Cal got a reality check against the #5 ranked Arizona Wildcats tonight, getting blown out by the score of 99-60. It was a game that Cal never was really in outside of the first 4-5 minutes of the game. After a score of 12-12, Arizona went on a 9-2 run and never looked back. Arizona continued to add insult to injury the rest of the way, not letting up for even a second. As a result, Arizona secured another Pac-12 regular season title and Cal secured a losing record in the conference. Arizona's forward Brandon Ashley led the way with 21 points and 6 rebounds.
The harsh reality for Cal is that their 5th gear is Arizona's 2nd gear. Arizona simply has 3-4 extra gears that Cal doesn't have. This isn't to say that Cal couldn't have played better, because they certainly could have. Jordan Mathews for example was practically invisible, scoring just 3 points on 1-5 shooting and Tyrone Wallace only scored 16 points, shooting an inefficient 7-18 from the field.
Had both of those guys played better with Jabari Bird and David Kravish producing more, Cal could have made things interesting. In addition, Sam Singer played well tonight, scoring 13 points and grabbing 4 rebounds on 5-8 shooting from the field and 3-3 shooting from the foul line. Cal got the bench production they needed, but their starting lineup really let them down.
Cal doesn't have much time before they face Arizona State on Saturday at 11:30 AM PST, but perhaps that's a good thing. Cal needs to put this loss out of their minds and focus on getting some revenge against an Arizona State team that embarrassed them earlier in the season in Berkeley. In addition, Cal could be playing for a #7 seed in the Pac-12 tournament which could help them avoid Arizona until the championship game.
I'll talk more about this in my Pac-12 tournament preview, but I do think Utah is vulnerable in a way that Arizona is not. Cal played Utah tough for a half on the road and Utah has lost four times this year in the conference going into their game tonight at Washington State. If Cal could face Utah instead of Arizona in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament, that would be huge, so even though tonight's loss was ugly, that doesn't change the fact that a lot is still riding on Saturday's game at Arizona State.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord
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