After returning to class for the first time in nearly a month, the men’s basketball team returned to practice Tuesday as they get ready for a Pac-10 showdown with the California Golden Bears.

After showing their youth in a crushing 71-46 defeat at the hands of ASU, the team went back to the drawing board and worked on fundamentals during practice.

The focus of Tuesday’s session was breaking down scenarios on offense and transitioning on the defensive side of the ball.

Because of Cal’s quickness, Head Coach Ken Bone had his players running up and down the floor for the majority of the practice to prepare them for the style of play he expects from the Golden Bears. However, after running for only four minutes, sprint ing became jogging, and Bone paused practice quickly to remind his players of the challenges that are headed to Pullman.

“It won’t work!” Bone preached to his players.

The youngsters got the message and were running at full speed.

The team struggled to get into a rhythm on both offense and defense, which led to assistant Ben Johnson consistently yelling out directions to his players.

“You know, I think we’re a work in progress, and I think these are kind of the dog days of January,” Johnson said. “For a lot of these guys, it’s the first time they’ve been asked to go as hard as they can every day and every drill. Some guys are battling through it, but others are fading a little bit.” Johnson said it is frustrating when the lessons from running drills are not executed in game settings, but the team must still band together regardless.

During the team scrimmages, sophomore James Watson saw an extended amount of time running with the first team. He showed some range when he knocked down an 18-foot jump shot near the end of practice.

“We’re always trying to improve our depth and our play off the bench,” Johnson said. “I think James, Xavier Thames, Steven Bjornstad, Charlie Enquist and Brock Motum are going to have a significant influence on the rest of our season. I think we need to keep sprinkling them in here and there and keep trying them out to improve our depth. And James is a big part of that, no question about it.” After dropping their second conference game on Sunday and being dominated by the Sun Devils, Johnson explained that the team’s spirits remain high.

“Overall, I think we’re OK,” he said. “We’re in the thick of the Pac-10 race, we’re 2-2 and I think our morale is fine. Obviously, we have big work and a huge challenge with Cal and Stanford, but I think the players are aware of that. The good news is we’re coming home playing in front of our home fans, our students and we’re excited about that.”