The last time Stanford played at Cal, the site of the Cardinal’s Pac-10 men’s basketball opener at 4 p.m. on Saturday, a freshman from Mexico demonstrated how a basketball game can be dominated by a player who scores just 10 points.

Cal's Jorge Gutierrez (on ground) controlled last season's Stanford game with his hustle -- Associated Press hoto by George Nikitin

Stanford, which had beaten Cal in in the teams’ first meeting last season, held a 22-point lead late in the first half of last February’s game at Haas Paviloion, having made 18 of it first 24 shots.    That’s when Jorge Guteirrez, the only Mike Montgomery recruit on last season’s Cal team, came off the bench and changed the entire complexion of the game with his defense.    He finished with five steals but it seemed like 15 as he hustled all over the floor, slowed Stanford’s momentum and got the Cal crowd involved in a big way.

“It was like he was guarding eight guys,” Montgomery said afterward.

This week Montgomery said it was exciting just to watch that game again while preparing for Saturday’s game.

Cal returns four starters from that Cal team, which won the game 82-75, and Gutierrez is still the sixth man.   That’s why Cal is the Pac-10 favorite.

Stanford returns just one starter from that game, Landry Fields, and that’s why the Cardinal is picked to finish last.    Fields had a nice game in last February’s meeting, hitting 5 of 6 shots and scoring 16 points, but that would be a poor game this season for Fields, who is averaging 23.4 points and has scored between 21 and 28 points in 11 of the Cardinal’s 12 games.

Theo Robertson is expected to get the defensive assignment on Fields, and Robertson’s presence has been an important factor in the Bears’ improved play lately.   Cal has lost only once with Robertson in the lineup and that was a road loss against No. 1 Kansas when the Bears were right in the game midway through the second half.

Cal guard Patrick Christopher, whose recent use of the step-back jumper shows his confidence has returned, will be matched up against the Cardinal’s other primary scorer, Jeremy Green, who did not start last year’s game at Cal but hit 3 of 5 three-pointers that day.

At the point, Cal’s all-conference guard Jerome Randle will give away five or six inches to Stanford’s Jarrett Mann, but Randle’s experience and quickness could cause major problems for Mann, who has had turnover problems when facing strong defensive pressure.

The numbers say Stanford (6-6) has no change against Cal, which is unbeaten at home, but the Cardinal took Kentucky to overtime and lost two other games on the game’s final possession.  Stanford could easily be 9-3, but, of course, good teams do not lose those kinds of games.