BearTalk

Still concerned the Bears haven’t found a dependable backup point guard, coach Mike Montgomery said Tuesday he is looking at a new candidate.

Describing the position as “troublesome,” Montgomery said, “I’m going to give Nican a little shot, I think.”

That would be junior walk-on Nican Robinson, the Oakland Tech High grad, who has played one minute in Pac-10 Conference action.

Jorge Gutierrez has been Jerome Randle’s primary understudy, but the freshman has more turnovers (17) than assists (11) in conference play and on Saturday at USC fouled out in just seven minutes. Junior Nikola Knezevic equaled his career-high with eight points last Thursday against UCLA, but his 12 minutes came in garbage time.

“We need to take care of the ball a little bit,” Montgomery said. “We’ve been back and forth beween Jorge and Nikola a little bit with mixed results. (Jorge) does somethings pretty well, but when he gets in trouble he tends to revert back to some old habits that aren’t necessarily good habits.”

Montgomery likes Gutierrez for his defense and energy, but acknowledged he’s still not sure which guard position best suits the rookie. Gutierrez is just 4-for-14 from 3-point range and needs to develop more confidence in his shooting ability, Montgomery said.