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Bears hard to figure in struggling conference.

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Byline: INSIDE THE PAC-10 By Bob Clark The Register-Guard

Maybe it's time to consider California a legitimate threat for the Pac-10 title. Then again, perhaps not.

The Bears present an interesting quandary. They have a loss to Eastern Michigan, now 3-14 overall and winless in the Mid-American Conference, and were beaten at home by Oregon State. Yet the Bears have also beaten UCLA and Washington, and took Arizona into the final minute in Tucson.

`I don't think we've been a fluke,' Cal's Omar Wilkes said. `We've been inconsistent at times, but if we play our best we can beat any team.'

In a weekend sweep of Washington and Washington State, the Bears failed to make a field goal in the final 5:58 vs. the Huskies, and had only free throws for points in the final 5:11 against the Cougars. They made up for it by making 11-of-14 free throws during those spans, no surprise since Cal has a .738 free-throw percentage in Pac-10 games.

What Cal mostly has going for it is a very nice inside-outside combination of scoring, headed by point guard Ayinde Ubaka and Leon Powe. Those were the two Bears missing last year with injuries.

Ubaka, out 11 games in the middle of the 2004-05 season with a broken foot, might be the league's most improved player. He has scored in double figures in 16 of 18 games and averages 16 points in conference games, up from an average of 6.1 last year. He's also shooting .398 on three-pointers, and has 71 assists to 44 turnovers.

The bigger difference is Powe, who...