They have a shooting guard the Utes tried to land, and a coach the Utes tried to hire.
So it’s probably fair to say the Cal Golden Bears are a nice composite of what the Utes hope to become.
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The Golden Bears visit the Huntsman Center on Thursday in the role of exact opposite of the team that calls the arena home. They’re 22-6 and armed with a top-30 RPI ranking, along with star shooting guard Allen Crabbe and legendary coach Mike Montgomery — both of whom the Utes tried to lure before things got ugly.
Boy, if only …
The Golden Bears might actually win the Pac-12 Conference, too, although that’s clearly not the achievement it was in years past. They’re tied in the standings with Washington with three games remaining in the regular season — both teams play all of their remaining games on the road — but beat the Huskies in Seattle last week in their only meeting of the season.
Not that the tiebreaker means all that much.
The top four teams all get byes into the quarterfinals of the league tournament in Los Angeles next month.
Regardless, Montgomery has quickly done with the Golden Bears what he did in 18 years at Stanford, where he won the league four times, built a 393-167 record and reached the NCAA Tournament a dozen times — including a trip to the Final Four in the same year the Utes played Kentucky for the national championship.
The Golden Bears are 86-43 in their fourth season under Montgomery, and are doing it this season with a nice mix of grit and polish.
Senior guard Jorge Gutierrez — a native of Mexico — has become the face of the team, so beloved for his fearless style that fans at Haas Pavilion support him with cheers of "hip, hip, Jorge!" Injury-plagued forward Hunter Kamp has shouldered the load inside, especially after starting center Richard Solomon was declared academically ineligible last month.
Crabbe is the silky smooth sophomore shooter who leads the team in scoring, and fellow guard Justin Cobbs has made "all the difference in the world," according to Washington coach Lorenzo Romar, by helping push the tempo and control the halfcourt after transferring from Minnesota.
The Golden Bears average nearly 73 points per game and rank as one of the best shooting teams in the country.
They probably have a tougher remaining schedule than the Huskies, with Utah, Colorado and Stanford — as opposed to Washington State, USC and UCLA — so they might yet stumble. Yet if they do win the regular-season title, it will be their second in three years after a 50-year drought.
In all, they should provide a nice glimpse of the kind of team the Utes aspire to be, if and when first-year coach Larry Krystkowiak starts getting things turned around up on the hill.
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