How do the Bruins keep doing it? Every sense of logic points to
this year’s Bruins eventually falling apart. The ridiculous
string of injuries, the extreme youth, the lack of a consistent
front-court scorer ““ everything says the Bruins
shouldn’t win games like they did Thursday against the Oregon
Ducks, 56-49.
Yet they keep winning. And on the road, no less.
Eugene is reputed to be one of the rowdiest and most difficult
places for any team to play in college basketball. McArthur Court
is the oldest on-campus venue in America, and the noise level has
been known to rattle even veteran squads.
So how did UCLA win up there in Oregon with such a young ball
club? Aren’t these kids supposed to be a bunch of
inexperienced freshmen and sophomores learning on the job? Somebody
needs to check their IDs.
The simple answer is defense and coaching. With each win this
season, I give more and more credit to coach Ben Howland.
He has instilled a toughness in these Bruins that is beautiful
to see. The aggressive man-to-man defensive philosophy he preaches
kept UCLA in the game against the Ducks even while their offense
wasn’t rolling.
UCLA will be in every game they play this year because of that
same defense. In fact, the same defense allowed the Bruins to make
their valiant comeback attempt against West Virginia and to blow
out USC.
The Bruin defense stifled Oregon long enough for UCLA to
generate enough offense to get by for another game.
In fact, the last field goal Oregon scored was on a Brandon
Lincoln 3-pointer with just under eight minutes left in the game.
From there, UCLA took control as Jordan Farmar made two steals on
Ducks point guard Aaron Brooks, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute controlled
the boards, and that was that. Another night, another improbable
Bruin victory.
Arron Afflalo, the primary scorer for UCLA, carries the burden
of having to generate offense, while often matching up against the
other team’s best player. Afflalo had another rough night
shooting the ball, going 3-for-10 from the field after last
Saturday’s season-low four-point performance in a loss to
West Virginia.
Against the Ducks, though, Afflalo didn’t let his poor
shooting knock him out of the game mentally. Instead, he played
great defense, locked down Oregon’s Malik Hairston, and
scored six of the last seven points for UCLA.
Earlier in the year, after the Bruins lost starters Josh Shipp,
Cedric Bozeman and Lorenzo Mata, I had serious doubts whether UCLA
could maintain their great play. I figured the hopes of making a
deep postseason run through March were slim to none.
Instead, Michael Roll entered the lineup and Ryan Hollins
returned from an injury of his own in order to provide valuable
minutes, and the team didn’t skip much of a beat. Cedric
Bozeman also returned tonight, providing further depth on the
wings.
Let’s be honest ““ without Shipp, the Bruins lack a
solid third scoring option, making the already large burden on
guards Farmar and Afflalo even bigger.
Going ahead, however, the man to help relieve some of the
problems may be Mbah a Moute.
Last night was the perfect example of why he has so quickly
endeared himself to the Bruin faithful. The prince from Cameroon
led the Bruins with 15 points and notched another
double-double.
Now, with the return of Bozeman, the Bruins appear as healthy as
they have been in weeks. As long as the Bruins keep playing defense
like they did last night in stifling the Ducks, they might just be
able to keep on rolling up wins through March.
E-mail Lee at jlee@media.ucla.edu if you too are gaining
hope for this Bruin team making a deep run into March.