BearTalk

 As impressive as Washington was Friday night in a 79-64 rout of Stanford in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals, Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar knows his team has an entirely different challenge awaiting today.

Cal has won six straight games and nine of 10 entering the 3 p.m. Pac-10 tournament championship game at the Staples Center.

“I think they are better definitely from the first time we’ve played,” Romar said, looking back on UW’s 84-69 win in Seattle nearly two months ago. “Right now they’ve gotten into a great rhythm to where they’re playing very, very good basketball.

“Those three 1,000-point career scorers been through a lot of games,” Romar said of Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson. “They play with a great calm, don’t get rattled and they do a trmendous job.”

The three totaled for 60 points in the Bears’ 85-72 semifinal win over UCLA.

UW’s answer to Cal’s threesome is the dynamic tandem of Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas, who have combined for 87 points in two games against the Bears this season.

“Cal’s a great team,” Pondexter said. “They took advantage of us when we were down there at Cal. We had our way with them at our place. It’s going to be a lot of fun out there.”

Romar said junior center Matthew Bryan-Amaning, who had nine points and 11 rebounds against Stanford, has improved UW’s attack over the past dozen games. He also said forward Justin Holiday has been invaluable, contributing “energy, focus and all-out grit.”

Both teams seem safely into the NCAA Tournament field, but the Huskies aren’t feeling quite as comfortable after finishing third in the regular season. Cal is hoping to add a Pac-10 tournament crown to the regular-season title it won for the first time in 50 years.

“It’s an opportunity for us to win a championship, then also maybe make sure we take it out of the committee’s hand for the NCAA Tournament,” Romar said.

He’s not convinced the Huskies are in at 23-9?

“You just never know, that’s all,” he said. “There are teams that have had great cases in the past. They all line up on Selection Sunday only to be disappointed.”

COURTING SAN JOSE: Cal senior Jamal Boykin says he believes — or at least hopes — the Bears can get placed at the San Jose site of the NCAA Tournament if they win the conference crown today. Conventional wisdom is that Cal would have to ascend to a No. 5 seed to avoid being sent on the road.

“We know about the potential to be in San Jose, and how great that would be for our fans and the community,” he said. “So we want to give ourselves the best chance to not only have the best seed, but also to play close to home.

“That’s the rumor . . . that’s kind of what we’ve heard. That’s potentially. Really, that’s not in our control. But the fact that that can possibly happen is motivation.”

But Boykin said that angle is only a small part of what will drive the Bears today.

“We have not won a Pac-10 tournament championship,” he said. “The senior class, along with everyone on the team, we all want to leave our legacy this year. A big part of that is winning games and continuing this momentum we have right now.

“We know what it’s like to be a ninth-place team, we know what it’s like to be at the bottom of the Pac-10. To work our way up and to be at this point and to be this close, that would be huge for us.” 

TWICE AS NICE IN L.A.: Cal’s semifinal win over UCLA gave the Golden Bears two victories over the Bruins in Los Angeles in the same season for the first time since the 1952-53 campaign. Granted, they’ve only played twice in L.A. in a  season 13 times since then, but this was a first over that 57-year span.

23 AND COUNTING: The Bears’ 23 victories match their season total from the 1996-97 and 2001-02 campaigns and are the most since they went 28-2 in 1959-60.

Cal has won more than 23 games just five times:
   24-8 in 1938-39 (including 3 wins vs. non-college teams)
   30-6 in 1945-46 (including 10 wins vs. non-college teams)
   25-9 in 1947-48 (including 2 wins vs. non-college teams)
   25-4 in 1958-59
   28-2 in 1959-60

Do the math: Only two Cal teams in history have won more than 23 games against an all-college schedule.

PREVIOUSLY: Cal and Washington split two games this season, each winning at home. The Huskies routed the Bears 84-69 in Seattle on Jan. 16, getting 25 points from Quincy Pondexter and 20 from Isaiah Thomas. Patrick Christopher scored 28 for the Bears.

In the Feb. 11 rematch at Berkeley, Cal rolled to a 93-81 win, leading by as many as 19 points. Jerome Randle scored 33 points and Jamal Boykin had 20 points and 11 rebounds. Thomas had 24 and Pondexter 18 for UW.

THE SERIES: Cal leads the all-time series 77-74. The teams have met just once previously in the Pac-10 tournament, with the Bears posting an 84-81 win in the No. 8 vs. No. 9 game two years ago.

RANDLE NO. 6 IN BAY: Besides eclipsing Sean Lampley’s Cal career record of 1,776 points, Randle has climbed to No. 6 on the all-time Bay Area Division I list with 1,790 points. Next up is former USF standout Darrall Tucker at 1,805. The Bay Area record is 2,336 points by Stanford’s Todd Lichti.

Boykin said Randle’s teammates are proud of him. “I’m happy to be part of what he was able to accomplish, and so is everyone else,” he said. “He most definitely deserves it and I’m happy that’s a part of his legacy.

“We have so many weapons, for him to have that kind of (school record) with the supporting cast he has around him is amazing.” 

MISCELLANY: Jerome Randle’s 24-point performance against UCLA was his 35th career 20-point game. That ties him with Ansley Truitt (1970-72) for third-most in Cal history. Russ Critchfield (1966-68) had 41 games of 20 points or more, Lamond Murray (1992-94) had 46 . . . Randle now has 518 assists, leaving him three shy of Kevin Johnson, who ranks second on Cal’s career list . . . Theo Robertson scored at least 20 points in all three games vs. UCLA this season . . . Cal’s four senior starters have combined to score 5,609 career points . . . The Bears hope to become the seventh No. 1 seed in 13 seasons to win the Pac-10 tournament title.

TIPOFF: 3 p.m.
WHERE: Staples Center, Los Angeles.
TV: CSNBA
RADIO: 1550-AM

PROBABLE LINEUPS

CAL (23-9, 13-5)
Starters                                 Ht   Yr   Pts   Rebs
SF Theo Robertson                    6-6   Sr.  13.7  4.7
PF Jamal Boykin                        6-8  Sr.   11.7  6.5
SF Omondi Amoke                     6-7  So.    4.8  4.7
SG Patrick Christopher              6-5  Sr.   16.1  5.5
PG Jerome Randle                    5-8  Sr.   18.9  4.5*

Key reserves
G Jorge Gutierrez                       6-3  So.  5.5  3.1
C Markhuri Sanders-Frison          6-7  Jr.   3.3  3.2
C Max Zhang                            7-2  S0.   3.4  2.5

Washington (23-9, 11-7)
Starters                             Ht   Yr   Pts   Rebs
SF  Quincy Pondexter          6-6   Sr.   19.8   7.6
SF Justin Holiday                  6-6  Jr.    5.5    4.3
C Matthew Bryan-Amaning    6-9  Jr.    8.7   5.9
SG Isaiah Thomas               5-8  So.   17.1  4.1
PG Abdul Gaddy                   6-3   Fr.   4.1   2.3*

Key reserves
G Venoy Overton                5-11  Jr.   8.5  3.2*
G Elston Turner                    6-4   So.  5.1  1.9
G Scott Suggs                     6-6   So.   5.0  1.3
* – Assists