BearTalk

Various musings and observations after the second weekend of the Pac-10 schedule as we await the avalanche of hype leading to Mike Montgomery’s return to Stanford:

– Before everyone assumes a huge gulf is opening between Cal (4-0 in Pac-10) and Stanford (1-3), consider that the Bears won by 7 points at WSU and after three OTs at Washington, while the Cardinal lost by 1 point at each place. Stanford could easily be 3-1 in the conference right now. This will be a difficult game, physically and emotionally.

– Still, it’s clear that among many differences between this Cal team and last year’s squad is a toughness that’s beginning to develop.  I liked the way Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times put it, so we’ll steal from his column: “In the final four minutes of regulation and through three overtimes, Cal was tougher than Washington. The Bears were Baltimore Ravens tough, which is exactly what you have to be in the Pac-10.”

– At what juncture did Cal point guard Jerome Randle, who was having a terrible weekend, switch it on against the Huskies? Right after Montgomery sent freshman Jorge Gutierrez in to defend UW rookie Isaiah Thomas and take over some of the ballhandling duties. The result was Randle was freed up from having to do too much, got away from a distracting 1-on-1 duel with Thomas, and suddenly was his old-new self again.

– The bandwagon is about to get crowded. Three days after he identified Washington as the Pac-10’s sleeper team, ESPN.com’s Andy Katz named Cal his team of the week and suggested Mike Montgomery would be national coach of the year, if the award were given at midseason.

– Something is brewing at Oregon, and it isn’t good. Do TaJuan Porter and coach Ernie Kent have a budding feud?  When the junior guard didn’t chase after a loose ball Saturday at Arizona State, Kent benched his leading scorer for the rest of the game. The Ducks are 0-4 in the Pac-10, Porter is shooting 10-for-49 the past five games, and now he’s pouting. Kent said things will be resolved quickly. If they’re not, this could spiral out of control.

– Wonder how much time new Oregon State coach Craig Robinson will have to prepare for the Beavers’ game at Cal a week from Thursday. He’ll be at his brother-in-law’s inauguration next Monday, and isn’t scheduled to rejoin the team until Wednesday in Berkeley.

– UCLA: 3-0 in the Pac-10 and still awaiting its first home game.

– Arizona got back to .500 in the conference by sweeping the Oregons at home — the easiest weekend every team will have this season — and now the Wildcats visit the Bruins. UCLA has won the last seven meetings in the series and drilled the Cats 82-60 at Pauley Pavilion a year ago.

– Back to earth for Oregon State sophomore guard Calvin Haynes, who scored at a 17.8 ppg clip his previous six games and did lots of talking. In two losses in Arizona, Haynes shot 5-for-21.

– A statistical smorgasbord for Washington power forward Jon Brockman: He became the first Husky to top 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds for his career, had 35 points and 36 rebounds against Stanford and Cal, made the winning shot vs. the Cardinal, but shot a combined 5-for-18 from the FT line in the two games. How long until someone goes Hack-a-Shaq on the guy?