ESPN Men's Basketball

The Reese's College All-Star Game will be played at the Final Four on Friday, and some seniors will get an extra college game and a trip to Indy under their belts. According to a UCLA press release, here's how one of the teams coached by Gene Keady will stack up:

Michael Roll (G, UCLA)

Robert Glenn (F, IUPUI)

Trevon Hughes (G, Wisconsin)

Jerome Randle (G, California)

Adam Koch (F, Northern Iowa)

Omar Samhan (C, Saint Mary's)

Aubrey Coleman (G, Houston)

Bryan Davis (F, Texas A&M)

Tyren Johnson (F, Louisiana Lafayette)

Quincy Pondexter (F, Washington)

UPDATE: Pondexter won't be playing.

LOS ANGELES –- The disparity in talent was apparent each time the teams huddled on the court. On one end, Cal was lead by a quartet of seniors who had combined to score 5,536 points during their careers and collectively averaged 60.1 points per game this season.

On the other end, UCLA was led by a senior who had scored 981 points during his career and was thrust into a leadership role this season as one NBA draft pick after another left Westwood early following the school’s three straight trips to the Final Four.

As the clock ticked down on Cal’s 85-72 win over UCLA in the semifinal of the Pac-10 tournament, Michael Roll put his hands over his head and looked up at the Staples Center ceiling and exhaled. This wasn’t the way Roll was supposed to end his collegiate career. Not after the way it began with three straight trips to the Final Four and 30-plus win seasons. But that’s what happens when you are a solid role player forced to become a leader on a storied program now full of role players and no real stars.

Roll finished his career scoring a career-high 27 points while the only other active senior for UCLA, Nikola Dragovic, scored eight points and hit just 1 of 8 shots from 3-point range. Senior forward James Keefe, who was averaging 2.2 points, had season ending surgery on his left shoulder last month.

While the Bruins lacked playmaking seniors all year, Cal has been brimming with them this season.

Jerome Randle, who was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year, surpassed Sean Lampley on Friday as the all-time leading scorer in Cal history after scoring 24 points. Patrick Christopher leaped over Kevin Johnson and Joe Shipp into fourth place on the school's all-time scoring list after scoring 16 points. Theo Robertson, who is the school’s all-time leader in 3-point shooting percentage, added 20 points, including three from beyond the arc, and Jamal Boykin, who was named all-conference second team this season, rounded out the Cal seniors by scoring 10 points.

Cal’s four seniors scored 70 of the Bears’ 85 points against UCLA and sparked the team’s comeback in the second half.

“When you look at their seniors, they have scored 5,600 points combined between the four guys, I think the next closest in the Pac-10 is about 2,500 points for graduating seniors,” said UCLA coach Ben Howland. “Those guys are special.”

Howland understands he too could have had a special group if he was able to keep his players from leaving school early. In a perfect college basketball world, where players stay until they graduate, Roll would have been the fourth option in a starting lineup that would’ve featured Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Jrue Holiday.

“It’s always tough when you lose players early,” Howland said. “But that is the current climate in college basketball and that won’t change in the foreseeable future.”

Cal’s senior leadership was evident early in the second half when Robertson scored seven straight points, including a 3-pointer to give Cal its first lead of the game. The Bears shut down UCLA defensively and hit nearly every open shot, shooting a staggering 70.8 percent from the field in the second half and outscoring UCLA 50-33.

“We adjusted on Roll, who is hard to guard,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. “Roll ended up with 27 but he had 16 at the half and for the first 10-12 minutes he didn’t score which I think was the key for us to be able to get back in it. It really helped that we did a job on the key guy who was Roll.”

As Roll’s career came to a close, he sat on the bench and put his head down, raising it from time-to-time to acknowledge the fans chanting his name and giving him a standing ovation. On the other end of the court Montgomery was also giving the senior a standing ovation. The Cal coach went up to Roll after the game to tell him how much he respected him as a player and how well he played during his career.

Meanwhile the college careers of Montgomery’s seniors continued as they shattered any notion that a Pac-10 tournament championship wouldn’t mean anything to the regular-season champs.

“This group is really close, having played together for the last four years and having been through a lot of games,” Robertson said. “We want to win this tournament. There wouldn’t be a better feeling than winning tomorrow. We understand in the postseason its win or go home so that’s in the back of our minds. We really enjoy playing with each other and we’re not ready for it to end.”

LOS ANGELES -- Cal is the only Pac-10 school in a comfortable position to secure a NCAA Tournament bid and there were times during the first half of its semifinal game against UCLA where it looked as if the Bears were content to let another Pac-10 team join them at the dance.

Cal never led in the first half and fell behind by as many as 10 seven minutes into the game. Senior guard Michael Roll led the Bruins with 16 points, hitting 3-of-5 three-pointers and grabbing three rebounds.

Jerome Randle, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, scored 14 points for the Bears and scored five straight points to cut UCLA’s lead in half when it appeared as if the Bruins would run away with the game early.

Reeves Nelson is once again providing UCLA with a much-needed presence in the paint, scoring 6 points and grabbing 3 rebounds, but he is clearly frustrated by the goggles he has to wear following laser eye surgery to repair a retinal tear in his left eye. He takes off the goggles during every stoppage and threw them down on the floor when he was called out of the game.

“I don’t want to wear them,” Nelson said yesterday. “But I have to if I want to play.”

LOS ANGELES -- A quick look at Friday's semifinal games in the Pac-10 tournament:

UCLA-California, 9 p.m. ET

At stake: California (22-9) has all but secured a trip to the NCAA tournament after winning the Pac-10 regular-season title and blowing out Oregon in the Pac-10 tournament, 90-74. As much as the Bears would like to cut down the nets at Staples Center, it seems the best chance the conference has of claiming two bids is if a team other than Cal wins the conference tournament and the hometown Bruins seem to be the most likely team to do it. UCLA’s biggest win this season came in a 76-75 win in overtime at Cal when Michael Roll picked up a loose ball and scored from 13 feet out with 1.9 seconds remaining in OT. Plays like that have been few and far between for UCLA (14-17) this year as the Bruins are in the midst of their third losing season since 1947-48. UCLA, however, technically has the home-court edge and will try to get as many students to brave rush-hour traffic and head to Staples Center by offering discounted tickets for $10 online and at the Staples Center box office before tipoff.

Who has the edge: Cal should win this game fairly easily. The Bears beat the Bruins 72-58 last month at Pauley Pavilion and have won eight of their last nine games, all by double digits. UCLA meanwhile had lost six of eight games before beating Arizona Thursday.

Stat to watch: Cal and UCLA are on polar opposites of the league standings when it comes to scoring margin and free throw percentage, which is no coincidence. While Cal is shooting a league best 74.8 percent from the charity stripe, UCLA is in last place at 62.8 percent. Cal is also the best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-10 (37.7 percent) while UCLA is eighth at 32.5 percent. If Cal can continue to connect on its shots from the charity stripe and beyond the arc while UCLA struggles, Cal should win another game by double digits.

Stanford-Washington, 11:30 p.m. ET

At stake: Washington (22-9) is probably playing for an NCAA tournament berth in its matchup with Stanford (14-17). Advancing to the Pac-10 tournament championship game should be enough to send the Huskies to the NCAAs, although anything outside of winning the tournament is far from a guarantee. Stanford, which in all likelihood knocked Arizona State out of the NCAA tournament with a 70-61 upset win, is looking to play the role of spoiler again against the Huskies and will need to win the tournament to play in the postseason after finishing tied for eighth in the Pac-10 this season.

Who has the edge: Washington has a big advantage after sweeping the season series, winning both games by an average margin of 25 points. Washington has won five straight games while Stanford had lost three straight prior to its win over Arizona State Thursday.

Stat to watch: The Huskies lead the Pac-10 in scoring offense (79.8) and are tied for the lead in scoring margin (plus-9.9) while Stanford is ranked in the lower half of the conference in nearly every statistical category. If Washington plays anywhere near as well as it did in its last two games against Stanford, this game should be a rout.

LOS ANGELES -- Arizona will need to win the Pac-10 tournament to keep its streak of 25 consecutive NCAA tournament berths alive but that added bit of motivation hasn’t seemed to spark the Wildcats, who came out about as flat as they’ve played this season. The only player who has shown much of anything is Nic Wise, who has 10 points.

Sean Miller has probably stayed in the coach’s box for about two seconds in the first half. While screaming, pleading and all but begging his players to pick up their intensity, he has been on the court and as far as the 3-point line while the ball is still in play. He almost hit Michael Roll when the UCLA senior hit a 3-pointer and was able to tap him on the back after he made the shot.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the first half was watching Bill Murray, wearing a red Arizona visor and a red and white wig, cheering wildly every time Arizona scores a basket. Murray's son, Luke, is a graduate assistant for the Wildcats.

Not only has it been a tough year for the Pac-10 on the court but they got no breaks in terms of attendance for their conference tournament with USC not participating and UCLA playing a Noon game with Arizona while class is in session. There are about 5,000 fans in attendance who look even smaller when you consider the Staples Center holds 20,000.

UCLA coach Ben Howland is opening up a little more about what's led to this year's 13-15 team. What's to blame? His recruiting, he says.

From an interview with Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers:

"You can say I know failure because that's what it has been relative to our expectations here," he says. "It's no fun. I have sleepless nights wondering how the heck did we get here.

"But all of it starts right here with me. I'm in charge of making this program competitive year after year, but I did a poor job of evaluation of some of our recruits — from a talent, as well as a character standpoint."

As Howland talks, it sounds as if there is a lot more to be said about what is going on internally with this present group of Bruins.

It's an interesting choice of words because while Howland takes the blame, he does spread it around to his players when he starts talking about character.

Take the players who left for the NBA early -- Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Jrue Holiday -- out of the equation, and those who Howland was left to rely on during a rebuilding year clearly didn't resemble some of his tough-minded teams of the past.

His senior class is made up of role players from his Final Four teams: Michael Roll, James Keefe and Nikola Dragovic, who has twice been arrested and suspended during his career.

There's not a single junior on the roster since Chace Stanback transferred (and is now flourishing at UNLV).

Howland clashed with sophomore forward Drew Gordon, who transferred to New Mexico. Guard Jerime Anderson and 6-foot-10 center J'mison Morgan have disappointed while McDonald's All-American Malcolm Lee is out of place at point guard, a position of need when Holiday caught Howland somewhat off-guard by being a one-and-done.

Freshmen forwards Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson have shown all-conference ability, but others in that class have struggled to get playing time.

It's a mix that has left the team lacking athleticism and Howland grudgingly utilizing a zone defense and deflecting questions about the NIT when his team is just struggling to reach .500.

There's still two more games and the Pac-10 tournament left, but Bruins are already looking to the future.

UPDATE: Morgan has been suspended for Thursday's Arizona game due to a violation of team rules.