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		Joe Cronin on the NCAA By Joe Cronin February 3, 2009

	Sportstalk: The Stanford Cardinal went to USC and UCLA last week and lost both games respectively 70-69 and 97-63. There is little doubt in the game Saturday against UCLA that this is a unstoppable team that's number one in the Pac 10. Joe Cronin: This Pac Ten is effective this year and each of the teams are good but UCLA and USC are much better than anybody had anticipated and they'll be around in March. Speaking of the Pac Ten their the most underrated conference in the country most of us would agree that perhaps not as much as the Big Ten or the ACC or the Southeast conference but it's a mighty great conference and has been over the years. The competition out here has been terrific and UCLA has dominated the league for 30 years under John Wooden and the school has sent players to the Pros all the time. This is a very good conference. Sportstalk: Johnny Dawkins head coach for Stanford would like to turn it up on offense against a school like UCLA but the defenders were too much and when you get to the Southland and face SC and UCLA the Cardinal are up to face some tough schools. Joe Cronin: Watching the Cardinal in these two games and the thing that comes right out is in the UCLA contest the Bruins have a chance to run the table this year. The Bruins are a very good team this year in a very good conference on a par with any school in the country and I think they could and depending on upon how they sit in the tournament in March I think they could run the table. Sportstalk: Cal also had a rough outing losing to UCLA on Thursday 81-66 and dropping the game at SC 73-62. Head coach Mike Montgomery explanation was that the defenses from both schools shut down Cal on both nights. Joe Cronin: I think your going to see Cal finish with a wining record in the middle in the pack maybe an IT possibly but they can't compete with UCLA who seems to get the better players every single year and Stanford much the same position. However very good basketball at Haas Pavilion and good enough to stir up interest and go to in both cases Stanford and Cal could be considered a year away from really competing and they're going to have to put a few more new faces into the mix so they could play with the much more talented schools. It'll take awhile but I think they'll get there. Sportstalk: Joe the Bears take on Washington and Washington State this week at home the Bears certainly want to redeem themselves after the two loses in Los Angeles. Joe Cronin: The Huskies have a very good basketball coach in Lorenzo Romar who you might remember from his days with Golden State when we used to go down and talked to him and Lorenzo is really a great basketball mind and he's up at Washington and he's got them winning and he's able to get most of the talent up in the Pacific Northwest so they're going to be reckon with later in the year too. For this week coming up Cal should win one or both games just because it's going to be a little too much for the people at Pullman to be in Berkeley I think Berkeley will corrupt them enough so that they won't be able to play enough. Head coach Tony Bennent for the Cougars has things going and they say he's one of the better coaches in the Pac Ten but he's probably having some trouble getting as much talent as he wants there in Pullman and that’s pretty much away from everybody. Monty is a great college coach and that'll be recognized here pretty soon and he's got to instill his system into the Cal team effort and when that happens they'll be much more competitive. Joe Cronin is covering for Michelle Touson this week for Sportstalk Radio