If there was one worry heading into Thursday night’s game against Washington, it was that the No. 5 Bruins would overlook the Huskies (9-6, 0-2) heading into their clash with No. 4 Washington State on Saturday.
The Huskies, expected to finish in the lower tier of the Pac-10 Conference, were just the type of group that could spell trouble for a talented Bruin squad caught looking too far ahead.
But with a 41-23 halftime lead fueled by a 9-0 run midway through the half, the Bruins (15-1, 3-0) cruised to a 69-55 victory, and can now afford to look ahead to the main draw of the weekend, Saturday morning’s matchup of top-five teams.
“(Washington State is) so tough,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said after his team’s victory over the Huskies. “(The Cougars are) so good. They’ve got seniors in (Kyle) Weaver, (Derrick) Low, and (Robbie) Cowgill. They’ve been through the thick and thin of things.
“It will be like getting a root canal without any painkiller. Playing them is going through the grinder.”
Washington State leads the Pac-10 in scoring defense this year at around 50 points a game, and their slowed-down style of play, with half-court offensive execution and taking care of the ball the most important tenets of their play, challenges opposing defenses.
“(The Cougars) slow down the ball, they take care of possessions, so it’s going to be a grind,” freshman center Kevin Love said. “They don’t take any bad shots, so we have to take care of the ball and make sure we don’t turn the ball over.”
They will certainly have to take care of the ball better than they did on Thursday.
Despite coming out with good intensity and seemingly putting the Huskies away early, the Bruins played a sloppy second half, turning the ball over 10 times.
Guard Russell Westbrook had a conspicuously off second half in relief of Darren Collison (out with a hip contusion) at the point, turning the ball over four times, including once when he dribbled the ball off his shoes.
Against the steady style of play that coach Tony Bennett has instilled in his Cougars in Pullman, the Bruins will have to avoid those kinds of unforced errors.
Howland has nothing but praise for the job Bennett and his father Dick, who preceded Tony as coach, have done at Washington State.
“I was thinking about this the other day,” Howland said. “The athletic director who hired Dick Bennett at Washington State should get a huge raise, right now. That guy is a hero. They’ve taken a program that was in the bottom two or three for such a long time and now they’re top-five in the country? What a unbelievable story.
“Tony Bennett has done a fantastic job taking over for his dad, but his dad is the one who got hired and set the table.”
Last year, in Tony Bennett’s first year at the helm, the Cougars were a surprise, finishing 26-8 and second in the Pac-10.
This year, the Cougars are one of the few remaining unbeatens left in the country, and they beat up on USC 73-58 Thursday night despite Las Vegas setting the line at USC favored by 1.5 points. Washington State is 14-0 heading into Saturday’s game, and a victory over the Bruins would solidify the Cougars as the favorite in the Pac-10.
The Bruins will not only have to battle the tenacious Cougars on Saturday, but perhaps some yawns as well. The game is scheduled for an 11:30 a.m. tip-off, which is a little bit earlier than the Bruins are used to getting ready on game days.
Never fear, however, because Love has the game plan.
“I think it’s going to be our earliest game for us too, so we’re going to have to wake up, have a good breakfast, and be prepared.”
But despite the hype of the matchup between the two Pac-10 powers, the Bruins are just looking for another victory on Saturday.
When asked whether he lived for this kind of matchup of top-ranked teams, power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had just a simple reply.
“I don’t live for that. I live to win.”