Behind a one-two punch that would make Mike Tyson jealous, the
UCLA women’s basketball team rode an exceptional month of
January to the top of the Pac-10 conference.
Then reality set in.
Since starting conference play with six-straight wins, the
Bruins (12-9, 7-5 Pac-10) have lost five-of-six games, and it has
become increasingly clear that they will need more than Michelle
Greco and Nikki Blue to rejuvenate their season.
During the squad’s current skid, Greco has tallied 23
points per game while Blue has averaged 20.2, but no other Bruin is
averaging more than seven points per game.
“Michelle and I cannot do everything,” Blue said.
“The team needs to get more involved and we need to do a
better job of getting them involved.”
The issue has come to a head the last two weeks in road losses
to Washington and USC.
Greco and Blue combined for 64 of UCLA’s 77 points against
the Huskies, but the squad still suffered a humiliating 34-point
setback two weeks ago in Seattle.
Then Greco scorched the Trojans for 28 last Saturday, but USC
still managed to shut down the rest of the Bruins, securing a tense
four-point victory.
“If Greco gets 35 or 40, that’s OK as long as the
rest of the team doesn’t score,” the Trojans’
Ebony Hoffman said. “Greco was the only one who could hurt
us. We knew neither she nor Blue were going to pass.”
Lately, UCLA’s opponents have countered the Bruins’
superior athleticism by dropping into a zone defense and daring the
Bruin role players to step up.
Thus far they haven’t been able to.
Junior forwards Whitney Jones and Jamila Veasley have appeared
tentative offensively the past few games, as the absence of
6-foot-2-inch forward Julia Pitts (torn ACL in her left knee) has
left the team without a consistent scorer in the paint.
Jones had just one field goal against both USC and Washington
while Veasley blew a pair of layups against the Trojans and did not
score a point in 31 minutes of action.
Furthermore, the team’s top reserve, freshman guard Lisa
Willis, had not scored in double figures in more than a month
before posting 18 against the Trojans last week.
“I think some people have gotten a little hesitant,
thinking they don’t have the okay to shoot,” Blue said.
“We have to give everyone confidence in practice by giving
them the green light.”
While Willis’ 18-point performance against USC was
encouraging, the Bruins will need to feature a more balanced attack
when they host the Arizona schools this weekend at Pauley
Pavilion.
UCLA split a pair of games in the desert in January, and it will
take significant offensive contributions from more than just Blue
and Greco to defeat either the Wildcats or Sun Devils.
“As good as Nikki and Michelle are as a one-two punch, I
think we’re obviously much better when we have a
three-four-five punch,” head coach Kathy Olivier said.
“We have to get back to that. One or two players cannot do it
themselves.”