Cal's Rocky Mountain road trip starts tonight at Colorado at 6:00 PM PST and concludes Sunday at #11 Utah at 5:30 PM PST. This is undoubtedly the toughest road trip Cal will go on all season, and thankfully they are entering this road trip with a lot of momentum, having won their last four games against Washington State, Washington, USC, and UCLA. Three of those four games were decided by two points or less, but for Cal any win is a good win after the way they started Pac-12 play (1-6).
Cal's hot winning streak has vaulted them to 7th in the Pac-12 with a 5-6 record in the conference, which is huge just in terms of their positioning for the Pac-12 tournament. A top-four seed and a first round bye in the Pac-12 tournament is now in sight, which in and of itself is a miracle judging by how poor their season started.
What's better is that the team seems to have a lot of confidence in who they are. In their post-game press conference after defeating UCLA, Jabari Bird said about their turnaround "We're on cloud nine". The confidence can be seen across the board in all players. Dwight Tarwater hit the game winning shot to beat UCLA, Tyrone Wallace hit the game-winning three at the buzzer to defeat USC, and Sam Singer hit the game-winning three to defeat Washington. As for Jabari Bird, against UCLA he posted 16 points and was playing with way more energy, passion, and excitement than we have seen from him all season.
The player who has undergone the biggest metamorphosis in this four game winning streak is Sam Singer. We've all known how great of a pass-first point guard he is and what he brings on defense, but his shot has been faulty over the course of his young career. But ever since he hit that game-winner in Washington, he has suddenly morphed into a three-point shooting threat, shooting 3-4 from beyond the arc against UCLA. In the post-game press conference after the UCLA game, Singer said "I knew at some point they were going to start falling. It's about keep shooting confidently and keep working hard."
Singer's transformation is huge for the team because the team has been in desperate need of other guys to score besides Jabari Bird, Tyrone Wallace, David Kravish, and Jordan Mathews. When Cal gets other guys scoring the ball besides their "Big Four", Cal is a very tough and dangerous team. Singer in particular becomes a very dangerous player because he does everything else on the court extremely well.
With all this confidence and momentum, what can we expect from Cal in this tough road trip to the Rocky Mountains? I think a split is conceivable, but a sweep is highly unlikely. This has much more to do with who they are playing than how they are playing. There are three factors that make this road trip tough: They're on the road, they're playing at high elevation, and they are playing one of the best teams in the country in Utah.
Utah is ranked #11 at the moment and they haven't lost a game at home all season. Utah fans can get pretty crazy when their teams are doing well, so I anticipate that Salt Lake City will be a fairly hostile environment for Cal. Cal should not at all expect to win that game. As for tonight's game against Colorado, I think odds are good Cal gets the win, especially since they are coming in with a lot of momentum. Colorado is favored by 7 points, but I think the game can be a lot closer than that. Colorado is #9 in the Pac-12 with a 4-6 record in the conference, so there really isn't anything particularly intimidating about them other than the altitude.
Cal should feel really confident that they can win tonight. If they win tonight, Cal will then be going into Salt Lake City on a five game winning streak, and at that point they can just play footloose and fancy free. All the pressure will be on Utah and none of it will be on Cal. If Cal gets the win at Utah as well as at Colorado, then their season will go from having a faint pulse to make the NCAA tournament to having a legitimate chance.
Teams do get rewarded for finishing the season strong as well as get punished for finishing the season weak. If Cal gets both wins in the Rockies, they will be in a prime position to finish the season very strong with their next game being at Stanford, a game that I will preview next week.
In conclusion, Cal basketball is looking a hell of a lot better than it was two weeks ago. They've won four straight games, vaulted to 7th in the conference, and the team is playing with a tremendous amount of confidence. Hopefully they can continue to build off of their success and shock the nation this week in the Rocky Mountains. Go Bears!
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord
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