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		Louisville-California provides contrast and closeness By Morris Phillips March 17, 2010

	Once again, Cal's NCAA opener comes with an important distinction, especially for the millions, including President Obama, that aspire to be masters of the brackets. But that distinction is just one of the interesting tidbits that give Fridays' Louisville-California tourney opener a bit of sizzle. Of the 32 first round games on Thursday and Friday, UL-Cal is the only one that rates as a pick 'em in Las Vegas when the betting odds were announced. Of course, the suspension of Cal's Amondi Omoke on Wednesday, will alter that slightly. But like their 2009 opener with Maryland, the Bears appear to be closely matched, despite the fact that again, they'll be a game of contrasting styles. For bracketeers--especially the average Joe that don't know Ohio State from O-hi-o--a little extra time had to invested to feel good about going with the Bears or the Cards. This will be the first meeting of Louisville's Rick Pitino and Cal's Mike Montgomery, who have coached collegiately for 24 and 28 years respectively. Both have also had largely unsuccessful stints coaching in the NBA, only to return to their niche on the college level. Although the two well-known coaches have for the most part built their reputations coaching on opposite sides of the country, the fact that they haven't coached against each other is surprising given the caliber of teams they've had. Also with Pitino's 15 NCAA appearances, and Montgomery's 13 appearances, it's even more surprising they haven't faced each other in the tournament. Stylistically, these teams couldn't be more different, normally. This year, however, is not normal. The running and pressing Cardinals don't shoot 3's like they have historically, this year finishing just eighth of 16 in the Big East in 3-point shooting accuracy. Meanwhile, Cal, with this almost exact crew, was the top 3-point accuracy team in the nation last year, almost from the start of the season to the end without an interruption. The Bears haven't been quite as good this year, but they're close. Also the Bears are a great free throw shooting team, led by Jerome Randle. In contrast, Louisville has lost three games this year, according to Pitino, due to poor free throw shooting. Louisville is known for pressing, trapping and forcing turnovers, and using that pressure to create their patented scoring runs. But these 20-12 Cards don't defend or shoot as well as they have in the past. Defensively, their nine points off the pace they set last year, allowing 70 points a game this year, as opposed to 61 points last year. Meanwhile Cal has been a scoring machine, averaging 83 points a game in their most recent three games at the Pac-10 tournament. While the Bears finished with nine wins in their final 11 games, Louisville was more up and down. The Cards closed the regular season with an upset of No. 1 Syracuse in the final game of legendary Freedom Hall, but then they opened the Big East tournament with a loss to lower seeded Cincinnati. Prior to Syracuse, Louisville lost at Marquette by 21, 69-48. The Cards also dropped a jawdropper to St. Johns on February 11, 74-55, a 19-point loss to a NIT team. And of course, while the Bears competed in the downtrodden Pac-10 and couldn't find a Top 50 opponent once the conference season started, Louisville competed in a 16-team conference that's sending half its teams to the NCAAs. So with this information, you should be quite torn in trying to figure the winner here. And television senses the drama in this matchup this one will be the last to tip in the first round, going five minutes after Houston-Maryland on Friday night. So that probably means at some point on Friday night, for a few minutes, after the third or fourth beer, after 31 other games have come and gone, Louisville and Cal will be in the Final 33. Not bad. AMONDI OMOKE SUSPENDED: Cal's depth and chances for advancing have taken a hit with the suspension of starting forward Amondi Omoke. Not details or reasons for the suspension were announced, but it's an indefinite suspension with Omoke not allowed on the team plane flight to Jacksonville, meaning he will most likely be unavailable for the second round, if Cal advances. Omoke has been a wonderful spark for the Bears all year long, and he got a pair of starts in the Pac-10 tournament, along with a number of other games this year.