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California
Road to the Final Four.............................................................................................
You will not see a high number of quality wins, but what Ben Braun's team does is win games it should. Do that enough, pull off some upsets, and you make the NCAA Tournament. Cal began the season 1-3, but a more committed passion to defend helped turn things. The Bears won 14-of-16 during one stretch, the most impressive victory a 29-point rout of visiting UCLA. Two days later, Cal couldn't sustain the momentum and lost at home to USC 80-66. That's how it is with Cal against the other top five conference teams. The Bears are good enough to win a few matchups, but usually not several. Consider: Cal went 8-0 against the Washington and Oregon schools, not allowing an upset loss to damage its run to the NCAAs. The Bears didn't compete at all with Stanford, losing to their Bay Area rival by scores of 84-58 and 88-56. Cal won the Golden Bear Classic with wins against Yale and LaSalle, and defeated Georgia in the Pete Newell Challenge. Player to Watch You don't get much better than the school's all-time leading scorer, which senior forward Sean Lampley became this season. The 6-foot-7, 225-pounder moved past Lamond Murray in the record books on Feb. 24, but more impressive is how Lampley has developed a complete game. The defensive lapses of earlier seasons (and even to begin this one) have been replaced with a strong effort at that end. There is little weakness to his offensive game, one that can hurt opponents from three-point range or inside. With the Ball Uh, the key seems to be finding Lampley. And then finding him again. And again. And again. Cal's star is not one to lack touches (his scoring average is twice that of the next teammate), but on those rare nights when nothing is falling, others have stepped up. The duo of guard Shantay Legans and forward Joe Shipp combine to average 17.6 points and 5.5 assists. Cal -- like most good but not great teams -- gets in trouble when it becomes impatient and doesn't make the extra pass. The Bears tend to force things in tight games. Soloman Hughes is a 6-10 junior center who shoots in the 65 percent range, and is capable at times of taking pressure off Lampley. Defending the Ball Energy has set Cal apart here when the Bears have defended well. Cal isn't strong enough on the boards -- it has sat among the league's bottom five in rebounding most of the season -- not to play with intensity every trip. Lampley has made a conscious effort to guard the opposing team's best forward and his improvement as a rebounder often leads to transition scores. Junior guard Dennis Gates -- when healthy -- is a physical defender who offers an ideal complement to more scoring-minded wings. The Bears have been able to extend and contest enough shots, ranking fourth among conference teams in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense. Seed Analysis Exceeding the Seed Playing to Expectation Falling Short BRACKETOLOGY SCORE: 1.500 (1.000 is playing exactly to a team's historical seeding). Bracketology Report 1985-2000: The Bears have been mostly golden in their occasional visits to the Big Dance. The 1993 upset of two-time defending champion Duke ranks among the greatest wins in Cal history. Nearly as impressive was the one-man show put on by erstwhile tight end Tony Gonzalez to edge out No. 4 Villanova in 1997. Overall the Bears have yet to fall short of expectations and, mathematically, they cannot do so in this tournament. Roster
 NCAA Basketball Championship Week It's March, which means the madness has started and invitations are being reserved throughout Championship Week.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |  |
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