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		Micheal Duca on the Cal Golden Bears By Michael Duca January 10, 2010

	Sportstalk: After losing during the week to the Bruins in overtime at home the Bears took it to USC with a healthy victory 67-59. Is this a matter of the Bears not being consistent or just playing down or up to the level of their opponents? Mostly, I see it as, they had a bad, bad, VERY bad shooting night, much of which was probably due to the fact that Jerome Randle had either the flu or food poisoning and nearly sat out the game -- but, with Jorge Gutierrez already missing in action, he went out and played to the best of his ability -- which wasn't very darned good. They just let UCLA hang around too long -- lacking in the fire coming out of the locker room to start the game -- and I think a lot of that was due to their senior leader's illness. Sportstalk: The 67 points was the highest that USC allowed in a game this season but the Cal offense wanted this one bad especially after losing to UCLA earlier in the week. Jerome Randle scored 21 and Theo Robertson had 20 you have to like what Randle and Robertson are doing this season? Actually, it wasn't the highest that USC allowed in a game this season -- they allowed in the 70s against Georgia Tech earlier this season -- but still, it was well above their defensive average. Randle played a good game, and Theo Robertson, who also tried to put the Bears on his back against the Bruins, was solid -- but the real reason Cal won the game was that Nikola Knezevic came off the bench and shut down Dwight Lewis cold. Lewis had put 16 points up in the first 31 minutes of the game, but Knezevic allowed him zero for the next 6 minutes plus while the rest of the Bears put the game in the cooler. Sportstalk: Washington State is up next Miguel they are in second in the Pac 10 and have surprised a few with Cal in first this might turn out to be one of the best contests of the year Thursday night. How do you see this match up at Haas Pavilion? Well, they will surprise nobody more than me if I can see this matchup at Haas Pavilion, because they are playing at Washington State. New coach at Washington State, no longer a purely defense-oriented team. The Pac-10 is wide open with Oregon State's shocker over the Duck at Mac Court. Cal is back in the driver's seat, with a 2-1 record, tied with Oregon and already holding a "tie-breaker" over Stanford, although it's silly to talk about that after three games. They won the game they needed to; now, they need to go to the state of Washington and get at least a split.