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Pac-10 Basketball update & Power Rankings 01/08

California had a pretty good coach in Ben Braun. But it knew it had one of the better coaches in the country when it hired former Stanford boss Mike Montgomery to run its program this past spring.

Not much was thought of the Golden Bears when the pre-season prognostications came out. They were considered a second-division team. And then the season started and all the Bears have been doing is winning.

California held serve against the Arizona schools and started 2-0 in the Pac 10 before going on the road to play Washington State and Washington this weekend.

As his nature, coach Mike Montgomery has not been too upbeat about this program’s 13-2 start. Although Cal has not made it into the national rankings, Montgomery has said that the important thing is for his team to continue to play well and keep winning at home in conference play.

That sounds simple. But winning at home in conference play is so important for teams who have postseason goals.

The Bears have turned into a very smart basketball team. They are shooting just a tick below 50 percent from the field, nearly 51 percent from 3-point range and have been very efficient from the free throw line at 73 percent.

An awful lot of credit goes to junior guard Jerome Randle who appears to be embracing that shooting 56 percent from 3-point range.

What that illustrates is that the Bears are identifying what is a good shot and are always getting good looks. Cal was just a .500 team over the previous two seasons at 33-33 and that’s what got Ben Braun out of Berkeley.

Now, that is free throw shooting

UCLA senior guard Darren Collison may arguably be the most reliable player in college basketball. He’s smart, rarely makes a poor decision, will run an offense to great efficiency and is mentally tough.

No where does the latter show up than at the free throw line. When the No. 12 Bruins travel to USC, Collison will carry a school record streak of 40 consecutive made free throws. For the year, Collison is 41-of-42 (97.6 %). His only miss came in the season opener on Nov. 12 against Prairie View A&M. It was his second attempt of the season.

Collins almost bolted for the NBA last spring but decided it would be best to return. Good idea. In each of his four years, Collinson’s field goal percentage and free throw percentage have gone up.

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Notable

Arizona’s problems on the road continue. The Wildcats are 9-5 this season but 0-4 including dropping their first two conference road games at Cal and Stanford…there were smiles for Oregon State last week. The Beavers who had 23-game PAC 10 game losing streak needed overtime but defeated USC, 62-58. OSU went 0-18 in conference play last year…Arizona State sophomore James Harden leads the conference in scoring at 23.4 points per game. He’s only been held under double figures once.

Power Rankings

1. UCLA
2. Arizona State
3. California
4. Stanford
5. Washington
6. USC
7. Arizona
8. Washington State
9. Oregon
10. Oregon State

By Kevin Lonnquist
Pac-10 Correspondent