by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears (17-12) are not going to make the NCAA Tournament this season but if they pull an upset on Thursday against the Arizona Wild Cats (26-3) at number seven. Arizona and the number one or number two seeded team in the west at least their in the conversation for their next two or three games after that in the NCAA Tournament.

The Bears scored only 34 points against Arizona when they played them in Berkeley, so you would not expect them to have much success but it’s always a nice opportunity that teams from other conferences can pull off a bid this late in the season and put get into the discussion.

If using David Kravish for example if he doesn’t have the season that he’s had Cal is an under .500 team without his contribution. They have no one else to turn to in terms of what Kravish offered in terms of playing in the post blocking shots and rebounding. Kravish should be a recognizable figure at this level.

Kravish literally has given the injuries and the loss of Richard Solomon great effort and he had to be there. Kravish turned out to be the player that the Bears wished for. Kravish is the leading shot blocker in the history of the program it’s pretty lofty stuff. Once again college athletes are especially resilient.

They are one of the Pac 12 teams that were right in the middle tied for seventh place and Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin is a quality coach. He’s known nationally, it’s the last part of the year in the college season and they have this young coach Martin. He has the knowledge and is trying to help mold his three recruits at Cal into a national top 25 team.

The Bears were all in for the game on Sunday in which they beat the Oregon State Beavers and they played with a great vigor after losing three straight games and that speaks to Martin and Cal after having the kind of season that they did. The chances of the Bears getting into post season play is less than 12 percent. If they were to win in Arizona and Arizona State that would take them to 19-12 and they would have their marquee victory to end the season.

Morris Philips is filling in for Michelle Richardson for the NCAA commentary this week listen to Morris’ podcast below at http://www.sportsradioservice.com