By Morris Phillips

In 1923, when Sam Houston Normal Institute was renamed to Sam Houston State Teachers College, the school’s nickname, “Normals” had to go as well. To capitalize on a regional phrase of the day, “Tough as a Bearkat,” the nickname Bearkats was born at the college in Southeast Texas even though no such animal actually exists.

But animal experts know that the kinkajou, a 10-pound mammal found in the South American rainforests is often referred to as a bearcat, even though the animal is neither related to the bear or cat families. Small, cuddly and docile, the kinkajou are often kept as exotic pets, but if startled or alarmed by loud noises, the little critters can pull an about face and scream, or in rare occasions, even bite.

With that background, fast forward to Monday night on Pete Newell Court where the Bears and the Bearkats met for the first time ever in a non-conference basketball game that didn’t figure to be particularly competitive given that Cal is ranked 14^th nationally and Sam Houston State is retooling after losing five seniors from a 26-win club that participated in the College Invitational Tournament last spring.

But before you could say “blowout,” the Sam Houston State Bearkats, maybe startled by a noisy Haas Pavilion or just plain agitated for no obvious reason jumped out to a 7-0 lead prompting Coach Cuonzo Martin to call a timeout to see where his team’s collective heads were. And it was at this moment that a fascinating tidbit of information was revealed to Martin and the announced crowd of better than 8,000:

(Dramatic pause) Super frosh Jaylen Brown is as talented as advertised.

Brown struck back at the Bearkats by coming up with a stocking-stuffer of performance with 18 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two steals in Cal’s 89-63 win that moved them to 4-0 on the season ahead of their first true tests this weekend in Las Vegas with San Diego State up first at Orleans Arena on Thanksgiving night.

“I’m excited to go to Vegas and see what we’re made of,” Brown said. “We’ve been preparing all week and all season. All the suicides, yelling, screaming and encouragement, this is what it’s for.”

Brown surprised the world of college basketball by choosing Cal over the traditional bluebloods like Kentucky and Duke. And now that Brown and fellow freshman Ivan Rabb have meshed their talents with Cal’s holdovers, the potential for a special season is apparent. But when speed bumps like SHSU’s fast start on Monday arise, Martin has to make sure he has conductors, and not passengers, along for the ride.

“A lot of good coaches are happy with the team playing the right way,” Brown said of the early timeout. “He didn’t say anything about the score, he just said keep playing basketball and things will fall the right way.”

“We just maintained,” Martin said. “I know we had two breakdowns where they made threes in the first half, but outside of that we just maintained.”

Cal’s response was immediate. The Bears countered with 10 straight points to take the lead starting with Brown’s layup and including a pair of Jordan Mathews three-pointers.   Cal went on to shoot 55 percent in the first half, opening up a 15-point halftime lead. After making three of their first five shots from the field, the Bearkats went cold, missing 22 of 30 to close the half. During Cal’s 15-0 run midway through the half, Sam Houston State missed 12 consecutive shots.

The second half began with Cal focused from the start. The Bears pushed the lead to 24 before the first TV timeout and cruised from there. The Bears led by 30 on a couple of occasions before settling for a 26-point victory.

Leading scorer Tyrone Wallace also contributed 18 points, Mathews had 17 and Jabari Bird chipped in with 10 points. Wallace moved into the list of Cal’s top-20 all-time scorers passing David Kravish with 1,277 points with his effort.

Sam Houston State was led Dakari Henderson with 13 points. Jamal Williams added 12 points, four rebounds and three assists. The Bearkats were out-rebounded 46-31 and couldn’t sustain much offense near the basket, attempting just eight free throws in the game, making four.

“We just got into a stretch where it was about 23-20 with seven minutes left in the half and had a couple of really crucial turnovers that turned into baskets for them and got them going,” SHSU Coach Jason Hooten said. “Once they got going, we couldn’t really stop them.”

Nick Kerr, son of Warriors Coach Steve Kerr made his Cal debut in the second half playing the final minute. The grad student transfer received a healthy dose of applause from the Haas crowd upon his appearance.