," Gottlieb said. "I wanted to take August and
September and truly build a foundation that's going to make our
program different and as good as we can be."

   That includes finding out the best ways to self-promote in a
busy sports region through marketing and social media.

   The coaches even brought in an outside consultant to help with
that process.

   "She had a good line: `You want to be 20-win ready. You want to
be 25-win ready,"' Gottlieb said. "I'm not taking that for
granted. We still have to do that. I don't want that to be a
one-time thing. I don't want to have good players only for one
year. I want to build a program and a sustainable thing here so
that it's propagating itself. ...

   "There will be times as a team we ask ourselves, `What is our
foundation going to be?' I'm not afraid to say, `This is what I
think it needs to be, follow us, follow me' and then empowering
them to take over part of it."

   It has worked before for the New York native. Gottlieb went
56-39 in three seasons at UCSB, where she led the Gauchos to a pair
of postseason berths and two Big West Conference championships. She
was the 2009 conference coach of the year.

   Gottlieb was around for three of Cal's four straight NCAA
tournament appearances from 2006-09. The Bears want to get back.

   Guard Lindsay Sherbert's words are "Dream Big." For Caldwell,
it's "Relentless."

   This group realizes it will take a combination of all of those
catch phrases along the way to play the meaningful games come
March.

   "The great thing about this team is they love each other and
they know they have each other's backs and their coaches have their
backs," Barbour said. "Lindsay's always been creative and had a
great ability to connect with her student-athletes. As you assume
the role of head coach, your horizons open significantly and for
her that's just given her a wider platform to play on."