California (24-9)
COACH: Mike Montgomery, two years at Cal, two years in NCAA Tournament
HOW THEY GOT IN: At-large bid
MATCHUP BREAKDOWN: The Bears, thought to be a bubble team, landed safely into the field as a No. 8 seed on the strength of their regular-season Pac-10 championship. Cal gets ninth-seeded Louisville in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday. Cardinals' coach Rick Pitino says rebounding has been "a little bit of a weakness for us all year," which showed up in a Big East tournament loss to Cincinnati, which won the battle of the glass 54-33. The problem for Cal is that it doesn't have the personnel to give Louisville fits on the boards, and, in fact, could have a hard time stopping 6-9 forward Samardo Samuels (15.3 points, 7.0 rebounds) unless it goes to persistent double teams. Two good point guards here with Jerome Randle vs. Edgar Sosa.
GO-TO GUYS: Jerome Randle, a 5-10 point guard, is the Pac-10 Player of the Year and Cal's career scoring leader. He's within shooting range from nearly the time he dribbles across half court, and he had 10 games with at least 24 points, including a 39-point outburst against Washington State. He averages 18.7 points and 4.5 assists, shooting 40.6 percent from 3-point range (88 of 217) and 93.5 percent from the foul line (130 of 139). He's part of a terrific trio of senior perimeter players, with guard Patrick Christopher (16.0 points per game) and small forward Theo Robertson (14.1) being the others. They have a combined 4,767 points in their careers.
THEY'LL KEEP WINNING IF: Cal won its first regular-season Pac-10 title in 50 years because of its experience and scoring power from its trio of perimeter players, who get free for shots from lots of screens in Mike Montgomery's offense. With four seniors in the starting lineup -- including post Jamal Boykin (12.0 points, 6.7 rebounds per game) -- the Bears should be plenty hungry to make some noise while they can. If the Bears' tournament opponents don't have a quick point guard who can check Randle a bit, he'll either create scoring havoc or force the kind of extra attention that will allow others to spot up. But if Randle doesn't play well, all bets are off.
STRENGTHS: Cal's top four scorers all shoot better than 80 percent from the free throw line, and good luck late in games getting the ball out of the hands of Jerome Randle, who is nearly automatic. Cal's 75.7 percent free throw shooting leads the Pac-10. Not many teams in the NCAA Tournament have such a trio of accomplished 3-point shooters. Theo Robertson is Cal's career leader in 3-point accuracy (43.7 percent), Jerome Randle is fifth (40.6) and Patrick Christopher is fourth in made 3-point shots (161). Sophomore guard Jorge Gutierrez is a bundle of defensive energy off the bench.
WEAKNESSES: Cal has some bulk in the frontcourt, but not much height. If the Bears come up against a tall front line, how much will 7-3 reserve Max Zhang be able to help after he missed time late in the season with a collapsed lung? The Bears failed in all their major nonconference tests -- Ohio State, Syracuse, New Mexico and Kansas -- and couldn't seal the deal in the Pac-10 championship game, so are the Bears really ready to win in big-time games?
