Break Up The Bears!

Throwback Article: Monday, January 12, 2009

The last time the Bears made the NCAA 2nd Round, against Oklahoma..in Oklahoma City. Totally neutral. (By the way, that's yours truly at the end of the bench.)

Winning on the road can be a very difficult task. In the Pac-10, where the games are usually on a Thursday/Saturday tilt in pod format*, a road trip can take its toll, especially on the back end of the annual trip to Washington state. To say that travel arrangements between Seattle and Pullman can be irritating would be an understatement, as the latter has no major airport or hotel, which means you stay across state lines in Idaho for the night. In the chilling snow. With a long bus ride awaiting you on the way to a place like the Palouse, where 99% of the fans won't be satisfied by anything else except to see you lose.

I've taken that trip before and watched our team go 0-2 (I've also seen them go 2-0). Oh, and pardon my French, but it sucks a big one when you're at the opposite end of a weekend sweep, because in addition to the deafening silence on the trip back home after you lose, everything negative is magnified. The pain from a player's ankle sprain goes from throbbing to shooting. Your bags mysteriously gain an extra five pounds as you drag them from your hotel room. Even worse, the flight back to OAK has probably entered a parallel universe in the Matrix, which can explain why the plane has been flying the unfriendly skies two hours longer than it should have. (At least it feels that way.)

Bear Bryant once said, "When you win, there's enough glory to go around. But when you lose, there's glory for none." My point is while the repercussions of losing can sting, the best remedy to any backache or sprained ego is winning.

Last weekend, the Bears distributed the glory around like hotcakes, first at Pullman, and later, by pulling out an all-time classic in Seattle. Three overtimes. Facing deficits of eleven, eight, and four points as late as the third overtime. Their last lead was when the scoreboard read 1-0. And yet, when the smoke cleared, the Bears somehow escaped UW with an 88-85 victory, pushing their record to 15-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play, marks which haven't been equaled since, well, four decades ago. Here are a few observations so far from watching this team grow over the last few months since I first saw them practice in the summer:

• I've never seen a Cal team depend this much on scoring the majority of their points outside the paint. Then again, when defenses are dropping back into zones and daring you to take uncontested or partially contested mid-range jumpers and threes, you have to take them. And they've been lights out in that department.


• That said, I've also never seen a Cal team run its offense through its point guard the way they've been doing it for Randle. Aside from the 5-foot-8 catalyst taking it to the hole and breaking down defenders 1-on-1, he's also scored off penetration after making his defenders work through double stagger screens and curls. And what's amazing about his 19 points per game average is that Cal's been calling ball screens at a minimum.


• Cal's zone offense has been absolutely incredible. Christopher and Robertson have been carving up matchup zones from behind the arc as well as getting behind posts and scoring underneath as rovers, most notably against Arizona State.


• Everyone has played above expectations, especially steady and scrappy freshman Jorge Gutierrez, but Harper Kamp's play has been the most surprising of all. He has been solid in all aspects of the game, but above all, his post defense has kept other teams honest. Against Arizona, he didn't dominate Jordan Hill, but he did just enough to contain and frustrate him in denying him entry passes, as well as by battling him on the glass for every loose ball. I think he's become a very valuable part of this team.

Of course, there are still a couple concerns. How long can everyone continue to play at this level? After the first full Pac-10 rotation, the other nine teams will have had a chance to review film and make adjustments. Finally, injuries and fatigue over the next fourteen games can decimate a roster and compromise game plans.

Regardless, the fact of the matter remains that a team that was picked to finish seventh or lower during Preseason Pac-10 Media Day has made those same voters eat their words. In fact, the Bears could theoretically go 5-9 or 6-8 the rest of the way, get a split or better in the conference tournament, and still make the Big Dance. But don't tell that to this team. They're gunning for the same objective the aforementioned 1959-60 team achieved: a conference championship.

*Pod Format = Pac-10 Basketball weekend road trips are spent at one of the five Pac-10 pods (Washington/Washington State, Oregon/Oregon State, Cal/Stanford, UCLA/USC, and Arizona/Arizona State), with Thursday's game at one school and Saturday's at the other.