The best part about writing this particular column was that I
hardly needed to watch the men’s basketball game at all,
giving me plenty of time to catch up on my reading and vacuum my
room. Â
UCLA went into Maples to take on Stanford, ranked No. 2 in the
country but perhaps deserving of that No. 1 spot. If you knew the
relative strengths and weaknesses of each team, prescribing the
game plan was easy enough: Stanford would punish the Bruins inside,
early and often, until the defense started collapsing. Then the
Cardinal would kick it out and start bombing three-pointers, and at
that point the game was over.
On the very first possession of the game, Stanford grabbed three
offensive rebounds, and the die was cast right there. Justin Davis,
Stanford’s best inside player, completely controlled the
paint, getting offensive rebounds and making easy
baskets. The box score says Davis went 10-11 from the
field, but if he missed a shot I must’ve been picking up some
lint off the floor. Once he got going, Josh Childress went bombs
away from beyond the arc, hitting 3-of-4 from long range.
That’s game, people. I half expected that god-awful Ashton
Kutcher to jump out of the stands and shout to Ben Howland,
“You got PUNK’D!”
The Bruins certainly didn’t help themselves in the first
half, either. Neither Ryan Hollins nor Michael Fey could do
anything against Davis or his frontcourt partner Rob Little. With
the exception of some nice minutes from Janou Rubin, the effort off
the bench was weak, to say the least. Josiah Johnson and Ryan
Walcott weren’t productive enough to give Cedric Bozeman,
Dijon Thompson or Trevor Ariza much rest. Ariza had the worst game
he’s played as a Bruin, shooting 1-for-7 and repeatedly
making careless passes or bad decisions with the ball. At halftime,
UCLA trailed 42-21, with every weakness exposed by an excellent
Stanford squad.
Before I move on, I feel the need to pick on Fey and Hollins
some more.
Do these guys have the absolute worst hands in the world, or is
the ball covered in Vaseline? I lost track of the amount of times
UCLA’s big men fumbled entry passes or lost their handle
while taking a shot. A lot of times they were getting pushed
around, but body contact or not, you simply have to hold on to the
basketball. I think my roommate said it best after Fey lost a
potential rebound because the ball squirted away from him:
“Get the ball! Get it! (Expletive!)”
But for all you disillusioned Bruin fans, take heart. That 5-0
start wasn’t as flukish as the last two games would have you
believe. UCLA has had its first taste of the real thing in Arizona
and Stanford, and they can take a lot of lessons from these
games.
With victory basically out of the question, the only thing left
to answer was how UCLA would respond in the second half. The
verdict? The Bruins played loose and relaxed. Thompson and
Bozeman played very well, with Dijon knocking down some tough
jumpers and Cedric playing solid defense. Bozeman showed me
some things tonight ““ a part of his game that I had thought
he lost forever.
While Arizona came out on fire and never looked back when it
dismantled UCLA on Saturday, Stanford was much more methodical in
breaking the Bruins. In either case, those are far and away the
best teams in the conference. But guess what? UCLA only has to play
those guys once more each. Break out the two-buck Chuck! The rest
of the conference is utterly beatable, and if the Bruins play the
way they did in the second half, they could emerge at No. 3 behind
the Cardinal and Wildcats.
The Bruins control their own fate, and until such time as UCLA
has to play Stanford again, I’ll be watching closely. Until
then, there are some dust bunnies that need attention.
Colin’s vacuum stinks. E-mail him at
cyuhl@media.ucla.edu if you want to give him a new one.