Thursday, January 9, 1997
M. HOOPS:
Outwitting Brevin Knight, smart defense are essentialBy
Emmanuelle Ejercito
and Hye Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
Ever since the start of fall practice, Pacific 10 basketball
coaches have been doing a marvelous job of referring to the
conference as one of the most competitive ones in the nation. Often
that’s just coach talk, but tonight, as the UCLA men’s basketball
team travels to the Bay Area to face No. 22 Stanford, the hype
surrounding the matchup of the two conference giants will likely
live up to its billing.
The Bruins (7-3 overall, 2-0 in Pac-10 play) are unranked going
into tonight’s 5:30 p.m. game at Maples Pavilion but, to their
credit, have rolled off four straight victories. Their wins have
come thanks to a considerable decrease in turnovers and, more
significantly, the use of the full-court trap and the match-up
zone.
This new defense, drawn up by UCLA head coach Steve Lavin, has
worked like a charm for the last four games but has yet to prove
itself against a team with a methodical, precise offense led by a
superstar point guard. For the last four years, Stanford’s Brevin
Knight has proven time and again that he is as good as they come at
breaking a defense apart.
"I think with Brevin Knight you have to have an awareness of
where he is at all times," Lavin said. "You have to pinch on the
penetration, and have to be quick to recover, because he’s so good
at finding guys (behind) the three-point line."
Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery, who has groomed Knight from
being an unknown recruit to an All-American as a senior, knows the
importance of Knight’s contribution to his team better than anyone
else.
"As a point, your job is to make others better and I think
Brevin has demonstrated how important a real quality point guard
can be to your basketball team," Montgomery said. "Brevin has had a
few good games and has remained the focal point for us. Yet he has
not had some of the performances that he’s had in the past where
he’s virtually impossible to defend. We need to have him back and
having some of those games."
Through 10 games, Knight has been averaging 14.0 points and
leads the conference in assists with 8.0 per game. The benefactor
of many of Knight’s dishes has been Tim Young, who is playing well
for the Cardinal (8-2, 1-1) after sitting out the entire season
last year with a back problem. Young is the leading scorer for Mike
Montgomery’s team, averaging 16.9 points per outing.
"All good teams have a combination of big and little  with
the little guy directing traffic and the big guy underneath, the
dominant presence on both offense and defense," Lavin said. "They
obviously have a championship situation with Brevin Knight as the
quarterback and Tim Young underneath."
The matchup between UCLA’s Cameron Dollar and Knight, as well as
the duel between Jelani McCoy and Young, will be the dual centers
of attention tonight. However, the X-factor just might be the
outside shooting of Stanford two-guard Kris Weems.
"We’ve been real impressed with Weems from a consistency
standpoint," Montgomery said. "He may be as consistent as anybody
that we’ve had all year.
"He’s stronger, he’s much more mature, he’s much more
comfortable with the environment here. And with only two seniors, I
think that he looks at himself as one of those guys that has to be
a factor."
The greatest threat that Weems poses to UCLA’s match-up zone
defense is his ability to hit from downtown. The sophomore
currently leads the league in shooting from beyond the arc,
connecting at over 58 percent.