A one time viewing of the Foothill College Owls

Foothill College in Los Altos Hills stands 12-2 as of today.

Who have the Owls taken down?

Try victories against Cabrillo, Ohlone (OT), West Valley, Alameda, San Joaquin Delta (OT), West Hills, Solano, Cabrillo, Shasta, Diablo Valley, Monterey Peninsula and Merced.

The two setbacks? 53-50 versus DeAnza and 79-62 on opening night against Merritt.

Coach Shanan Rosenberg's roster is not a physically imposing one with 6-foot-8 Daan Mutsaers the tallest member and he hits the scales at just 200 pounds.

6-foot-6 Stephen Grosey is the Foothill offensive lynchpin, even as a freshman. He has the length to consistently get his shot off against opponents despite himself being on the thin side.

The Owl offense is based on movement, spacing and unselfishly sharing the ball. The backcourters (among them Suhail Mohammadi, Daryl Wong, Jack Biebel, Ryan Cali and Brendan Carroll) especially will dribble drive to the hoop, keep their heads up (a key) and typically kick out the ball to an open teammate for a jumpshot, be it a deuce or a trey attempt.

But there were times against the Ohlone College zone on December 16 where the shot clock went into the red zone and required attempting high degree of difficulty shot attempts as the Owls backcourters couldn't always create separation. But they can often enough work towards getting a decent-to-good look.

Rebounding is a necessary team effort for Foothill and Rosenberg has guards willing to mix it up inside.

Defensively, the Owl backcourters can be beaten on dribble-drives but not consistently and the five on the floor displays solid help defense. Again, it's a team effort.

The Coast Division-North has the big dog in City College of San Francisco plus Ohlone, Cañada, Chabot, Las Positas and Skyline, in addition to Foothill. The first division finish is going to be a real battle even if nobody has the firepower or athletic prowess to catch the Rams.