When freshman Jorge Gutierrez was a high school senior, he says a lot of scouts came to see his Findley Prep Pilots play ball.

But not many came to see Gutierrez, he adds. That'll happen on a star-studded roster also featuring four-star guard DeAndre Liggins, three-star center Brice Massamba and three-star guards Deividas Dulkys and Curtis Dennis.

Liggins eventually committed to Kentucky, Massamba to UNLV, Dulkys to Florida State and Dennis to New Mexico. Gutierrez played the waiting game, and ultimately Cal came calling.

"I thought, at some point (college teams) would look at me a little bit, you know?" says Gutierrez.

The guard says he "didn't worry about it" at the time. And he sure doesn't have to worry about it now, as he continues to see a rise in playing time, culminating in his 23-minute showing against the Seminoles on Saturday.

It's not exactly a rags-to-riches tale, as Gutierrez also carried a three-star tag. But it'd be a stretch to say that his road to Pete Newell Court was red-carpeted.

Bears coach Mike Montgomery first saw Gutierrez shortly after he arrived at the Berkeley campus in the spring, but he only got to see him in practices. That late into the recruiting process, Montgomery says he couldn't be "nitpicking at that stage."

"A lot of it for me was phone calls, just the people were referencing him, some guys that I trust," he says. "They said he's a tough, tough kid. A lot of people felt like he was the glue on that team, that he was their best player."

Naturally, it took a bit of faith for Montgomery.

"It's always a leap of faith," he says. "Can't tell you how many guys I took at Stanford I never even saw. You get down to the end, you say, 'What are you gonna do?' The guy's available, you take him. There's very few people out there that we're able to slice and dice and say, 'Here's five All-Americans, so this guy's a little tougher than that guy, and that guy's a little better shooter.'"

The early going suggests that Gutierrez has worked out in Montgomery's favor. The coach has often expressed praise for Gutierrez, who used to be a glue guy in high school and now gives Cal a high-energy option off the bench.

There may be bigger plans, however. With the Bears' questions at backup point guard, Montgomery suggested Monday that the freshman might see more reps in that role.

Montgomery noted that 6-foot-3 Nikola Knezevic gives Cal a better chance at defending against size, while 5-foot-10 Nican Robinson fares better against speed. One of the more compelling stories may be whether Gutierrez, at 6-foot-3, could offer better matchups at the position.

"(Gutierrez has) really quick hands," Montgomery says. "He's got a mindset that he wants to defend people."

Still, both Montgomery and Gutierrez would admit that the freshman has a long way to go in terms of figuring out the intricacies of the position, which may include figuring out the intricacies of all the other positions as well.

"It's hard for anybody (to play point guard)," says Montgomery. "Jerome (Randle), for all intentional purposes, is a freshman, at least in this system. Having to get the ball one way to get it the other way and set up angles and all that stuff, it's hard."

One redeeming quality of Gutierrez, though, is that his effort is never in question, as both Montgomery and Patrick Christopher attested. That is, except when he was a brash teenager living in Mexico who skipped English language courses to his regret today -- "It was after lunch, so I really didn't want to go to those classes," he explains.

But from day one at Cal, Gutierrez has been all about effort -- or even before day one. Christopher says Gutierrez gave 110 percent playing pickup ball when the then-recruit was on his visit.

"In those pickup games, he was standing in front of Jerome," Christopher recalls. "I'm like, 'What's going on? We gotta get this kid.'"

From then on, Gutierrez has become sort of a fan favorite with his hustle. Montgomery makes no secret of his approval for the freshman, saying that Gutierrez got minutes against Florida State "because he's a player," not because the Bears stocked up early on fouls.

Gutierrez might not turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime, NBA-ready talent.

But it's clear Montgomery has one of his re-building blocks in the freshman.

"If we can get more people with that kind of fire that play as hard as he does, that would really help," says Montgomery. "He has no quit in him."

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