As UCLA students headed home for winter break, their basketball
team took to the road.
And as students now make their way back to campus, the team
likewise returns to its home court.
In the past three weeks, the Bruins (7-3, 1-1 Pac-10) learned
about the challenges of playing road games, nationally ranked teams
and conference opponents.
They’ll take that experience into their Pac-10 home opener
against Washington State (6-5, 1-1) tonight, where the
Bruins’ own patience may be their biggest test.
“They play real patient, run the shot clock down, and play
solid defense,” point guard Jordan Farmar said of the
Cougars. “But as long as we go and execute what we plan out,
we’ll be alright.”
Holding an explosive Oregon team to 62 points in last
Sunday’s victory reflected UCLA’s tenacity on defense.
But giving up that many points to a Cougar team that is averaging
just under 50 points per game might not yield the same result.
“They really grind the ball,” UCLA coach Ben Howland
said. “On offense, they make you play long periods of
defense.”
Last season, the Cougars picked up their first-ever win at
Pauley Pavilion, a sluggish 55-48 contest in which the Bruins shot
just 35 percent from the field. In his second season coaching
Washington State, Dick Bennett has further ingrained the slow,
deliberate style of play into his players. But it’s not just
this aspect that has left an impression on Howland.
“One thing that’s noticeable is how much bigger and
stronger their returners are,” Howland said. “They
pound you. They beat you by out-toughing you and trying to wear you
down.”
Nevertheless, the style of play is one the Bruins cannot become
accustomed to in conference play. Two days after facing Washington
State, UCLA will face No. 13 Washington, a team that scores more
points in one half than the Cougars do in a game oftentimes.
“We’re going to go from the slow and methodical on
Thursday, and then come out Saturday and run a couple miles,”
senior Dijon Thompson said.
But if the first week of conference play taught the Bruins
anything, it was to not look ahead to the seemingly more difficult
match-up. Freshman shooting guard Arron Afflalo acknowledged that
the Bruins’ level of intensity needs to consistently match
that of their game against Oregon, and not diminish when they play
lesser-regarded schools such as Oregon State, who dealt the Bruins
a loss in their conference opener.
“We need to come out with it every game if we want to
win,” Afflalo said. “If we can do it once, we can do it
twice. We can do it every game. There has to be a focus, something
we do throughout practice and make it a habit. It’s not
something we can just turn on and off.”
As the team strives to maintain a high level of focus during
conference play, it can take comfort in the fact that two of its
players who struggled early in the season emerged to take center
stage last weekend. UCLA’s leading scorers against the
Beavers and Ducks were center Michael Fey and guard Brian Morrison,
respectively.
“We did a better job getting (Fey) the ball and making
that an emphasis,” Howland said. And as a by-product of the
concerted effort to get Fey the ball, the center took 23 shots over
the weekend, compared to a total of 41 shots over his first eight
games.
Getting that production consistently from Fey and Morrison would
tremendously improve the Bruins’ prospects in conference
play.
And help make students’ return to Pauley Pavilion much
more enjoyable after the winter-break hiatus.