by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–For the Cal Bears (11-8) head coach Cuonzo Martin the experience of coaching in non-conference in November and December is much different than coaching Pac 12 Conference for January. The Bears were winning in non conference and got up to 10-1 and the Bears at that time were on the verge of being ranked in the top 25. This team this month on a five game losing streak has gone through some struggles during this period, their young, their undersized and inexperienced and Martin is a first year coach.

In terms of what their facing in the Pac 12 it doesn’t get any easier. The Arizona Wildcats are coming in at 17-2 who had a nice win over Gonzaga at home the Wildcats are a powerhouse out west. This is a big physical minded team they are what Kentucky would like to be on defense first. One of the things that Cal will see on Saturday night is that Arizona’s very capable point guard T.J. McConnell will not play as much.

McConnell won’t play as much due to the fact they want him to match up with the Bears Tyrone Wallace which is Cal’s top scorer a 6’5 point guard and the Wildcats will have their top guards going against Wallace. The Wildcat guards will test Wallace’s ability to see if he can continue to keep up his scoring and distributing. You can expect it to be a difficult battle for him because he’s used to going against smaller players.

The Bears on Saturday night won’t see any small physical players the Wildcats are all about a big physical defense who will come right after Wallace and company. The Wildcats Kaleb Tarczewski is a legitimate seven footer in the middle and he’s very blessed to have a front line that has size around him. A seven footer in Tarczewski and then you have Brandon Ashley at 6’9.

Arizona’s Stanley Johnson is at guard for the Wildcats at 6’7 and he really takes the pressure off Kaleb in the middle and you could see whey he’s able to shoot such a high percentage. Opponents are not just going to be able to double team him or even put too much focus on him and they have to have the success of the defensive attack first and that really would loosen up things inside for a team like Cal.

Johnson is a big physical guy for the Wildcats he can play guard, he can play forward, he can handle the ball, he’s a great team player. He’s a guy who has struggled being around other good players. He’s your prototypical one and done type player although Arizona has had some success in keeping their guys in character unlike some other places.

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