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		Morris Phillips on Cal basketball By Morris Phillips March 1, 2010

	Sportstalk: You pointed out that the Bears had been fortunate to catch UCLA and Arizona in down times. Will that good fortune define their run to the conference championship? Because the Bears lack a national profile, and have climbed to the top of the heap in a year in which the Pac-10 is as talent-poor as it has been in 20 years, good fortune has a great deal to do with their title run. The biggest win any team in the Pac-10 has had this year is USC's home win over nationally-ranked Tennessee. And none of the other nine teams' best win even come close to that. Numerous Pac-10 players have turned pro in the last two years, including Cal's Ryan Anderson, and the league just doesn't measure up. The great thing is Cal can still redefine itself with a big finish, especially if that includes an NCAA tourney win. Sportstalk: The long wait is over as it's been 50 years since Cal's 1960 AAWU title. What will be this team's legacy? And with five seniors departing, what will be their legacy? In Berkeley, this team will never be forgotten. They've accomplished what Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, Lamond Murray, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Phil Chenier and others could not. The seniors survived a coaching change and a pair of awful years. They made the adjustment to Mike Montgomery and his no-nonsense style without even a hint of resistance. And Jerome Randle, a poster child for Ben Braun's last two disappointing seasons, has cemented his place all over the Cal record books and most likely will become the program's all-time leading scorer. It makes for an incredible storyline for the team, but even more so for Randle and the seniors. Sportstalk: How impressed is head coach Mike Montgomery by the win over Arizona State on Saturday? He was beaming and you don't see him like that often. To win at home, and turn a close game with the second-place team into a rout with a very impressive second half makes a great story. Montgomery was impressed because he hadn't seen his team perform that well on both ends of the court all season. This team is so far removed from any of his teams at Stanford in terms of their style of play and lack of physicality and size. But Montgomery made it happen with a group of guys that probably wouldn't have been offered scholarships under his watch. In doing so, this year will mark one of his greatest coaching jobs: taking an undersized group, without a real defensive presence and taking them to the conference crown. For a coach who's legacy was cemented at Stanford, he could not have done more to enhance his already-stellar reputation.