BearTalk

Junior center Josh Smith is leaving UCLA and has received release from his scholarship, the school reported.

Smith was averaging just 13.5 minutes and 5.2 points this season. Chronically out of shape, he has played 20 minutes or more in just 34 of 71 career games.

Here’s the full story.

Meanwhile, Stanford junior wing Anthony Brown will undergo season-ending hip surgery.  Brown averaged 8.1 points a year ago, despite battling knee issues. The Cardinal will miss him.

Cal junior point guard Justin Cobbs, who won MVP honors at the DirecTV Classic in Anaheim, was named Pac-12 Player of the Week.

Cobbs averaged 19.3 points over three games as Cal won the event, improving its season record to 6-0. He shot 25 of 29 from the free throw line, and had 17 rebounds, 13 assists and six steals.

Cal’s 3-9 season earned the Golden Bears just two spots on the all-Pac-12 first team, chosen by the coaches and announced Monday.

Center Brian Schwenke and placekicker Vincenzo D’Amato landed first-team spots. Cal had no one on the team team.

Schwenke exceled on an erratic Cal offensive line after being moved from guard to center. D’Amato struggled early as replacement for Giorgio Tavecchio, then finished as the conference leader with 16 field goals (in 23 tries).

USC wideout Marqise Lee won Offensive Player of the Year honors and Arizona State defensive end Will Sutton was Defensive Player of the Year.

A couple of preseason sure things — USC quarterback Matt Barkley and Cal WR Keenan Allen — were relegated to honorable mention status.

Here are Cal’s other HM picks: RS Brendan Bigelow, So.; DB Josh Hill, Sr.; LB Chris McCain, So; ST Avery Sebastian, So.; DB Steve Williams, Jr.

Click here to view the entire all-Pac-12 team.

The NCAA on Friday heard UCLA’s appeal on behalf of freshman Shabazz Muhammad, then ruled his eligible.

The Pac-12 remains unbeaten two days into the season after posting three more non-conference victories on Saturday:

– Arizona State 79, Central Arkansas 64: Point guard Jahii Carson scored 15 points in his long-awaited debut and center Jordan Bachynski had 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Sun Devils. Carson sat out all of last season after he failed to become academically eligible as a freshman.

– Oregon 83, Northern Arizona 73: Center Tony Woods led four double-figure scorers with 14 points and freshman guard Dominic Artis, formerly of Salesian HS, scored 10 points in his college debut for the Ducks.

– Washington State 88, Eastern Washington 69: Brock Motum had 23 points and 10 rebounds and DaVonte Lacy and Mike Ladd each contributed 15 points for the Cougars.

UPDATED

Junior wide receiver Marquess Wilson, who left the Washington State team a week ago, said in a letter to Cougar Nation that he was not booted from the team but quit because of what he claims is a pattern of “abuse” by new coach Mike Leach and his staff.

Wilson, one of the top wide receivers in the Pac-12, said instead of building up the players, the coaches “preferred to belittle, intimidate and humiliate us.”

Click here to read Wilson’s letter.

WSU athletic director Bill Moos released this statement in response to Wilson’s letter:

“It is unfortunate that Marquess has chosen not to go through the weekend and have the subsequent visit with me as we had discussed last Tuesday. I was hopeful to provide additional guidance if he was willing to meet the standards that have been set by Mike Leach and his staff in their effort to establish a competitive football program at Washington State. Unfortunately, during times of coaching transitions, departures are not uncommon.

We have procedures in place that were developed to monitor student-athlete welfare in all of our sports programs. We will continue to follow those procedures and modify them if needed.
I believe I join many Cougars in wishing Marquess well in his future endeavors. WSU athletics plans no future statement at this time.”

 Six Pac-12 basketball teams opened their seasons Friday night and all of them came away with victories:

 – Stanford 74, USF 62: Junior Dwight Powell scored a career-high 27 points as the Cardinal toppled the Dons in front of a sparse crowd at Oracle Arena. Josh Heustis added 11 points and nine rebounds. 

– UCLA 86, Indiana State 59: Jordan Adams stole the spotlight from his more-hyped fellow freshmen, scoring 21 points in front of 13,513 fans in the Bruins’ return to renovated Pauley Pavilion. Freshman Kyle Anderson had 10 points and 10 rebounds while Shabazz Muhammad, regarded as perhaps the nation’s top freshman, was declared ineligible by the NCAA for accepting extra benefits. It’s not known how long Muhammad will be suspended, and UCLA intends to appeal the decision. 

– USC 87, Coppin State 73: Byron Wesley and J.T.Terrell scored 17 points each and 7-foot-2 Omar Oraby, an Egyptian-born transfer from Rice, added 16 for the Trojans in the opening round of the Maui Classic.

– Oregon State 102, Niagara 83: Roberto Nelson led six players in double figures and the Beavers beat the Purple Aces in front of 3,206 fans at Gill Coliseum. Eric Moreland added 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks for OSU.

– Colorado 74, Wofford 59: Josh Scott scored 14 points and Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie each had 13 and the Buffaloes won in front of 10,611 in Boulder.

– Utah 104, Willamette 47: Jordan Loveridge had 18 points and 10 rebounds and the Buffaloes never looked back after racing to a 52-22 halftime lead.

To celebrate the start of basketball season, Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic has assembled a Pac-12 roundtable, involving four writers who regularly cover the conference.

Percy Allen of the Seattle Times, Bob Clark of the Register-Guard in Eugene and I also participated, answering seven questions.

See if you agree with us:  

1. True or false: UCLA is back.

Doug Haller: False. The Bruins have a lot to sort out. Josh Smith is skilled
enough to be in the NBA right now, but he hasn’t dedicated himself to getting
into shape. Star freshman Shabazz Muhammad still hasn’t been cleared by  the
NCAA. Will all the newcomers, including transfer point guard Larry Drew, defend
to coach Ben Howland’s liking? Obviously, Howland has a lot of pieces, but I’m
still unsure how they’ll all fit together.

Percy Allen: True and false. The Bruins are better than they were last season
and they were 19-14 and tied for fifth in the conference. They’ll contend for a
Pac-12 title and advance to the NCAA Tournament or else coach Ben Howland won’t
return in 2013. However, it’s premature to say the Bruins are “back” to the
level they were in 4-5 years ago when they made consecutive Final Four
appearances under Howland.

Bob Clark: If back is contending in the Pac-12, I’d agree. But on a national
level It remains to be seen. And then there’s the question of whether it’s a
one-year return, because a bunch of these Bruins might be looking at moving on
after this season. It will be interesting to see the impact of the redone Pauley
Pavilion. That had to be a factor last season, when the Bruins didn’t have a
home on campus.

Jeff Faraudo: False, at least until the Bruins show otherwise. If Shabazz
Muhammad becomes eligible, the team gets healthy, the newcomers mesh with the
returnees and coach Ben Howland gets everyone to play his way (defense), then
we’ll get on board. The talent and depth are certainly there.

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The Eugene Register-Guard has determined that Oregon, at its current pace, could become the first BCS team to ever to score 100 touchdowns in a season.

It only seems like the Ducks scored that many just last Saturday against USC.

Which brings us to Oregon’s visit to Berkeley on Saturday night. Cal actually has played the Ducks about as well as any Pac-12 team in recent years.

Consider:

2011: Oregon won 43-15 in Eugene, but Cal led 15-14 at the half.

2010: The Ducks scored just one offensive touchdown in a 15-13 victory at Berkeley.

2009: Well, let’s ignore this one (a 42-3 Oregon win).

2008: Cal won 26-16 at Memorial Stadium.

So, over the past eight halves of football between the two teams, Cal has either played better or virtually even with the Ducks in five of them.

The difference this year isn’t Oregon’s improved speed, better defense or the  refinement of coach Chip Kelly’s offensive system.

The difference is Cal. While Oregon boasts the nation’s most prolific offense (54.3 ppg), the Bears rank 63rd in scoring defense (27.6 ppg allowed).

That defense has improved some in recent weeks, allowing 21 points or fewer in four of the past five games. At the same time, the offense has regressed, totaling just 22 points over the past three games, if you don’t count 21 garbage-time points in the lopsided loss at Utah.

And now the Bears will go at Oregon with their second-string quarterback.

There’s just no way this game adds up to anything other than an Oregon victory. And by a fairly sizable margin.

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UCLA freshman guard Kyle Anderson, regarded as one of the top recruits in the nation, reportedly has gotten eligibility clearance from the NCAA, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Here’s the story.

UCLA’s Shabazz Muhammad, considered by some to be the top freshman in the country, still is under NCAA investigation.