By Morris Phillips

How serious are Cal’s offensive issues?

Serious as shown by a 13-minute stretch on Thursday night where shots hit the rim and bounced off, quality free throw shooters failed to convert and high-scoring point guard Tyrone Wallace found himself motoring to the hoop, but then inexplicably attempted to pass the ball in the opposite direction of where his momentum was carrying him.

None of it worked as the scoreboard showed.  Cal was tied with Arizona State, 10-10, after five minutes of play, then—with less than two minutes remaining in the opening half—the Bears trailed the Sun Devils, 32-10. Opponents’ 22-point runs and 13-minute scoring droughts often signal the worst a team has to offer, but for Cal, which went on to lose 79-44, it was just the tip of the iceberg.

The loss was Cal’s seventh in their last eight games, and the 35-point margin ranks as the second-worst in school history at home in Berkeley.

“It was a tough loss,” Coach Cuonzo Martin said.  “It’s my job as coach to get our guys ready to play and compete.  Their job is to execute what we’re trying to do.  I didn’t do a very good job of that as a head coach to get our guys ready to compete in battle.  We came up short.”

Martin’s Bears needed this to be the weekend that they recovered from a tough stretch bridging December and January but it doesn’t appear as if that will be the case.  No. 7 Arizona visits Haas Pavilion on Saturday night and the Wildcats won’t be overlooking the Bears after last year’s huge upset loss in which their standout forward Brandon Ashley suffered a broken bone and was lost for the remainder of the season.

Instead of springing an unlikely second upset win, the Bears might be better served to get reacquainted with the rim, which the Bears found truly confounding on Thursday.  Jabari Bird and Dwight Tarwater were late adds to Cal’s starting lineup, but both guys went scoreless.  Cal scored 13 points in the first—their fewest since 2010—and shot 33 percent for the game.  In addition to all the rushed shots and poor decisions, the Bears committed 19 turnovers.

Jordan Mathews was Cal’s only double-figure scorer and he totaled just 11 points.

The Sun Devils won their second straight after opening Pac-12 play with four losses.   If one player signified the turnaround in ASU’s play it would be Eric Jacobsen, who scored nine points and gave the smallish Sun Devils an interior presence.  Jacobsen’s improved play coincided with David Kravish’s foul trouble that put Cal’s 6’9” post on the bench for a huge stretch in the first half.

‘Nobody likes to lose, but we have to give the credit where it’s due and Arizona State played a great game,” Kravish said.