BearTalk

Zone defense is very much in vogue this season in the Pac-10.

Arizona State, with its matchup zone, and Oregon State, with its 1-3-1 alignment, gave people trouble defensively a year ago. When a young UCLA team struggled early in the year, coach Ben Howland, a devout practitioner of man-t0-man, did a 180-degree turn and went to a zone that was good enough Cal shot just 2-for-18 from the 3-point arc. And Oregon, on the verge of a total collapse, surprised UCLA with a zone and pulled the upset.

“Many more teams are playing zone than have in the past,” acknowledged USC coach Kevin O’Neill. “For instance, UCLA is playing exclusively zone now and in the past played exclusively man. Ben is adjusting well to his personnel.

“Coaches are playing zone to try to win games.”

Don’t expect either team to play much — if any — zone tonight when Cal (14-7, 6-3) faces USC (12-9, 4-5) at the Galen Center.

“I wish we played the zone better. We not a very good zone team,  not that we’ve spent a lot of time wth that,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. When they have tried, he said, “Our coverages aren’t great.”

Tonight would be an ideal time for the Bears to unveil a zone because USC has size up front and does not shoot the ball often or well from the perimeter. The Trojans are last in the Pac-10 with 74 3-pointers made and eighth in accuracy from beyond the arc at 32.2 percent.

“We see a lot of zone because of our personnel and who we are,” O’Neill said.

Playing zone more easily allows Montgomery to use 7-foot-2 1/4 center Max Zhang, who can station himself in the middle of the key and defend the rim. Expect to see more of him in any case tonight because the Trojans feature 6-10 Nikola Vucevic and 6-9, 235-pound forward Alex Stepheson. Plus, Zhang played well in an 11-minute stint at Arizona, blocking four shots and completing a three-point play the only time he attempted a shot.

Likewise, USC first-year coach Kevin O’Neill — who spent seven seasons in the NBA — isn’t likely to stray from man-to-man.

 ”We’ve played seven possessions of zone all season,” said O’Neill, explaining that the Trojans prevented the opponent from scoring, but three gave up offensive rebounds.  “Everybody has their own beliefs. I’m just a man-to-man guy.”

MONTY ON THE PAC-10 RACE:  Asked if the tight Pac-10 race — combined with some mediocre overall records — will cost the Pac-10 at NCAA Tournament selection time, Montgomery said, “To be very honest, there’s several teams that if they finish up top, is going to hurt everybody, because of the way it’s going to be viewed, because they’re not giving us any credit for playing each other in the league.

“Now the teams that have been viewed to be not very good by the pundits all of a sudden are beating people, then it means no one’s any good. And that’s a problem. That’s the problem we had entering into the league, and it’s a problem we¹re still gonna have.”

USC SCOUT:  How badly does USC struggle to score? Well, the Trojans have lost five games in Pac-10 play, and have not allowed more than 67 points in any of them.

“We do have trouble scoring the ball,” O’Neill said. “To me, it’s not unexpected. We lost six of our top seven from last year’s team and our entire recruiting class. We have  bunch of guys in first-time roles, we’re not very deep, and our shooting percentages from 3-point and free throw line will tell you where we are skill-wise.

“We have to rely heavily on our defense and we break down for 3 or  4 minutes, it’s extremely hard to win games.”

Montgomery has been impressed. “SC is very athletic,” he said. “I watched the Washington-SC tape (of USCs 87-61 win), and it was a doggone war in there. They are pretty physical, they can really defend.”

O’NEILL ON BEARS: ”I think Cal’s an excellent team. And they’re probably going to come in here a little angry after losing to Arizona.”

O’NEILL ON TROJANS: Check out this L.A. Times story where O’Neill and a couple of his players grade the team’s performance so far.

THE SERIES: Cal beat the Trojans 67-59 in Berkeley last month as Jerome Randle scored 21 points and Theo Robertson had 20. The teams met three times last season, each winning on its home court before USC beat the Bears at the Pac-10 tournament. Cal leads the all-time series 127-118.

 MISCELLANY: Jerome Randle (1,580 points) is 28 points shy of Leonard Taylor (1,608), who ranks seventh on Cal’s career scoring list . . . Patrick Christopher is ninth (1,499 points) and Theo Robertson is 27th (1,116 points) . . . Randle has 213 career 3-point baskets, one shy of the Cal record held by Ryan Drew (1988-91) . . . Randle also is creeping closer to Jason Kidd and the No. 3 spot on Cal’s career assist chart. Randle has 474, while Kidd dished 494 — in two seasons . . . Cal (plus-4.8) and USC (plus-4.5) rank 2-3 in the league in rebounding margin, behind Washington (plus-5.0).

TIPOFF: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Galen Center, Los Angeles
TV: None
RADIO: 1550-AM

PROBABLE LINEUPS

CAL (14-7, 6-3)
Starters                                 Ht   Yr   Pts   Rebs
SF Theo Robertson                    6-6   Sr.  14.2  4.5
PF Jamal Boykin                        6-8  Sr.  11.3  6.5
PF  Omondi Amoke                    6-7  So.   5.4  5.4
SG Patrick Christopher              6-5  Sr.   16.4  5.8
PG Jerome Randle                  5-10  Sr.   18.9  4.8*

Key reserves
G Jorge Gutierrez                    6-3  So.   5.0  2.8
G Nikola Knezevic                    6-2  Sr.   2.3  0.4
C  Max Zhang                          7-2  So.  3.7  2.9

USC (12-9, 4-5)
Starters                             Ht   Yr   Pts   Rebs
SF  Marcus Johnson              6-6   Sr.  10.2   4.8
PF Alex Stepheson                6-9   Jr.    9.5   7.6
C Nikola Vucevic               6-10   So.   11.6   9.6
SG Dwight Lewis                  6-5   Sr.  13.7   2.5
PG  Mike Gerrity                   6-1  Sr.    9.3   4.1*

Key reserves
F Leonard Washington            6-7  So.   6.2   4.3
G Marcus Simmons                6-6  Jr.    2.9   2.0
G Donte Smith                      5-11  Jr.   4.1   1.3
* – Assists