The last meeting between USC and UCLA was supposed to be the final wake-up call for the talented but at times lackadaisical Bruins.
The Bruins cruised into the Jan. 19 meeting having won their first four Pac-10 games and appeared poised for a dominant run in conference play. But the Bruins did not play like themselves, and the Trojans handled UCLA in that game, defeating the Bruins by nine points and handing them their second loss of the season.
The team appeared to take some motivation from that loss, rattling off five straight wins, four by double digits.
But last Sunday, the Bruins again fell victim to their bizarro-world personality, losing to Washington in a game in which they appeared poorly focused, undisciplined and disinterested.
“We gotta come out the way we’re supposed to,” sophomore guard Russell Westbrook said. “If we come out ready, no one’s supposed to beat us. We’ve got to all be on the same page. If everybody’s on different pages, then they’re a problem.
“I don’t think I was ready for the game. I fouled on the first possession.”
So heading into this Sunday’s game against USC, the Bruins are in a different position from last time. Instead of coming in as the team with all the answers, as they did in the first matchup with the Trojans, they come in as a team full of questions:
How will they sustain a consistent effort throughout the rest of the season?
How will they make this last wake-up call the final one?
How will they get the ball into the hands of freshman center Kevin Love?
“I’m going to still have to get touches,” Love said. “For the percentage of time I touch the ball and something good happens, somebody scores ““ I imagine it’s pretty high. (I also need to) keep offensive rebounding.”
And the Bruins will likely have a slightly easier time with the Trojans than last time, thanks to some personnel changes. Trojan guard Daniel Hackett suffered a stress fracture in his spine after playing with a hip injury over the last couple of weeks, and his return is indefinite.
And the Bruins will have an addition as well. Junior power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who has been out since the Arizona game with a sprained ankle, will likely make his return on Sunday. He shot around Monday, is expected to be cleared for full practice on Friday and was listed as probable for Sunday.
But ultimately, it will come down not to personnel, but to effort.
If their effort and focus are at the same level as they were for the first go-round between the two teams, then the result is probably going to be similar: a UCLA loss.
And it will all start for the Bruins with the play of junior point guard Darren Collison. In their three losses this year, Collison has had average-to-poor games, scoring a combined 26 points in the three games.
If he comes out as seemingly disinterested in the USC game as he was in the Washington game, it could spell trouble for the Bruins. Collison has had a recent history of starting slow, scoring zero points in the first half against Washington State and scoring zero points until two minutes were left in the game against Washington.
“I didn’t think he had a great first half against Washington State, but he bounced back and had a great second half,” Howland said. “In Darren’s history, that’s happened to him on a number of occasions.”