by Morris Phillips & Michael Duca

BERKELEY–The offensive shortcomings have come up for the Cal Bears (11-7) as they scored 59 points against Stanford last Wednesday Jan 14th at Haas Pavilion. In a game that was one of their better efforts it was their most recent loss, they had a seven game win streak but they followed it with six loses in seven games and now their season is at a crossroads after all that losing.

Arizona State (9-9) and Arizona (16-2) are here Thursday and Saturday respectively and if the Bears don’t get it together this weekend then you can kiss the post season for the Bears goodbye. Luckily for Cal they can create some confidence by taking on Arizona State on Thursday night and before they proceed deeper into the conference.

A lot rides on this game with Arizona State with the exception of their coach Herb Sendek whose a long time familiar face in the Pac 12 so it’s a great opportunity and the Bears don’t want to let this game get by on Thursday night. Because a loss would signal some very ominous days with Arizona coming on Saturday.

The benefit of having eight days off since playing their last game is that they didn’t lose a game and it gives them sometime to regain their confidence and with eight days off means the Bears haven’t lost a game in those eight days. It gives them time to get into the gym and work on their offensive sets and trying to get Jabari Bird reintegrated into their offense.

The Bears are desperate for Bird’s contribution especially if it’s shooting the ball beyond the arc for Cal if your not doing well time off is good. Obviously if the team is rolling you just want to keep playing right through for Cal this is a good thing. The offensive dependency of Tyrone Wallace and Jordan Matthews weigh heavily on Cal’s success to win games. Wallace is a point guard and head coach Cuonzo Martin is not worrying about how much he shoots.

Occasionally Wallace is able to find his guys that are left open with his penetration, Matthews draws more than one defender and Bird principally with David Kravish as well. Martin is trying to get Wallace to fall into the mind set of helping his teammates facilitating in setting guys up. At 19 points a game the challenge is to score and facilitate.

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca cover Cal Bears basketball and doi commentary each week for http://www.sportrsradioservice.com