By Morris Phillips

Under Mike Montgomery, the Cal Bears have performed better than expected more often than not.  And this season–which starts Friday at Haas Pavilion against Coppin State–the Bears could make a fifth NCAA appearance in six seasons with the iconic, 66-year old coach working his closely calculated magic.

But before Cal surprises the experts and makes a run at UCLA, Arizona, Washington and even Stanford—all teams picked to finish above the Bears in the Pac-12—a bunch of new faces have to be transformed into Montgomery-endorsed, floor-ready players.

Five of those faces are members of a heralded freshman class led by Jabari Bird of Richmond, who figure to give the Bears a much-needed infusion of talent and depth.  Three others—Christian Behrens, Garrett Galvin and Kahlil Johnson—have all been in the program for at least a year but haven’t seen any significant time.   And while Montgomery doesn’t necessarily need any of the eight to start, he does need most of them to play roles off the bench.

But if you know Montgomery, none of that will take hold until the chosen players have gained the coach’s implicit trust.

Don’t adhere to defensive principles?  Take a seat.  Don’t know a credible shot from a bad one?  Sit right here.  Making too many mental errors?  Yup, Montgomery’s yelling is directed at you.

“You’re after trying to play the game right, and get out where guys are playing at game speed, tiring faster, adjusting to the tempo, adjusting to the other team, adjusting to the way the game’s called, all the things that have to happen,” Montgomery said after Thursday’s exhibition against Humboldt State.   “And as I say, we have eight guys that haven’t played basketball.  So all of those people have a different learning curve and we have to get them up to snuff as quick as we can.  The freshman group is going to be a pretty good group but there’s going to be growing pains.”

At 6’6” Bird brings eye-popping athleticism and size to the wing spot, but oft-injured Ricky Kreklow appears to be ahead of the freshman at least until Bird can establish efficiency with his offense.  6’3” Jordan Mathews can shoot it, so he appears to be in the rotation, but he better impress Montgomery with an ability to guard Pac-12 quality guards.

Kameron Rooks—at 7’0”—is the Bears’ biggest player, but it appears the Bears will go small for now when one of the starting posts—Richard Solomon and David Kravish—takes a breather.  Sam Singer’s a shooting guard-sized playmaker, but just like Rooks he needs a lot of growth on the defensive end first.

“They really haven’t played in any college games yet,” Solomon said.  “So it’s still that learning curve that we have to get around.  But they’re ready to work, ready to learn, do things and they’re picking up… not as fast but… they’re still picking things up.”

Montgomery’s success lies in his ability to get his teams to pay attention to details and not have mental or physical lapses.  Those that continue to make mistakes sit and heady players get big minutes.  And no nationally-ranked recruit like Bird gets a pass.  Until Montgomery feels a player is a mentally in tune, that player sits.

“I’m trying to say to them that we’ve got to have a standard for how we play the game,” Montgomery said.  “There will be times that we play as hard as we can that we don’t win.   We can’t pick and choose when we want to play hard.”

Justin Cobbs knows what Montgomery demands and he will have the ball in his hands in most critical situations.  The senior guard paced last year’s team in scoring along with NBA draft pick Allen Crabbe.  Cobbs has recovered from a foot injury and is poised to start the season after performing well in the exhibitions and early practices. 

The Bears appear well-stocked at the wings with Kreklow, Mathews, Bird and last year’s starter, Tyrone Wallace.  Where they could be thin is up front with Kravish and Solomon as they only experience players.  Physical interior players might even have an advantage against the two holdovers, neither of whom are wide bodies.

Christian Behrens and Rooks will get time behind the two posts.  Behrens has seen injuries rob him of playing time in his first two years, but this season the junior is healthy and should assume the role of first interior player off the bench.   Singer will back Cobbs, and Kreklow could start now and then become an indispensible reserve once Mathews or Bird get acclimated.