by Michael Duca & Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Pac 12 Conference opener with the Washington Huskies (11-1) at Haas Pavilion tonight kicks off Cal’s first meeting with a Pac 12 team. Cal (10-3) is coming off that shocking loss to the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (3-10) 55-52 on Sunday. Roadrunners head coach Rod Barnes is no slouch of a coach who with Mississippi of the SCC and a long time coach in college basketball and he has got his guys ready to play against Cal Sunday and shocked a nation with that win.

So what team is going to show up tonight at Haas Pavilion? Is it the team that started out 11-1? Will Cal be able to continue at that pace when league play starts. Your really not sure what you got with Cal, you have a first year coach Cuonzo Martin first time through and here it is opening night with Washington and conference play.

Washington has one loss and Huskies head coach Lorenzo Romar is the dean of Pac 12 coaches whose been coaching and couldn’t have been more of an experienced coach. He has coached with longevity just in league play and is seeing his work pay off with a great 11-1 start. Romar is noted for his successful recruiting and has coached well. The thing with Romar people have constantly doubted him and last year was a down year and the rumors stared to come up that Romar would be on his way out.

Sure enough this team has won it’s first 11 games for 2014-15 season and the Huskies look good doing it with great defense they got the big guys in the middle and as usual the taller perimeter player can shoot. Romar as always been able to field a pretty good team. This is a league that’s kind of wide open. Utah Utes (10-2) has a wonderful team that have an emerging big man, they have an offensive guard that went to City College in San Francisco. You got to look at the Utes as the number two team in the Pac 12.

There are a number of schools in the Pac 12 that are trying to establish themselves and make it towards and obviously and qualify for the NCAA Tournaments for a Pac 12 bid. The Huskies and the Bears are right there in the thick of it and here they are on opening night, this opener is a big night in so many ways for both teams. Washington is coming off their first loss of the year to Stony Brook (8-6) 62-57 and Cal’s first loss to CSU Bakersfield on Sunday. So both teams are looking for a recovery from those loses.

In this league there is a lot of talent a lot of great coaches every night is a battle, USC (8-4) with head coach Andy Enfield played much better this month than last month they saw how much continuity they had but also how much talent they had. UCLA (8-5) is getting better as they’re coming from a place they haven’t been before under head coach Steve Alford. Alford is a very experienced coach but lost a lot good players Jordan Adams for example who is moving onto the NBA.

Cal hosts Washington tonight with a 7:00PM tip at Haas Pavilion

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca cover Cal men’s basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com