Month: February 2014

By Morris Phillips

After Justin Cobbs scored Cal’s final 12 points including a step back jumper with less than a second remaining, and before a sellout crowd could celebrate the biggest win by the Bears in the history of Haas Pavilion, an assist was needed from someone who had been here before.

Up stepped 66-year old Coach Mike Montgomery initially to emphatically usher the onrushing crowd off the floor with time still remaining in the game.  Cobbs’ big shot set off a stampede and had his teammates dancing on the court, but only a timeout on the floor prevented the crowd and the Cal players that had been sitting on the bench from picking up a crushing technical foul for delay of game.

Then Montgomery turned his attention to defending the Wildcats and keeping the No.1 team in the nation from orchestrating a miracle, last second shot.  So hyped up was Cal’s huddle that at the conclusion of the timeout it was obvious that the Cal players weren’t sure what defense they needed to be in.

So Montgomery simply called a second timeout.  Afterwards, he comically described the scene as “chaos with the team manager trying to draw up a play.  I felt like I should say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some experience, it just might take a little longer than it used to for me to draw something up.’”

With Cal ready for back screens and a player under the basket to defend the hoop in case any of the screens worked, the Bears saw the Wildcats throw an errant pass ending the game without Arizona attempting a shot.

After three straight losses, just as many lethargic starts and whole lot of soul searching, the Bears bounced back with a 60-58 win over No.1 Arizona.  The Bears couldn’t beat last place USC, but under the bright lights focused on the nation’s top-ranked team, they pulled off the upset of the college basketball season and gave their own NCAA hopes a tremendous boost.

Admittedly, the Bears caught Arizona on their worst night.  Two minutes in, Wildcats’ forward Brandon Ashley appeared to break his foot while trying to grab a rebound.  Arizona’s stellar starting five had propelled the Wildcats to 21 straight wins without a loss, and almost immediately one of those five pieces was missing.

Then leading scorer Nick Johnson starting missing shots.  The velvet-smooth Johnson came in averaging 17 points a game, but missed 13 of his 14 shots and finished with more turnovers (5) than points (4).  Arizona would go on to shoot a season-worst 32 percent.  And with the game on the line, Coach Sean Miller’s squad didn’t have their usual dossier of answers.

“We’d always found a way to be on the positive end of it,” Miller said.  “Tonight in that same moment, we didn’t make the shots and we didn’t get the big stop.”

With 2:12 remaining, Cal forward David Kravish came up with the big block from behind on Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewksi who was poised to dunk.  Right before that freshman Jabari Bird committed a turnover when he could have called a timeout or conceded a jump ball with the possession arrow in Cal’s favor.  T.J. McConnell raced off with the steal and gave Arizona its’ final lead, 58-56.

The Wildcats would then go the final 2:47 without scoring again.

After McConnell’s bucket, Cobbs would get Cal even with a pair of made free throws.  Then Cal would miss it next three shots before Cobbs hit the tough shot in the final second.

“He really got off his feet on the last shot and rose up. It looked good the whole time,” Montgomery said.

Cal couldn’t have been sure where they were headed coming in.  Six straight wins, then three consecutive, frustrating losses had the team riding a rollercoaster.  But Montgomery knew his team just needed a win, so he and his staff begin dissecting Arizona.  Despite the 21 straight wins and the Wildcats’ unflappable nature, Montgomery felt some hope.

“They haven’t been blowing people out.  They’ve made plays when they had to,” Montgomery explained calmly, probably just as he did in pre-game meetings with his team.

Montgomery went on to say that 80 percent of the baskets scored by Johnson, Tarczewski and super freshman Aaron Gordon—UA’s top three scorers—came in the paint.  So Cal devised a way to set up a wall inside to keep the three from getting to their comfort zones.

Then Cal vowed to start faster, show some passion from the start and not let the Wildcats break out early.  Richard Solomon definitely got the message: the 6’11” center made his first six shots, the last which gave Cal its biggest lead, 28-19, just 15 minutes in.

Cobbs led Cal with 19 points and seven assists.  Kravish added 14 points and 11 rebounds and Solomon had 12 points.

Tarczewski led Arizona with a career-best 18 points.

Experience means a little something, right?  Montgomery beat the No.1 ranked team for the fifth time in his career on Saturday night, his first with California after pulling off the feat four times while coaching Stanford.

The Bears start the second half of conference play on Wednesday at Haas Pavilion when Stanford visits.