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		Cal falls back to the pack in loss to Arizona By Morris Phillips January 31, 2010

	The Bears came that close to snagging a pair of conference road wins which would have created space between themselves and the Pac-10 competition. But it didn’t happen. Instead, there’s no space, and their pursuers couldn’t be any closer. Cal’s long weekend in the desert ended with a pair of 3-point misses sandwiched around a frustrating turnover, as Arizona’s Nic Wise carried his team in a narrow 76-72 win for the Wildcats. Cal (14-7, 6-3) now enters the second half of the conference schedule tied with Arizona for first place, and UCLA and Arizona State a game back at 5-4. “The thing that’s disappointing is you have a chance to win with two minutes left. All you have to do is get a stop and make a play. We didn’t make a play and, as a result, we were not taking good shots or getting good chances in the end,” Coach Mike Montgomery said. Like the Pac-10 conference in its current downswing, Cal was missing something on Sunday. While the Bears, along with the Wildcats, couldn’t have competed any harder, the two teams’ play was spotty and filled with mistakes, hardly the type of an affair that would measure up to a first place battle in the other power conferences. Cal struggled with its shooting (38 percent for the game) and its ball handling, while Arizona struggled with its rebounding--even against a smallish Bears’ lineup--while battling scoring droughts that forced them to fight from behind for most of the afternoon. In fact, stellar free throw shooting was really the only thing either team could hang their hat on as the teams combined to make 40 of 47 attempts. In a critical game, both teams leaned heavily on their stars. The four seniors for Cal took 51 of their 61 shot attempts, but only Theo Robertson found his rhythm, finishing with a career-high 27 points. Arizona countered with pocket rocket point guard Wise (30 points), mercurial freshman Derrick Williams (15 points, 11 rebounds) and “Mo Mo” Jones who changed the game’s momentum in critical second half contribution off the Wildcats’ bench. But in the end, there was only one star, as Wise scored nine of Arizona’s final eleven points, allowing the Wildcats to overcome a 69-65 deficit with 2:43 remaining. Afterwards, Montgomery lamented the fact that various defensive strategies could not get Wise stopped. “Wise was very good,” Montgomery said. “He’s certainly the key. If you let a guy get 30 on their home court, you’re going to struggle a little bit.” “We just were not quick enough to get him contained on the “on ball” screens and make him pick it up. At least get it out of his hands and then let somebody else have to play.” With Cal holding its final lead, 72-71, Wise took the ball right at Jerome Randle, laying it in and getting fouled on the shot with 27 seconds remaining. The usually-raucous McKale Center crowd responded to Wise’s triumphant celebration, as Arizona’s lone senior is finally having his moment in the spotlight. Wise, only the second Division I hoopster to play for four head coaches, stuck through all the upheaval surrounding Lute Olson’s retirement, and now he’s the leader of the youthful Arizona squad. Consequently, Wise has gained the implicit trust of first-year coach Sean Miller. “Nic did what you love every old, senior player to do. He drove to the basket, and we knew that there would be a high likelihood of him getting fouled. I knew that there was about a 95 percent chance that there would be a call that went our way,” Miller said. On the other end, Robertson had a good look at a three with 21 seconds remaining, but missed. And then when Cal retained possession on an out-of-bounds call, they went back to Robertson, but he dribbled the ball off his foot as he drove to the basket. Wise countered with a couple more free throws to seal it, rendering Randle’s three attempt before the buzzer a minor footnote. Only once has a Pac-10 regular season champion totaled as few as 13 wins, but that seems likely this year, unless a team finds the top with only 12 wins. Either way, Cal’s still in great shape, and it’s likely the superior position they squandered this weekend could be regained next weekend in Los Angeles, with wins over resilient UCLA and troubled USC. One thing’s certain: Cal’s never been the leader of the pack in the 30 plus years of the expanded conference, and they won’t get discouraged because they aren’t racking up style points. Besides the edge in experience, the Bears know the next time they see Arizona they'll be in front of their crowd at Haas Pavilion on February 25.