By Morris Phillips

On the occasion of Arizona’s clinching of a second straight Pac-12 regular season championship, the Cal Bears were like a 30-second commercial spot needed to defray costs of the fancy celebration.

Instead of 30 seconds, the Bears were afforded the first five minutes of the game to compete, make plays and look respectable.  After that, the No. 5 Wildcats made all the plays—mostly inside, but also out—in a 99-60 rout of outclassed California.

The Bears were hoping for a magical weekend in which they would sweep their final two regular season games, even their conference record, and put themselves on the fringes of the NCAA tournament conversation.  Instead, they were just reminded of how far off they are from their post-season aspirations.

With the game tied at 12, the Wildcats took off, scoring 29 of the next 37 points to take a commanding 20-point lead with a couple minutes still to play before halftime.  Things got worse after the break with Arizona pushing their lead to 30 with 12 minutes remaining in the game.

Arizona shot 57 percent for the game, persistently working the undersized Bears over in the paint.  Only an off-night from the free-throw line where the Cats missed 13 of 32 attempts kept Arizona from totaling 110 plus points.  As it was, the 39-point margin was the biggest of the season for Arizona, as well as the biggest loss margin for Cal.

Coach Cuonzo Martin, a defensive specialist as a player at Purdue and then later in NBA, of course pointed to Arizona’s defensive effort in trying to explain the whipping suffered by his Bears.

“I thought they did a great job of battling, taking away passing lanes,” Martin said. “When you talk about the No. 5 team in the country, not necessarily are they a good defensive team, they’re a sound defensive team.  You have to be able to go inside and out.  If you don’t have low post production, low post scoring and low post offensive rebounding, that can be tough.”

Cal’s only legitimate post threat, David Kravish, had his hands full with Arizona’s 7’0” Kaleb Tarczewski.  That matchup allowed power forward Brandon Ashley to take advantage of smaller defenders on his way to a career-best 21 points. Still, Kravish succumbed to foul trouble, playing just 17 minutes.

Leading scorer Tyrone Wallace led Cal with 16 points but missed 11 of his 18 shot attempts.  The Bears’ other two threats to put up decent numbers, Jabari Bird and Jordan Mathews, converted just four of their 14 shot attempts.

Once the rout took hold, so did the personalities in the sold out crowd at the McKale Center.  Four ultra-serious historical impersonators, complete with the fake white hair and a hand-written plaque called the “Declaration of Rondaependence,” appeared pleased when their accomplished leader, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson recovered his lost dribble and spun around Cal’s Sam Singer for a dunk that put the Cats up 39-18 with 4 minutes remaining in the opening half.

“Learn from it.  Keep moving.  You don’t have time to dwell on it,” Martin said when asked if his Bears would easily recover emotionally from the lopsided affair.

Hollis-Jefferson was one of six Wildcats to finish in double figures led by Ashley’s 21 points and Tarczewski with 14.

The Bears (17-13, 7-10) conclude the regular season on Saturday afternoon in Tempe where they will face Arizona State, who got past Stanford, 67-62, on Thursday.