BearTalk

Here’s my story for the Wednesday editions on Cal point guard Jerome Randle and how his mother has helped him navigate through the hard times on the way to Thursday’s NCAA Tournament game against Maryland.

Here’s more from Randle that did not fit into my story:

– Randle had a very close relationship with his older cousin, Daryl “Chunk” Abrams, who would play ball with him . . . but only after Randle properly prepped the neighborhood court.

“In the winter time he would make me shovel the whole court to play ball,” Randle said of snowy days in Chicago. “We were like brothers. He was really, really tough on me. I just hated to lose.

“Just being around me, made my drive go. He was a good basketball player and I wanted to be better than him.”

After Abrams died during Randle’s junior year at Hales Franciscan High School in Chicago, Randle got a tattoo on his right shoulder that reads: In Loving Memory Chunk.

– More on his special relationship with his mother, Zsa Zsa Miller, whom Randle calls his best friend: “I can talk to her about anything in the world. It don’t matter what it is. And she will give me her input. We’re that close. My first two years here, just being down on myself, saying, `I don’t even know if basketball is a game for me anymore.’ I just felt like it was coming to an end for me. I wasn’t playing good, my confidence was low. And my mom kept my spirits up.”

– On his father, Jerome Randle Jr., now divorced from Jerome’s mother: “My dad was the one who put the ball in my hand. I never saw someone who just hit every shot. Growing up, they called him `Otto’ for automatic.”

– On the confidence he has gotten from Cal coach Mike Montgomery: “I don’t have to look to the bench when I make a mistake. If you feel like you’re playing on a leash or playing while trying not to make a mistake, you’re going to make mistakes. You can’t make the plays. You just can’t be yourself, period.

“I can be myself (playing for Montgomery). He’s just trying to teach me the things I need to get where I want to go.”