California Teams

Gonzaga star Adam Morrison would look good in blue and orange. Maybe Texas power forward LaMarcus Aldridge will come out for this year's NBA draft. Perhaps the Warriors could trade up to take Connecticut's Rudy Gay.
After their 104-101 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats at Bobcats Arena on Wednesday, the Warriors can pretty much forget about the playoffs and start focusing on their 12th consecutive consolation prize.
``We were looking to win four out of five and get back into the playoff hunt,'' forward Troy Murphy said after the Warriors' fourth consecutive loss, including the past three on the road. ``So far, this trip has been disastrous for us.''
The Warriors (25-36) are 6 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Lakers for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. They need to win 16 of their final 21 games just to reach .500.
``That's way out of the picture, the playoffs,'' said Warriors guard Jason Richardson, who had 27 points on 11-for-23 shooting. ``We still have a chance, but that's not what we're focusing on.''
Richardson had been carrying the Warriors, averaging 33 points on 48.3 percent shooting in the five games entering Wednesday. But in the final four minutes Wednesday, he was 1 for 3 with two turnovers, his biggest miss coming on a turnaround attempt over forward Gerald Wallace with 16.9 seconds left, keeping the Warriors' lead at 101-100.
Although the Warriors dominated the boards 53-33, a rebound they didn't get did them in. Wallace soared in and dunked Melvin Ely's missed shot to put the Bobcats ahead 102-101 with 7.7 seconds remaining.
Then there's Warriors guard Baron Davis. He finally abandoned the three-point shot and focused on going to the basket, sore right ankle and all. He had success: All four of his shots were inside the key, producing four points, and he assisted on a Richardson three-pointer off penetration. Then, with seven seconds left and the Warriors down by a point, he got a first step with one move, but his ankle wouldn't allow a second move to get him to the basket. He settled for a 14-footer and missed.
``I had him,'' Davis said. ``Then when I pushed off I wanted to make another move, but I kind of got stuck. That's a problem with my ankle; it gets stuck and I can't really push off. So I was just able to get him off me and get a clean look.''
And thus another disappointing ending for the Warriors.
``We're in a little situation where momentum seems to be spinning backward on us and we can't get out of it,'' Coach Mike Montgomery said. ``We did everything we needed to do, essentially, except win the game. But I could say that about 10 games this year.''

California Teams

Cal's reward for beating USC 71-60 in the regular-season finale of the Pac-10 Conference season Saturday is the chance to play the Trojans again on Thursday.
And while the Bears are taking a low-key approach to the rematch in the opening round of the Pac-10 Tournament, USC coach Tim Floyd said he's not excited about his team's draw at the Staples Center.
"They've already beaten us twice — those guys have our number," Floyd said.
If Cal (18-9, 12-6) can pull off a third win this season over the Trojans (17-12, 8-10), they may find their way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003.
Or maybe the Bears, who finished alone in third place, are in the postseason mix already.
For 17 consecutive years, every Pac-10 team that has won at least 12 conference games — all 50 of them — have been rewarded with an NCAA bid. Of course, few of those teams entered the regular-season finale having lost three of four games, as the Bears had. "It's a real tough science," senior Rod Benson said of trying to decipher the NCAA picture. "It's hard to predict who's in, who's out. I, like everyone else, watches the bracketology shows.
"It's really up to the (NCAA selection) committee. All we can do is play the games."
Cal played this one well enough in the second half to extend a 24-23 lead at the intermission to 16 points with 11 minutes left. It didn't hurt that USC missed 22 of its first 25 3-point shots and finished the game at 29.5-percent from the field overall.
On Senior Day, sophomore Leon Powe had 22 points and 11 rebounds for his 13th double-double of the season, then tried not to pay attention as the Cal student section chanted, "One more year."
This was a critical game for the Bears, wounded emotionally by Thursday's 67-58 overtime loss to UCLA, a setback that cost them a chance for their first conference title in 46 years.
Cal coach Ben Braun, whose mantra is to take games one at a time without considering potential distractions such as the NCAA Tournament, actually addressed the subject in his pregame talk.
"Here's what I said ... I told the guys we can't go back and get the Pac-10 championship," Braun said. "But we can achieve our goal of playing in the postseason."
The players knew exactly what was on the line. "I'll tell you one thing," Powe said, "if we had lost this, I knew we were
out."
Neither team played inspired ball in the first half, the Bears leading by just one point over a team that shot 29 percent. Powe had 14 points by halftime, but Braun encouraged him to get his teammates more involved in the final 20 minutes.
"I said, 'OK, coach, you're right. They're all keying on me. I'll try to do that,'" Powe said. "And they were getting better shots. But give them the credit, they did the rest."
The Bears got some easy fastbreak baskets, and junior guard Ayinde Ubaka, who has struggled the past couple of weeks, came alive. He scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer with 6:16 left after the Trojans had scrapped to within 50-38.
Braun conceded that Ubaka, who ranks second in the Pac-10 in minutes played, may be getting tired. He also suggested, "Ayinde's getting what Leon's getting right now. That's the price you pay when you become a pretty good player. They're not giving him a lot of looks.
"But Ayinde has a knack. He seems to always hit a big shot for our team."
The Trojans hit very few shots until the final 3:10, after which they made five of their eight 3-point baskets. They needed a Haas Pavilion-record 35 attempts to reach that total.
"The shot chart told the story," Floyd said.
The teams have just a few days to prepare for the rematch.
"It's a new game when we get to Staples," USC sophomore Nick Young said.
Powe agreed but said the Bears would like to add to their postseason rsum.
"I want to do some more," he said. "I think we're very close ... if we get a couple more wins, I think that will assure us."

California Teams

Ben Braun is right about one thing: You don't know if his Cal basketball team already has reserved itself a spot in the NCAA tournament, and neither does he.
One side of the room argues the Golden Bears have done enough already to have their ticket punched, with eight wins in their past 11 games, a road win over Pac-10 champion UCLA, a recent overtime loss to those same Bruins, plus at least once victory over each conference school, adding up to 18 overall wins and a third-place finish.
There's another crowd that points out the Bears have just the one "good" road victory all season, suffered embarrassing home losses to No.9 seed Oregon State and No.8 seed Arizona State, and are floating around in computer limbo with an unimpressive RPI rating of No.59.
So as the Bears (18-9, 12-6) prepare to face USC (17-12, 8-10) today in their quarterfinal-round Pac-10 tournament game at Staples Center, Braun won'texpend a lot of sweat trying to figure out what is unknowable until Sunday's NCAA selections.
"We don't know," he said. "We have to go out and play the game."
Among today's four quarterfinal games, it's safe to say no team has more to gain — or lose — by a single outcome than the Bears.
Sure, any team that runs the table secures the league's automatic NCAA bid. Short of that, Cal has more at stake than anyone else, because no other Pac-10 team is teetering on the fence.
UCLA, Washington and Arizona are in — no one's arguing the point. The other six are out — barring the automatic bid — and no one's debating that, either.
Cal sophomore center DeVon Hardin of Newark, who had 10 points and 11 rebounds Saturday in the 71-60 win over the Trojans, said the Bears aren't taking anything for granted.
"It's a new game, a new day," said Hardin, named to the all-Pac-10 honorable mention list this week. "They're the same team, but they're going to take a different approach, I'm sure."
Beyond that, Hardin said he's not trying to figure out where the Bears fit into the NCAA picture. "I leave that up to the coaches to stress about," he said.
The source of stress to USC coach Tim Floyd is the question of how to defuse Cal's size advantage. The 6-foot-11 Hardin and 6-8 Leon Powe combined for 32 points and 22 rebounds Saturday, and the Bears outscored the Trojans 32-12 in the paint.
"It's not something we're going to be able to cure between today and game time," Floyd said early in the week. His lineup includes one big man and four perimeter players.
If he goes with a second post player, Floyd said the tradeoff is the loss of a scorer. The status quo means trapping on defense, which weakens the Trojans' ability to keep Cal away from the offensive boards.
"It's a team we struggle matching up with," Floyd said.
From Cal's point of view, the matchups last Saturday required Hardin to defend USC's quick 6-6 sophomore wing Nick Young.
"That was fun," Hardin said. "He's an excellent player — a future NBA player. He has a spin move that's hard to guard."
Hardin did a nice job, holding Young to 12 points — five below his average — on 4-for-13 shooting.
Powe said he volunteered for the assignment last weekend, but the coaching staff didn't want to risk him getting into early foul trouble. Would the Bears switch things up today?
"At Washington, I chased a couple fools around," Powe said of his past forays out to the perimeter. "But DeVon did pretty good."