Sports Radio Service


		Micheal Duca on Cal basketball By Micheal Duca February 1, 2010

	Sportstalk: The Bears have won eight of their last 10 games and have won three in a row previous to their game with Arizona on Sunday. Cal sits in first place in the Pac Ten and faces USC and UCLA this week. Are you shaky or confident that the Bears can maintain their lead in the Pac Ten facing some of the diversity that's coming up on the schedule? My shakiness or confidence is hardly important compare to the team's. This is an enormously simple team to figure out. when they shoot, they win. When they miss, they don't. When Randle scores at or above his average, they win. When he doesn't, they don't. They shot well at ASU and won a tough game. They shot well for a few minutes at Arizona and held a promising seven-point lead, then went ice cold, hitting just 5 of their next 27 shots. They were still in the game in the final two minutes, but a failure to make a shot in the last 2:39 of the game cost them enormously -- they are tied with the Wildcats now, instead of holding a two-game lead and preparing for March Madness. I doubt that their confidence will be shaken much -- they know that winning requires two things: Getting shots to fall, and playing 40 minutes of defense. They played about 35 minutes of pretty good defense against Arizona, but didn't maintain the intensity for all 40, and it cost them. Sportstalk: Jamal Boykin said that the Bears continue to win and continue to separate themselves so they can win a championship. How crucial is it to stay out of foul trouble for the Bears and have a strong offense with their key scorers like Boykin, Jerome Randall, Patrick Christopher, and Theo Robertson? Foul trouble has been an issue, but not for the players you mention. Jorge Gutierrez brings a mental and physical intensity onto the floor, but sometimes collects fouls that limit his aility to do what he does best. Markhuri Sanders-Frison, who has missed several games with back problems now, also has trouble staying on the floor, and until he remembers to keep his hands high all the time and not reach, Max Zhang will continue to be called for easily avoidable fouls on defense. Theo Robertson did foul out Sunday at Arizona, but the game was over (10 seconds, down by four points) at the time, so it hardly mattered. Sportstalk: The Bears are coming off a tough road trip against ASU and Arizona and they battled both teams hard how impressed were you with them in those two games and what did they show or reveal in those two contests carrying over to the games this week? Tough road trips are what the Pac-10 is about. They still have to play the LA teams this week coming up, no picnic. Then they go to Oregon and play in the Pit one last time, and at Corvallis, where they've been snakebitten the past few seasons. And the season ends at Stanford, where they lost last year, and where the Cardinal might just be the last team they want to face with a conference championship on the line. These kids can't feel the weight of all 50 years since Cal last won the conference title outright, but they will know about it by then. They were successful against USC at home because they shot very well, and unsuccesful against UCLA because they didn't. I don't see that changing. They will know each team a little better this time around, and I expect both teams to play tough defense, with the Bruins probably playing even more zone than they did last time. Cal is a little more experienced against zones now, and might be better able to crack it -- if Randle can hit from far outside and extend the zone, like he did against the Sun Devils, then they should do well in LA.