by Morris Phillips and Michael Duca

BERKELEY–As a group the Cal Bears are tired and they shot only 39 percent in beating Colorado by one point in their last regular game of the season 66-65. The game before they shot 39 percent against Utah in that loss and like Stanford they go into that conference tournament having lost three out of four and the Bears Justin Cobbs hasn’t played as well as he could play.

In spots he’s been incredible down the stretch and on Saturday he was great and the game in Arizona Cobbs was outplayed by Jahid Carson and Nick Johnson. Those are his contemporaries that not only Cal fans are hoping that he can outplay but NBA scouts in evaluating Cobbs looking how he fares in these individual match ups. With other players who project to be NBA players.

So for Cal it’s not been such a good stretch for them and the composition of the team would suggest just as much with half the team being freshman and half the team that plays. Half the rotation players are freshman and the injuries to Jabari Bird and Ricky Kreklow during the season didn’t help as well. You could argue that Cal head coach Mike Montgomery has got more out of this group than anybody else could have.

This year it doesn’t look like whatever he got out of them is going to be good enough to put them in the NCAA. In the recruiting class there’s one of the top players nationally in Oakland and we keep hearing that Ivan Rabb of Bishop O’Dowd is their key target and as well he should be.

Rabb is 6’10 and a great jumper and has great athletic presence in the paint right here in their own back yard and he’s on a list of 12 and Cal would like a shot at him. That’s been the issue for Cal of the six years of Montgomery the team has had good players, not great players and the results have been just about the same.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover Cal basketball for Sportstalk radio