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		Michael Duca on Cal Bears Basketball By Michael Duca November 28, 2010

	Sportstalk: Rough two games at the Old Spice Tournament in Florida for the Cal Bears losing to a rugged Notre Dame club on Friday night. The Bears only could muster just five points in the first half and started to climb in the second half only to lose 57-44 and in a Sunday game the Bears got devoured by the Boston College Eagles 68-46 did you feel the Eagles had a brilliantly laid out plan on offense for the Bears or were the Bears simply out classed on Sunday? It's a young team. They are going to struggle against veteran teams, especially on the road, especially early in the season. BC hit 10 three-point shots in the game and shot 50%. I don't know if the plan was so brilliant, but the execution was all that it needed to be. Sportstalk: The Bears got a critical win over Temple on 57-50 on Thursday night in the Old Spice, what difference did you see in that game as opposed to Cal's next two nights against Notre Dame and Boston College? They made their shots, and were able to establish some presence in the post. This isn't a big, or long, team -- it's a team with a lot of youth, young youth at that, if I may be permitted to use a sports cliche. There's age-youth, and there's basketball youth, and I am pretty sure none of these freshmen played a Mike Montgomery-style system in high school -- each of them is used to being the guy with the rock in the clutch, and there's always a transition period in college, where they are no longer "the man", but "one of the guys". That adjustment usually takes place in practice, spending a full year red-shirting or on the bench. Monty does not have that particular luxury here, so we will get to watch development occur, in bursts, right in front of us. Sportstalk: The Bears play seven of their next eight games at home. How critical would you say it is for the Bears to try and get back on track and take advantage of these home games and get ranked at a favorable number? This team will not likely be ranked. It's hard to see them as a top-25 squad this year, although they have already shown they are capable of beating a top-25 team (Temple). Still, take that with a grain of salt -- it's one thing to be ranked 21st in November, and quite another to be ranked 21st in February. Cal needs to do, in the next 8 games, what it needs to do in all of its games this year -- get better each game, get better each practice, and learn, learn, learn. Development takes time, and we should be willing to let them have that time.