Having gotten over the hump in Mike Montgomery’s first game as coach, the Bears look forward to three games in a span of seven days, beginning Tuesday against USF. All three games are at Haas Pavilion.

USF beat Hawaii and Texas State to win the Verizon Tip-Off Classic in Honolulu. Cal plays Thursday night against Texas-Pan American, which posted an 84-59 win over someone called Sul Ross State. The Bears then close their four-game, season-opening homestand next Monday night against North Carolina A&T, which beat up on Merchant Marine Academy 82-36, then lost Sunday at Central Florida, 81-62.

 Here are a couple leftovers from Saturday night’s 68-56 defeat of Pacific:

– Point guard Jerome Randle said he and his teammates enjoyed the dunk by 7-2 1/2 center Max Zhang against Pacific last Thursday night. “That really pumped the whole team up,” Randle said. “I think Max found his confidence and he’s going to help us down the line.”

– Pacific coach Bob Thomason sees potential in Cal’s untested big men. Center Jordan Wilkes had six points and six rebounds against the Tigers and Zhang contributed five points and three rebounds off the bench. “Their post guys are going to get better as the season goes on,” Thomason said. “What they have to do is just be effective.”

– The Bears shot 8-for-15 from the new 3-point line against Pacific, but scored just 14 points in the paint against a Pacific team without a dominating inside presence on defense. “We can’t settle on being a jump-shooting team,” Montgomery said. “We’ve got to establish an inside game.”