BearTalk

Set to take on DePaul (4-0) Wednesday in their first game since losing for the first time this season, the Golden Bears (5-1) remain pointed in the right direction, coach Mike Montgomery believes.

“We’ve got a lot of things we need to get better at, but we’re on the right track,” he said. “There wasn’t anything that caused us problems that had we done it correctly, it wasn’t the right thing to do.

“Rather than, `This isn’t going to work . . .’ it will, if we can execute offensively and be consistent defensively, to the extent of the limitation of our personnel.”

The Bears lost 80-77 to Florida State on Saturday at Las Vegas in the championship game.

“Florida State was very big, very physical. There’s not a lot we can do about that,” Montgomery said. “We’re doing the right things. When we do them, we’ve been successful. When we don’t, Florida State made us pay a lot for when we made a mistake.

“Always, your first thought is, `Aw, this is terrible, nothing’s working, this isn’t the right thing to do.’ But if you look at tape, it is. We’re doing the right stuff. We can be competitive with the things we’re doing if we do it right and do it consistently.”

ANOTHER UNBEATEN FOE: DePaul represents the third straight unbeaten team Cal has faced. “They’ll be a good opponent,” Montgomery said.

The Blue Demons start a pair of 6-foot-10 post players, but Montgomery said their overall size won’t pose the same problem as Florida State did with height at every spot on the floor.

“If you add the heights up, we’re just as tall. Seven-foot and 6-8 is two 6-10s,” he said of DePaul. “Everybody’s going to have two 6-10 guys. That’s just college basketball.

“Florida State, their off-guard was 6-7, their three man was 6-9. It was kind of a collective thing trying to get shots vs. their length.”

Montgomery is impressed by DePaul’s two sophomore standouts, center Mac Koshwal and wing Dar Tucker.

“Very aggressive to the glass,” Montgomery said of Koshwal, a native of the Sudan, who has collected 15 rebounds twice this season. “If you don’t block off, he’ll kill you.”

Koshwal has 20 offensive rebounds in four games and DePaul is averaging 17.3 offensive rebounds per game.

Tucker and shooting guard Jabari Currie both are threats from the 3-point line, although DePaul is converting just 32.1 percent from beyond the arc.

“They’ve got a couple guys who can really shoot the ball, and will shoot it,” Montgomery said. “They’ve got pretty much a green light, it looks like. They’ve got range, and the tape I watched it was just bang, bang, bang, three, three, three.”

Tucker, who has scored 22 points or more in three of DePaul’s four games, is just 10-for-34 for 29.4 percent from deep. Currie is converting 46.2 percent from the 3-point stripe.

Defensively, DePaul creates 8.3 steals per game and forces an average of 17 turnovers.

HOME FOR NOW: This is the Bears’ only home game in a stretch of five outings, sandwiched between two games in Las Vegas last weekend and road contests vs. Missouri on Sunday and Utah next Wednesday.

Patrick Christopher suggested these games will harden the Bears for the Pac-10 season.

“That crowd at UNLV, good lord, that was pretty loud. They cut the lead from 14 to 12 and the roof just blew up, and they were still down by 12,” he said. “These next few games will be good, preparing us for conference play. I think we’re ready.”

TIPOFF: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Haas Pavilion, Berkeley.
TV: CSN California. RADIO: 1550 AM.

NOTES: Cal and DePaul meet for the sixth time, but the first time at Haas Pavilion. The Blue Demons own a 3-2 series lead . . . DePaul, with wins over Albany, Illinois-Chicago, Detroit and Indiana State, is 4-0 for the first time since the 2002-03 season. The Blue Demons have not started 5-0 since 1986-87 . . . This is the Blue Demons’ first game outside the Chicago area . . . DePaul was picked to finish 15th in the 16-team Big East Conference by the league’s coaches . . . Cal will honor its late Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell, who died Nov. 17 at age 93, in a memorial service at 5 p.m. at the Pauley Ballroom on the second floor of the ASUC store, located at Bancroft and Telegraph.

   PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS:

   Cal:
   PF Jamal Boykin, 6-8, Jr., 10.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg
   SF Theo Robertson, 6-5, Jr., 13.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg
   C Jordan Wilkes, 7-0, Jr., 5.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg
   SG Patrick Christopher, 6-5, Jr., 13.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg
   PG Jerome Randle, 5-10, Jr., 20.5 ppg, 4.5 apg

   DePaul:
   PF Matija Poscic, 6-10, Sr., 5.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg
   SF Dar Tucker, 6-4, So., 20.8 ppg, 6.5 rpg
   C Mac Koshwal, 6-10, So., 12.3 ppg, 12.3 rpg
   SG Jabari Currie, 6-4, Sr., 7.5 ppg, 1.8 apg
   PG Bill Walker, 6-0, Jr., 11.8 ppg, 2.8 apg