Hip! Hip! Jorge!

Talk about your proverbial taking the team on your back and willing them to victory. This is exactly what Jorge Gutierrez, the lightly recruited super sub sophomore guard out of Las Vegas' Findlay Prep did last evening. This is the same school that produced the much heralded Avery Bradley who laces them up for the Longhorns, but on this evening I would've wanted to have Gutierrez on my team over any of the other more sought after recruits.

With chants of Hip! Hip! Jorge! raining from the rafters, much as the blue and gold confetti would after the Bears' hard fought 62-46 win, it was Gutierrez that showed the team the way to a grinding victory. Montgomery might not have his prototypical beefy inside-oriented team yet, but he has one player who can lead his team to play like the prototypical Montgomery team.

Monte Poole of the Bay Area News Group wrote an article about Gutierrez. Montgomery was quoted as saying, "He's a very quiet kid, unassuming, with a great a sense of how to help in any way he needs to. He'll make a great play that others won't make."

And so it was with the game's outcome still up for grabs with 11:49 left, coming out of a media timeout that Jorge in his own unassuming way put the Bears on his back and figuratively said, "Follow this." The "follow this" was a smooth gliding slash to the basket that ended in the most unbelievable of dunks. I turned to my friends and said, "Wow! Where did that come from?" as the Harmon crowd got to its feet for yet another standing ovation.

After this basket, ASU's McMillan nailed a left wing three to make it 44-42 Bears when Gutierrez was not able to switch out in time. Jorge clearly knew that that one was on him, but did he hang his head? No. On the very next sequence, Jorge made amends by scoring on what could only be called a circus shot that would've made even "Circus King" proud with the ball kissing high off the glass while he was getting shoved out of bounds by Jeren Shipp. Only Pete Newell and others in basketball heaven know how that shot went in. After his free throw completed the three-point play, and another miss by the Sun Devils on a desperation heave as the shot clock was expiring, Jorge drove the key and assisted on a basket by Boykin with 9:48 left in the game. This only gave the Bears a 7-point edge, but for all intents and purposes the outcome of the game would no longer be in question. This was perhaps the most important two minutes in the last 50 years for the Bears from the point of winning championships.

Montgomery took Jorge out of the game at this point to what could only be called the loudest ear-piercing ovation of the evening. It was a well earned rest for the unlikeliest of leaders.

Indeed the Sun Devils would not recover from this onslaught. They would remain stuck on 42 points for another two and half minutes when the Bears had built their lead to 53-42. Then ASU would not score another basket until there were but 31 ticks left on the clock and all of the subs were in the game.

The other half of the story is what Jorge did on the defensive end where he was matched up against the much taller and larger Trent Lockett. ASU's delight at seeing the smaller Gutierrez on Lockett resulted in repeated attempts to post up Lockett. These attempts would only turn to frustration with Lockett even taking a swing at Gutierrez with the officials missing this action because it was at the back end of the play. If Randle is the "Bulldog" on offense, Jorge is the "Bulldog" on defense.

There are certain players that come along who are just fun to watch. These are players that make the game enjoyable for whatever reason. Jason Kidd was the first such Cal Bear for this writer. Lamond Murray for his prolific dunking from passes from Kidd. Shareef Abdul-Rahim for his coming out of nowhere to dominate the Pac-10 as a freshman. Same for Ryan Anderson. Jerome Randle was the next in line for the "Fun to Watch" tag. Now the baton has seemingly been passed onto Gutierrez. Hip! Hip! Jorge!