At the beginning of the season, UCLA men’s basketball
coach Ben Howland asked his players who they thought would lead the
team in rebounding. Jordan Farmar voted for freshman teammate Luc
Richard Mbah a Moute. Then Mbah a Moute voted for himself. Then, in
the spirit of friendly competition, senior forward Cedric Bozeman
cast a vote in his own favor. Now the bet is on. In
Thursday’s 54-47 victory over Temple in the second round of
the NIT Season Tip-Off, Mbah a Moute and Bozeman proved exactly why
they were the leading vote-getters, as the freshman finished with
10 rebounds and the senior added nine. “If we’re going
to win, they’re going to have to rebound like that,”
Howland said. Mbah a Moute, who played guard in high school, is
being asked to play power forward for the Bruins. That means one of
his primary roles will be rebounding, something that simply was not
a concern for him before. “That’s a big part of my
game,” said Mbah a Moute, who had eight points to go along
with his 10 (three offensive, seven defensive) rebounds.
“Coach wants me to rebound, and obviously it pays off. When I
have a good game rebounding, we win.” As for Bozeman, he is
being asked to play a variety of roles for the Bruins. A point
guard during his first three seasons in Westwood, he is now seeing
most of his playing time at the two-forward positions. On Thursday
night, Bozeman was once again instrumental in UCLA’s victory,
scoring 11 points, grabbing nine rebounds, and stepping up the
intensity on the defensive end of the floor. “Our defense is
what we were able to rely on to win this game,” Howland said.
That is a fact that must make Howland particularly happy, as he
came to Westwood over two seasons ago with the reputation of a
coach whose teams prided themselves on aggressive defense and
rebounding. After Thursday’s victory, it seems pretty clear
this pride remains. UCLA held Temple to 31.5 percent shooting from
the floor (21.4 percent in the first half) and out-rebounded the
Owls 41-29 as a team. “We had to come out and play
defense,” Mbah a Moute said. “Temple is a great team
with great players, so we had to get at them. We had to play
defense the whole game.” After an impressive defensive
display in the first half, featuring sophomore guard Arron Afflalo,
Bozeman, and Mbah a Moute taking turns to hold star Temple guard
Mardy Collins to three points on 0-for-4 shooting, the defense
relaxed a bit to begin the second half. But in the end, the stingy
defense and tenacious rebounding fueled the win. Bozeman and Mbah a
Moute made huge stops on Collins on back-to-back trips down the
floor, and UCLA grabbed three consecutive offensive rebounds off
missed free throws to seal the victory, guaranteeing a trip to New
York. “We focused on defense this week during
practice,” Bozeman said. “We knew they were going to
get a lot of shots, so we just wanted to contest their shots
whenever they had the ball.”
DRIBBLERS: UCLA faces No. 12 Memphis, 87-76 winners over
Alabama, in the NIT semifinal Friday at Madison Square Garden. The
game, which begins at 4 p.m. PST, will be televised by ESPN2. No. 1
Duke faces Drexel in the other semifinal … Afflalo, who led the
Bruins with 18 points, attempted 11 3-pointers against the Owls. He
finished 4-for-11 from behind the arc…The Bruins’ next game
is Saturday, when they host Delaware State at 7 p.m.