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		Cal sets the pace against Princeton By Morris Phillips November 29, 2009

	These days, 78-year old Pete Carrill spends a lot of time with 20-year old Tyreke Evans, teaching the ascendant superstar the subtleties of shooting the basketball effectively at the NBA level. On Sunday, the architect of Princeton offense was just a short drive away in Sacramento, while his beloved Tigers visited Berkeley to face the Bears. And while Princeton still plays a lot like Carrill’s clubs played when they pulled off big NCAA tournament upsets in the 90’s, this year’s Tigers, under Carill protégée Sydney Johnson lack one critical element: the element of surprise. Nowadays, opposing coaches like coach Mike Montgomery, have seen the offense in various forms from Craig Robinson’s version at Oregon State to Northwestern’s take under Bill Carmody and Chris Mooney’s at Richmond. And while it’s never easy to stop the back door cuts and endless screens from being effective, it’s a lot easier if you seen it a couple of times. On Sunday, the Bears had to rely on their memories for the most part. With only a couple of practices over Thanksgiving, and several players under the weather, preparation for the Tigers was brief. But with Max Zhang, in his first collegiate start, and Jamal Boykins having big games it didn’t matter much in an easy 81-60 victory for Cal. “It’s all hands on deck when you have people down,” Montgomery said of Boykins, who led the Bears with 22 points on 11 of 14 shooting. “Everybody has to carry a little more responsibility and I thought he did a really nice job tonight.” The 7’3” Zhang stepped completely out of his usual tentativeness by dunking a couple of times and greeting Princeton’s back cutters with blocked shots. Zhang, inserted into the lineup because Markhuri Sanders-Frison was one of the flu victims, finished with seven points and five rebounds in his best game to date. From the start, the Bears put the Tigers on their heels by pushing the pace and looking to shoot early in possessions. Against the 2-3 zone presented by Princeton, the Bears passed crisply leading to point blank opportunities and wing jumpers from Boykins, who hit his first three shots. With just under ten minutes remaining in the opening half the Bears built a 15-point lead, 22-7, and were never threatened after that. Once Princeton falls out of striking distance, they’re usually cooked. And without the patient approach favored by the Tigers, they fell prey to Cal’s physical superiority: Zhang’s height, Jerome Randle’s quickness and Boykin’s strength. “We kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into and knew that we had to be very good in terms of execution, and we weren’t,” Johnson said of his Tigers. While Princeton’s not the Ivy league power they have been in the past, they’re much improved over the 2007-08 campaign in which they finished 6-23. So for Cal, with the numerous injuries and illnesses, the easy win was quite impressive, especially with the Bears seizing control from the opening tip.