Cal's Allen Crabbe has quickly earned major role

When Allen Crabbe strolled out for the opening tip of Cal's basketball game at Arizona State on Saturday, he never thought he'd be playing 40 minutes, yet there it was in the box score, along with his 17 points, eight rebounds and two assists in the Bears' 65-61 victory.

Get used to it, kid.

On a young team down one player with the departure of freshman guard Gary Franklin, Crabbe is going to get his minutes as an off-guard playing primarily on the wing. But 40? That's a bit much.

"Coming from high school, playing a lot of minutes, I'm used to it," said Crabbe, the 2010 California player of the year at Price High in Los Angeles who made a verbal commitment to play for Cal in December 2008. "I wasn't thinking of playing 40 minutes. The pace of the game (in college) - you can be playing for a couple minutes and it feels like you've played an entire game."

As Cal prepares to play Washington State tonight at Haas Pavilion and Washington on Sunday night, coach Mike Montgomery will be mindful of Crabbe's minutes. He's averaging 30.7 per game.

"I'm not sure I would have expected a freshman to play 40 minutes of a Pac-10 game," Montgomery said. "We're not real deep right now. When we have a chance to win the game, we're going to go with the people we have. Generally speaking, freshmen shouldn't have to play that much. He's going to have to be aggressive on the fly."

Tough matchup

He'll be tested against the Cougars (12-4 overall, 2-2 Pac-10), who feature the conference's leading scorer in 6-foot-6 guard Klay Thompson at 22.3 points per game. He's the son of former NBA player Mychal Thompson; his mother, Julie, played volleyball at USF.

The 12-3 Huskies are ranked 17th in the country and favored to win the Pac-10. Their big man is a little guy, 5-9 guard Isaiah Thomas, fourth in the conference in scoring at 16.0, just ahead of 6-9 teammate Matthew Bryan-Amaning (15.3).

Whenever the discussion turns to Crabbe, the word "aggressive" comes up quite a bit. It's not in his nature to be a ball hog or a gunner, but on this Cal team (8-7, 1-2), he has to have the ball in his hands and take shots when he has them. It's what his teammates and coaches expect of the 6-foot-6 wing player averaging 9.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

"When I get in the flow of the game, I get more confidence," he said. "It shows me they (coaches) have trust in me. I was feeling too tentative. I have to be more aggressive to help my team. That's what my teammates tell me: 'Don't pass up shots.' "

Earning respect

Senior center Markhuri Sanders-Frison smiled when talking about Crabbe's productive 40 minutes at Arizona State, in which he got 12 of his 17 points on 4-for-9 shooting beyond the three-point arc.

"He's definitely stepping up and coming into his own," Sanders-Frison said. "It's not a surprise. It's just him getting more comfortable with the college game. I'm proud of him. He's taking good shots. Sometimes he has to push it and take the shot. As the season progresses, he's getting more aggressive."

Helping Crabbe make the transition from high school to college is the presence of Richard Solomon, a teammate at Price High and a teammate still; the 6-10 Solomon is averaging 14.7 minutes per game as a freshman for the Bears.

"Coming to a big university like this, it feels good to know someone and have a friend," Crabbe said. "It's good for me. It takes away some of the anxieties."

E-mail John Crumpacker at jcrumpacker@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle