Cal's Christopher on Pac-10, poetry and a freshman named Bak Bak

The latest subject in our Hoops Q&A series is Cal's Patrick Christopher, a senior from Compton, Calif. The 6-foot-5 guard averaged 14.5 points and 3.8 rebounds last season for the Golden Bears, who finished tied for third in the Pac-10 and lost to Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation:

Luke Winn: Last year, on the day before the NCAA tournament started, I enlisted your sneakerhead expertise for an All-American shoe review for our Tourney Blog, which turned out well. What's going to be the go-to shoe for 2009-10?

Patrick Christopher: Right now I'm stuck on the Kobe IVs. I look forward to the Kobe V coming out; I think it drops sometime in February. But until then I'm wearing the Kobe IV. It's probably the most comfortable shoe I've ever played in. Usually I go more for style and color scheme, but this one is comfortable, low-cut, light, and I guess it helps that the greatest player of our era right now is wearing it, too.

LW: If you were able to design Cal's team shoes for next season, what would they look like?

PC: Since we're sponsored by Jordan ... I'd do a custom Jordan 11, since that's one of the most popular ones out there. I'd try my best to have our gold in there, because I think, at Cal, the gold is taken for granted sometimes, and it always looks great with our uniforms.

Our black shoes with the gold always looked great. The thing I'd have to keep from the original 11s, though, is the ice bottoms. You have to have the ice bottoms.

LW: You're an LA guy, and I read that LA Lights -- from LA Gear -- were making a comeback in the fall. Would you ever consider wearing those in a game?

PC: The interesting thing about that is ... I was going to go back to LA, because they have a shoe store there called Warehouse Shoe Sale, and they used to always have pairs of old LA Gears, and I was gonna get some. I wasn't sure if they'd have my size, but if they did, I was gonna rock some light-ups. It's been such a long time since the light-ups were out. But now that they're getting re-released, I don't think I want to do it anymore.

LW: It doesn't seem like there's a clear pick for Pac-10 champ this preseason. I'm going to have trouble choosing between you and Washington. Can you give advice on how the top of the league's preseason rankings should look?

PC: Well, I have Cal No. 1. I don't want to belittle anyone in the Pac-10, though, because anybody can win the Pac-10. It's such a tough conference. I think we're going to be good. Oregon State is bringing back the majority of their team, so they'll be a good veteran team like ours. Washington, I believe, is going to be tough too. And you can never count out UCLA, with all the things Ben Howland has done there. But after us, I guess I like Washington and Oregon State.