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		Cal suffers more growing pains at the Old Spice Classic By Morris Phillips November 28, 2010

	The Cal Bears didn’t come to Disney World like wide-eyed kids hyperventilating with excitement over the sheer magnitude of the world’s largest amusement complex. But they sure looked awful-ly green facing Boston College at the Disney complex’s basketball facility. The Bears were flying high after wins over New Mexico and No. 20 Temple in their Old Spice Clas-sic opener. But against Notre Dame and again on Sunday in a 68-46 loss to Boston College, the freshman and sophomore dominated team simply looked like they have a lot of growing to do. “We already knew we were young when we came here, I think we were probably reminded of the fact,” Coach Mike Montgomery lamented. After taking a 27-23 lead with 5:21 remaining in the opening half, Cal disintegrated in a pile of missed shots, indifferent defense and curious playmaking decisions. The Eagles, under new coach Steve Donahue, aided in the Bears’ demise with their effective transition offense and great shoot-ing. BC outscored the Bears 38-11 in a 17 minute stretch spanning the halves to lead 61-38 with 8:44 remaining. Unlike Cal’s meltdown against Notre Dame in which they couldn’t shoot straight in a record five-point first half, the Bears had their biggest problems in this one on the defensive end. Boston College played unselfishly and quickly, exposing the Bears with quick, open shots in transitions or drives to the basket where no help defender was within reach. In BC’s big run, Cal’s best defender, Jorge Gutierrez was exposed by drivers just as much as freshmen Allen Crabbe and Gary Franklin, with their inability to close out on shooters. And the Bears didn’t have the luxury of just looking for BC’s leading scorers, Reggie Jackson and Joe Tra-pani. In the Eagles balanced effort, six players scored between 7 and 12 points. “I think the biggest thing we learned is that certain guys don’t have to score 25 for us to beat a good basketball team. We can all do this together,” Donahue gushed. Cal shooting wasn’t destitute; they actually showed proficiency from three-point range, hitting six of nine before halftime. But in the second half the wheels came off with the Bears missing 24 of 29 shots, including 10 of 11 from distance. Franklin and Crabbe finished 4 of 21 combined and looked visibly frustrated. Fatigue could have been a factor, but with the day off on Saturday is shouldn’t have been. Montgomery felt his team lost its confidence, and despite Cal’s early success, the veteran coach still anticipated growing pains would show up at some point. “It’s a pretty tough situation for us coming in here with the caliber of teams in this tournament give where we are, just in terms of our whole developmental process. We didn’t have anybody that we could go to and say, ‘ah, we’re ok.’ We just didn’t make anything happen and it took a toll on us,” Montgomery said.