Bear Territory Thursday: Is there life for Cal?

     Right when it appeared as though their season was over, the California Golden Bears somehow managed to get two gutty wins on the road against Washington State and Washington last week, giving the Cal faithful a flicker of hope that the season could be salvaged. When Sam Singer hit the game-winning three against Washington, not only did I scream at the top of my lungs, I realized that there may be some hope for Cal to turn its season around.

     I understand that I've been talking about Cal needing to "turn its season around" for the past month, but perhaps they finally turned the corner of sorts up in the Pacific Northwest. What makes things so much better is that this weekend they have two home games against USC (tonight) and UCLA (Saturday), so it is certainly conceivable that Cal enters their Rocky Mountain road trip on a four game winning streak. Knowing Cal, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they lost both games, but all the same, a four game winning streak looks like a serious possibility and that should make Cal fans very excited and nervous for this weekend.

     What I'm going to say next is all too familiar for those of you who read my weekly Cal basketball reports: Cal needs to win both games at home this weekend. Like every game for the past month, these next two games against the Southern California schools are must win games for Cal. If they win both games, there is hope for a split in the Rocky Mountains against Utah and Colorado before coming back to the Bay Area to give Stanford some payback. If Cal splits or loses both games this weekend, then all momentum from these last two wins is lost.

     Cal has unfortunately put themselves in a situation where no win really saves them and every loss really hurts them. Even if they win both games this weekend, they will still be 5-6 in the PAC-12 with that horrible loss to CSU-Bakersfield hanging over their heads. What I'm saying is that Cal's NCAA tournament resume is still likely beyond repair, but that doesn't mean they don't have anything to play for. They still have seeding in the PAC-12 tournament to play for as well as securing an NIT bid in the likely event that they miss the NCAA tournament.

     The world of college hoops is certainly an up and down world, and Cal fans got a taste of that this past week when they watched their team get two dramatic wins on the road. What Cal fans can only hope for is some sort of consistency in the direction of winning basketball games. A four game winning streak would certainly be a step in the right direction and a reason for Cal fans to smile in what has overall been a disappointing season.

---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord for NBA news