by Morris Phillips and Michael Duca
Cal basketball commentary special to Sports Radio Service

BERKELEY–Boy howdy, what a difference a few days and games make for the Cal Golden Bears and for Justin Cobbs last Saturday night in that unforgettable buzzer beater with 0.9 second left to tip the undefeated Arizona Wildcats really put this team futher out on the map. A criple layup on a steal against Arizona State and missed the final shot that would have won the game in regulation for Cobbs.

For Cobbs to come back and get redemption against the the number one team in the nation the Bears have to feel extrremely good and in fact I know it did because we talked with Cobbs exclusively after that game. It wasn’t just that final shot, he was the only Cal Bear to score in the final 11:30 of that game.

Arizona who could have dominated or took a lead for most of this game could and was expected to be the winner of this match but they lead for only 16 seconds in the first half and for about 48 seconds in the second half. It always felt like this was Cal’s game. The question was whether or not they were going to hang on because what I expected was that game was going to be a parade to the foul line.

Arizona had all 16 of their free throws and they beat Stanford the other night by getting to the free throw line over and over again. This is what was concerning was whether they were going to win the game while the clock was running because Arizona wasn’t going to win the game when the clock was stopped.

Cal didn’t have a particularily have a great game against the Wildcats, they had to know there was a lot of speed on the court and the Bears didn’t react to it until the second half and they had a spectacular game plan against Arizona. They were able to compete with them somewhat on the floor, and they were unfortunate in that the Wildcats had a miserable shooting night.

At one point the Wildcats were shooting 26% in the first half which about the only way you could survive when you give a team 11 offensive rebounds in one half. Cal on their behalf was shooting 50% and everything was falling the way it needed to but it was particularily intriging by the way Cal head coach Mike Montgomery had three freshman out on the floor just eight minutes into the game.

Montgomery pointed out given that Arizona State’s seven foot center hit a basket low post and he had to have a guy who looks like someone that will be able to guard him, it’s when the big men start moving around and are fluid on the floor that looked like the defender had problems keeping up with him because he was really quick. You have to credit Montgomery for his scouting, for seeing where Cal could exploit certain weaknesses that Arizona had and for going out and doing it and executing it perfectly.

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca do Cal basketball commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio