The Pac-10 tournament path is set for Cal. As PaulThomas pointed out, Cal earned a 4/5 seed the moment the Washington St. Cougars fell to the UCLA Bruins. For the California Golden Bears to get to the Pac-10 tournament championship and get their chance to dance to March Madness, they will have to face the USC Trojans in their first game and [most likely, barring a major upset] the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night. Cal is either the fourth or fifth seed (doesn't really matter which), and they will play USC (who is also locked into that 4/5 seed positioning). The game will be Thursday at noon PT on FSN HD (CSN Bay Area).

Although Cal went 1-3 in their games against USC and Arizona, the point differential was negligible in each match up (loss by 2 in Tucson immediately after the transfer of Gray Franklin, win by 2 in LA, loss by two in triple overtime vs Arizona in Haas, loss by three vs USC in Haas without Allen Crabbe). Cal only has probably at best a 20% chance of getting that far, but that's far preferable than being on the other side of the bracket and having to face a Washington Huskies team that has owned us this season.

If we had to envision the best-case scenario for the Bears to win the Pac-10 tournament, this is the one. Obviously it's never fun to play USC at Staples, since they generally play well there, but if we can beat USC in Galen, we can do the same in Laker-ville.

It's going to be one fun ride. GO BEARS!