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		Bears clear major hurdle in win over Washington State By Morris Phillips February 13, 2010

	Think the California Bears should have cruised past Washington State, and not needed a 15-0 finish over the final four minutes to get past the determined Cougars, 86-70? If so, then you’re a Bear backer lacking historical perspective. This seemingly innocuous hurdle may be the key to ending the 50-year conference title drought at Berkeley. Sweeping the season series from WSU represents a milestone for the first-place Bears, one that other talented Cal teams failed to achieve, and paid dearly for it. Don’t believe it, then here’s the history lesson: California hasn’t won a conference title since Pete Newell’s squad featuring Darrall Imhoff went 11-1 in conference to win the AAWU crown in 1960. That year, Cal was the defending NCAA champs, and they again went to the title game, where they were beaten by Ohio State and All-Americans Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek. That 1960 NCAA championship game was Newell’s last game coaching the Bears. He went on to coach the gold-medal winning USA team in the Olympics that summer then retired from coaching, heeding the advice of doctors who felt coaching was too stressful for the Hall of Famer. Cal’s basketball program began to suffer immediately after Newell’s retirement, as the coaching stints of Rene Herrerias, Jim Padgett, Dick Edwards and Dick Kuchen produced only two highlights, 3rd place finishes in 1964 and 1971, when the Bears featured Phil Chenier and Ansley Truitt. Things were so bad during this period that the Bears managed only five upper-division finishes in 25 seasons as the AAWU morphed into the Pac-8 in 1968 and then the Pac-10 in 1978. Kuchen’s tenure was especially rough, as none of his seven teams, including two featuring Kevin Johnson, finished better than sixth in the Pac-10. Lou Campanelli managed a trio of third-place finishes and one NCAA appearance in his seven full seasons in Berkeley. But when a loss to Washington State started a three-game losing streak in January 1993, the players, including freshman Jason Kidd, expressed their dissatisfaction with Campanelli’s heavy-handed coaching style, and he was replaced mid-season by assistant/recruiting wiz Todd Bozeman. Bozeman’s coaching re-energized the Bears as they won 11 of 13 to finish second in the conference and earn a NCAA Sweet 16 berth. Kidd’s second and final year at Berkeley also resulted in a second-place finish in the conference, but once again the Bears lost to Washington State, this time in the regular-season finale, which prevented them from gaining a share of the conference crown. Ben Braun’s first Cal team finished in a tie for second in the conference, but a loss at Washington State was especially devastating as leading scorer Ed Gray scored 48 points in the game, and then broke a bone in his foot with less than two minutes remaining. Gray’s Cal career ended that day, but the Bears rallied without him, gaining another Sweet 16 appearance, where they fell to North Carolina. Still, the loss to WSU, followed the next week with a loss at Stanford prevented the Bears from competing for the conference crown. With that quick review of Cal history, we fast forward to Saturday’s meeting with the Cougars at Haas Pavilion. The Bears, likely emotionally-spent after a big win over defending conference champ Washington, watched the Cougars race to a double-digit lead, 22-12, in the first eight minutes of the game. Klay Thompson, second in scoring in the conference at better than 21 points a game, took off early, scoring 23 of his game-high 28 points in the first half. Repeatedly, the Bears didn’t fight through screens, leaving Thompson open for his deadly catch-and-shoot jumpers. Consequently, the Bears found themselves trailing 45-34 at halftime. During a motivational discussion of some intensity at halftime, likely Coach Mike Montgomery used the words “bad loss,” terminology that’s synonymous with February as much as “madness” is now connected to March. That and a kick in the pants seemed to get the Bears cooking. “You have to compete,” Montgomery said. “It’s always what happens. When we get back on our heels, we’re just not very aggressive, offensively or defensively. In the second half, we only played six (players with) pretty appreciable minutes, and those six guys did a pretty good job.” “The first three or four minutes of the second half (were) a struggle. California stepped up the tempo and the physicality of the game,” Washington State Coach Ken Bone said. In a complete turnaround, the Bears outscored the Cougs 52-25, but prior to the big finishing kick, the game couldn’t have been any more in doubt. Washington State righted itself after the first couple of minutes of the second half, and continued their gritty play. DeAngelo Casto, a tremendous shot blocker, continued to hound Jerome Randle, who despite his short stature, rarely gets his shots blocked. Casto redirected a couple of Randle’s shots and the Cougars managed 12 shots blocks as a team, the most blocks Cal has suffered since 2000 against Texas. During a five-minute period filled with lead changes, the young Cougars hounded each of the Cal senior leaders, forcing Patrick Christopher to walk on a breakout layup attempt, Theo Robertson to dribble the ball of his leg for a turnover, and Randle got his 3-point attempt blocked by Casto. With less than five minutes to go, Cal got a pair of free throws from Jorge Guitierrez to establish their biggest lead, 71-68. But on the next possession, Cal surrendered an offensive rebound and putback to Nikola Koprivica, and WSU responded once again. But that would be WSU’s last points, as the Bears answered with free throws from Jamal Boykin, then a layup from Christopher. On that play, Thompson was stripped in between the circles, and Bone, angered by the lack of a foul call on the strip, picked up an inopportune technical that essentially sealed it. The Bears received four free throws, making three, and Cal led by eight, 78-70. With a 2-0 weekend, the Bears remain a game ahead of Arizona State and the winner of Sunday’s UCLA-USC game. But not only are the Bears atop the standings, their remaining schedule is favorable. Cal’s final three road games against Oregon, Oregon State and Stanford are winnable, as are the home games against Arizona and Arizona State. A 4-1 record would likely get the Bears a conference championship, while a 3-2 record could be good enough to tie someone for the top spot.