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Cal basketball: You be Mike Montgomery!

What has that Monty guy ever done?

By Avinash Kunnath
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Let's role play. You are Mike Montgomery. What is your gameplan for the last two weeks of the regular season? What do you want to see the Bears do differently from what they have been doing? Which players are you depending on the most? Which players are you worried about the most?

LeonPowe: In NBA circles, the end of the season and playoffs means cutting down the rotation and just going with your key players. I think, that unless foul trouble or match-up sizes threaten to do the same, Powers, Behrens and Rooks should be seeing less and less playing time. Not because I don't think they're any good - on the contrary, I'm a huge Rooks booster and Behrens was a key to our early conference win streak. But for the final stretch my rotation is frontcourt: Solomon, Kravish, Kreklow and backcourt: Wallace and Cobbs. Off the bench Bird and Matthews. With Kreklow showing that he can play a college level power forward today against USC, I think unless we're just getting completely overwhelmed by a big guy, that he's our 3/4 swing and we play small.

I'd like to see us run a lot smaller package - with our issues with getting our offense on-track, I'd like to see as many shooters or guys who can handle the ball out there at once. So if that means a lot more Bird and Kreklow and Matthews with our four mainstays, I'm okay with it.

Ruey Yen: With a NCAA tournament berth still far from a sure thing, it's no time to start experimenting for the Bears. Ultimately, I think Mike Montgomery will play the hot hand or matchup to try to win every game, but it is clear that the Cal best rotation is a starting 5 of Solomon, Kravish, Kreklow, Wallace, and Cobbs with the bench of Mathews, Bird, Rooks, and occasionally Singer. Ideally, it is probably 35 minutes+ for Solomon, Kravish, and Cobbs. With Kreklow taking a few minutes as the 4, the other 85 minutes will be split between Kreklow, Wallace, Mathews, and Bird depending on who is playing well. Rooks get the other 5 minutes spelling a big (if there is no foul trouble), and Singer do the same for Cobbs. Powers and Behrens might get on the floor to provide some energy at times, but the bulk of their contribution going forward may only be coming from the practices.

There is no doubt that consistency is still an issue, but there is no magic bullet to fix that. So I guess that means that I am worried about the entire team. Given the rollercoaster ride of a season to this point, I am constantly worried that the team will just lose the edge at any moment.

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