BERKELEY, Calif. – Jamelle Horne did not leave the bench in the three games before Saturday’s contest at California, save for getting up to cheer on his teammates.

He did not score a point or grab a rebound in the two before that, playing a total of 12 minutes in his Pacific 10 Conference career, and he had not started since the season opener Nov. 13 at NAU.

But with UA interim head coach Kevin O’Neill mixing up his lineups all year long, he couldn’t have been too surprised when O’Neill told him at Saturday’s shootaround that he would be starting and defending the Pac-10’s leading scorer, Cal forward Ryan Anderson.

“”He’ll throw it on you at the spur of moment and expect you to produce,”” Horne said of O’Neill. “”That’s with everybody – me, (typical reserves) Daniel (Dillon), Bret (Brielmaier) when he’s healthy, Fendi (Onobun), Kirk (Walters). We’ve all started at different times in the season (except Onobun). He doesn’t have a set rotation, so you have to be ready.””

Horne knew containing Anderson would be a big key to a winning a game Arizona needed, so that’s what he tried to do with limited success. O’Neill was not pleased with the defense of Horne and Onobun on Anderson, who scored 30 points on 10-for-13 shooting.

In his 17 minutes, Horne also scored two points and grabbed a pair of rebounds while providing energy and athleticism.

“”Naturally I was just trying to get back into the swing of things,”” Horne said. “”Sitting out three games on the road you just don’t want to do anything to mess up.””