The Bears opened the half with an eight-point lead, managing to quickly watch it erode to four, only to build it back up to 12 at the 17:07 mark. Then back to eight at 15:44.

Sanders-Frison picked up his third and fourth fouls within a minute of each other and was subbed out for Jorge Gutierrez. Cal leads, 50-42. Two points for Detroit on the first possession after the sub.

A nice move inside by Patrick Christopher for a fadeaway floater, then a three-pointer. Followed by a defensive rebound and an assist to Theo Robertson for a three — Cal 58-44. And another three for Robertson leads to a timeout with 12:22 remaining.

But how will Cal respond after playing so streaky all game? (Click here to read more…)

SCORE: Cal 40, Detroit 32.

Kind of a nondescript and ugly first half. Both teams have more turnovers than they do assists – six turnovers for the Bears, eight for the Titans.

Markhuri Sanders-Frison got a few touches early on and already has four points. Getting it low really gives Cal a different look offensively. The junior has six points, four rebounds and an assist at the half.

Jerome Randle has 16 points on 4-of-6 from the floor and 2-for-3 behind the arc. The point guard has two rebounds, two assists and two turnovers. Randle has been getting trailed up and down the court with or without the ball. He seems to be settling into the pressure as the game wears on.

Patrick Christopher is 2-of-8 from the floor and 0-for-3 from deep. He has an assist, a steal and a turnover.

Max Zhang got his obligatory minutes to an over-the-top ovation from the crowd. Zhang has one point, which was also cheered for heavily. When he missed the second free throw, the crowd “oh”-ed like Cal lost at the buzzer.

Cal is shooting 25 percent from three at the half.

More updates to follow.

FINAL: Cal 75, Murray State 70.

Cal isn’t closing out strong on the perimeter, and the Racers are making them pay for it with three-balls. Fortunately for the Bears, Murray State is having trouble stopping them on offense.

Cal’s ball movement is noticeably more fluid with Smith on the floor, looking for his teammates before his own shot.

However, the Racers have reduced the gap due to Bears’ mistakes on defense: missed box-outs, weak transition defense and poor closeouts. The lead doesn’t seem to be in any real danger though with the 7:13 left to play, as the Bears are up 64-50.

Nevermind … (Click here to read more…)

After trading scores with Murray State just inside of half, the Bears began to break it open with a pair of threes from Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson to push their lead to 11.

On the next play down the floor, the Racers turned it over, sending Christopher the other way for the layup and the foul. Christopher made it count, and in three trips the lead went from five to 14.

SCORE: Cal 45, Murray State 31, with 15:44 left in the game

Christopher began to look for himself on offense for the first time in the game with a three that rattled out followed by a foot-fake jump shot for a long two points.

Jorge Gutierrez hit a three and pushed the lead to 18, forcing the Racers to take a timeout with 12:34 left.

Side note: True freshman Brandon Smith has been getting in a little bit for Jerome Randle and has been holding his own. He offers a more stable style of play at the point guard position compared with Randle’s sometimes-reckless effort. Smith has two points.

SCORE: Cal 34, Murray State 26.

The Bears are streaky tonight. Jerome Randle has had his ups and downs. The senior guard has a team high 10 points, eight of those coming from the line. He is one-of-six from the floor with two turnovers and an assist.

Markhuri Sanders-Frison is making his presence known on defense and the boards, racking up five rebounds and a steal in the first half. The junior college transfer has not been getting any looks down low on offense, though, getting only two touches in his 11 minutes, one of which was an assist.

Patrick Christopher has been relatively quiet in his 16 minutes of action. His two points came off a back-door play, which he turned into a two-handed highlight-reel dunk over two defenders from the baseline.

Sloppy D

Cal forward Jamal Boykin misses box out on the first trip down on defense, but got it back two minutes later when he took a charge.

After having trouble with Murray State’s picks, Cal came out of the TV timeout with a 2-3 zone. But that held up for half a possession, as Ivan Aska slipped in behind Patrick Christopher for two points and the foul.

The Racers continue to get easy layups inside.

Randle’s Play

Cal coach Mike Montgomery could be heard across the court saying something to the effect of “Jerome that’s on you” when Randle didn’t get through on a pick.

Two plays later, Randle — still as trigger-happy as ever — tried to get it back with a long three, which hit hard off the heel of the rim.

After a ball-handling turnover, Randle was yanked for freshman Brandon Smith.

SCORE: 16-16, with 11:49 left in the first half

If the feature on his style wasn’t enough, then you are in luck. Patrick Christopher actually called me at about 10 p.m. on Friday night after the interview, asking if I would email him the questions, so he could maybe add a little more than what he had said in the 15 minute interview.

The guy is a catch. For an athlete to do this is above and beyond any and all expectations. My dad once told me of a famous Milwaukee Brewer (hint: he’s in the Hall of Fame now), who spit on my father’s  shoes when he tried to ask him a few questions for a feature.

Needless to say, Christopher is a gem. So as a sort of thank you to P. Chris here is how he responded via email to my questions. Most of these never made it to print. So here goes (consider all answers sic’d):

How would you define your style?

I would define it as versatile, classic, timeless, confident, daring. It’s probably more Euro because I prefer my clothes to fit slim. Versatile: because I’m not set on one style of clothing. I love a well tailored suit, but a vintage T, some levi’s and a pair of purcell’s or Air Force One’s can also get the job done. Classic: because Class never goes out of style. You can’t go wrong. Timeless: I would say because with certain things I put together comes from different era’s, and that ties into classic clothing. Confident: simply because I think I can pull anything off.

A guy may look at me like what the heck am I wearing and I’ll get a compliment from a girl. At the end of the day, I dress for myself, but people always have something to say no matter what you do in life. So with that being said, a compliment from a girl can max out 100 guys looking at me crazy. And I say daring because I’m not afraid to dress. Most males in America are afraid to dress because the perception that they may think other people have about them. And that’s something I would say does not effect me. When you allow people to influence you, you turn into them and not yourself.

(Click here to read more…)

Barack Obama unveiled his NCAA tournament bracket picks earlier today in the New York Times and in a 10-minute spot with Andy Katz on ESPN.com, strengthening his hold on the title of “Coolest President Ever.”

The President picked a Final Four of three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 — Louisville, Pitt, North Carolina and Memphis. He has the Tar Heels winning a North Carolina-Pitt championship game. But out of the few upsets that he picked, one of those, inexplicably, was No. 7 seed Cal losing in the first round to No. 10 seed Maryland.
(Click here to read more…)

On Monday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association named Cal men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery a finalist for the Henry Iba Award, coming one step closer to proving that good work doesn’t go unnoticed even in the Pac-10.

Montgomery is one of 10 finalists for the award, which is given annually to the Association’s national coach of the year. He and Utah State coach Stew Morrill are the only two finalists whose teams aren’t currently in the AP Top 25.

(Click here to read more…)

Jamal Boykin didn’t steal the show in the January 10th 88-85 triple-OT win over Washington (no, that job was left for Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher, who scored 68 of Cal’s 88 points to beat the Huskies — not to mention, D.J. Seeley, whose three-point play at the end of the second overtime kept the game alive).

Perhaps that is because triple-overtime games ain’t no big thing for the Bears’ 6-foot-8 power forward. After all, he has been there, done that when it comes to the OT trifecta, as he revealed to the Bay Area press on Tuesday afternoon.
(Click here to read more…)