Scary thought: Pac-12’s hottest team Cal won last weekend without Crabbe leading the way

Allen Crabbe had one of his worst weeks of the season last week but Cal managed to sweep Utah and Colorado

California is for real and it goes beyond its seven-game winning streak.

Most Pac-12 followers believe junior forward Allen Crabbe is the defining leader of the surging Golden Bears, who are 20-9 overall and 12-5 in conference play heading into tonight’s game against visiting Stanford. As Crabbe goes so go the Golden Bears? Not so fast.

Against Utah and Colorado at home last week, Crabbe was actually Cal’s fourth-most productive starter and the Golden Bears still managed a sweep and looked impressive against the Buffaloes in a 62-46 victory Saturday. Crabbe had only 35 productivity points in 64 minutes against Utah and Colorado (for definition of productivity points, see glossary), which feel behind post player David Kravish (48 productivity points in 60 minutes), wing player Tyrone Wallace (45 in 67), point guard Justin Cobbs (43 in 73).

Cal’s ability to win without Crabbe performing at a high level is a scary thought for Pac-12 coaches and opposing teams heading into the conference tournament next week in Las Vegas. The Golden Bears are resourceful to overcome an off-night by Crabbe. Where Cal could struggle is if Crabbe and Cobbs, the Golden Bears’ top two producers, both have a bad game.

But that has not happened since Crabbe and Cobbs made only 10 of 23 field goals in a 66-62 loss at ASU on Feb. 7. Cal has not lost since.

UCLA’s Kyle Anderson had the most productive week by far of any Pac-12 player UCLA freshman point forward Kyle Anderson was selected the Pac-12 Player of the Week by the conference and the productivity system here is in agreement. In a sweep of ASU and Arizona, Anderson tallied 85 productivity points in 73 minutes. Anderson is tied with Stanford forward Dwight Powell for the conference lead with a productivity rating of .802. The next highest productivity player of last weekend was USC forward Byron Wesley, who tallied 50 productivity points in 68 minutes in a sweep of the Wildcats and Sun Devils in the Galen Center. Eric Wise, who scored a career-high 22 points against Arizona, finished the weekend with 48 productivity points in 65 minutes. The Trojans, 9-7 in the Pac-12, have won six of their last eight games. In one of their losses at Cal, they were up by 15 in the second half but could not close out the upset. If USC can sweep the Washington schools on the road and win one game in the Pac-12 tournament, the Trojans would secure an NIT bid. That’s unreal when considering the Trojans were 8-13 at one point. ***** Arizona guard Mark Lyons, who has struggled as of late, was the Pac-12 player of the week after the Wildcats defeated ASU 71-54 in Tempe on Jan. 19. It will take that same type effort by Lyons against Jahii Carson on Saturday to secure the same result. Lyons has a productivity rating of .587 compared to Carson’s mark of .563. PLAYER OF THE WEEK [table “” not found /]

PAC-12’s TOP TEN [table “” not found /] [table “” not found /] This Week (Tucson times): Today No. 23 UCLA at WASHINGTON STATE 7:30 p.m. P12N STANFORD at CALIFORNIA 9 p.m. ESPN2 USC at WASHINGTON 9:30 p.m. P12N Tomorrow No. 19 OREGON at COLORADO 7 p.m. ESPN2 OREGON STATE at UTAH 7 p.m. ESPNU Saturday No. 23 UCLA at WASHINGTON Noon CBS No. 19 OREGON at UTAH 12:30 p.m. P12N ARIZONA STATE at No. 18 ARIZONA 2:30 p.m. FSN Series: ARIZ leads, 143-80. Streak: ARIZ 1 (last, 71-54 at ASU) OREGON STATE at COLORADO 2:30 p.m. P12N USC at WASHINGTON STATE 4:30 p.m. P12N

PRODUCTIVITY LEADERS
Players listed are top six in minutes played in Pac-12 games
GLOSSARY:
S: Number of starts.
PP: Productivity Points (Points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocked shots, FGs made, FTs made added together and then subtracted by missed FGs, missed FTs, personal fouls and turnovers)
MIN: Minutes played
PR: Productivity rating per minute played (Productivity points divided by minutes played)

Site publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner

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