Bears sneak into the Polls

The Bears have snuck into the Polls this morning, garnering a 22 in the AP and a 23 in the coaches poll. They were about 27 in the AP last week, and about 39 in the coaches ranking based on other's receiving votes. Good thing the coaches just try and copy the AP each week.

Before this week, they were the highest rated team in the RPI not to be ranked (RPI rank 10). They are now one of five teams with 15 victories. According to the RP!, they have played the 37th toughest schedule, and have some impressive road wins.

Of course, a lot has already been written about the incredible win on Saturday night at Washington. This was a game for the ages. There have been some incredible games in the past - some say the five overtime games against Oregon in 1977 was the best one ever. However, I think that this game could be elevated over time as a turning point for the Bears, and I mean the whole program.

In 1986, we had a new coach (Lou C), a great player (Kevin Johnson), and a vow from the coach that we would beat UCLA. He had not known that we had not beaten them in something like 52 straight tries, spanning 27 years.

For those of you who were students then, you remember bursting into the game (the ticket takers didn't even try to punch your AP card) and screaming your lungs out as the Bears dropped a fairly mediocre UCLA team. It was that burden that was lifted from the program, that got the Bears moving forward in the late 80's and 90's - under Campinelli, Bozeman and finally Braun - where we finally plateaued after 7 or 8 years. But we were rarely the joke we were in the 60's and 70's and early 80's again. We had started the rise - we built a great court, we played in the tournament on occasion, most of the time we were competing for a tournament slot. In 1990 we were in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 30 years, and were back nine times in the next 18 years.

But this game, I think, will be the turning point, where the Bears are viewed as a true contender. This is a game where, if you can win on the road in a triple overtime while playing poorly against a very good Washington team, and come out with a win, then you start to believe that you can win it all. When you out-rebound a team that leads the nation in rebound ratio, you start to believe that you can win it all. When you can't shoot your three point shot, as the leading three point shooting team in the country, and you still win, you start to believe.

Mike Montgomery came to Cal, and so far has proven that he can coach, and the Bears have proven that they can win. And it seems we are finally at the next level.

So what does that mean for the future? Who knows. But it clearly does mean that there is no point where you can count these Bears out. There is some magic in this team.

Jerry Palm's College RPI site does a projected RPI, and he has us going 28-3 with a final RPI of 14 - which works out to a 4 seed. While the Pac 10 conference RPI this year is a little low (Oregon State is dragging us down) we are 4th overall, ahead of the SEC, Mountain West and Big 12, but behind the Big 10, Big East and ACC.

If the Bears can go to maples this weekend and deal with Stanfurd, look out. This is going to be a tough game - the Cardinal are backed up, with three losses already in the Pac 10 - two this weekend by one point each (although the first, by Arizona State was by 30 points!)

This is the Montgomery homecoming game. I imagine he wants to do well. I also imagine the Trent Johnson's replacement wants to do well. Remember, Stanfurd has a new head coach (or as they call it, the Anne and Tony Joseph Director of Men's Basketball - nice when you can sell EVERYTHING). He is Johnny Dawkins, the assistant from Duke. They started out well, but have lost three of the last four. You can already hear the calls for the Ax swishing away - if Monty can clobber them. T Johnson is doing OK at LSU - 13-3, but lost his last two to Utah (Cal beat) and Alabama.

GO BEARS!!