Pac-10 basketball comes to Westwood tonight.
The UCLA men’s basketball team will play the first home game of its conference season tonight against Arizona. For students and fans, that means more anticipation and excitement, more recognizable opponents and a generally more celebratory atmosphere. Students will begin camping overnight to secure seats in the Den, and for the first time this season, fans will fill Pauley Pavilion.
But it also marks the point in the season when players and coaches consider the games most crucial, when preparation becomes more complex and every possession of every game seems significant.
“Every game is so important,” coach Ben Howland said.
The No. 9 Bruins (13-2, 3-0 Pac-10) won all eight of their home games to start the season, but haven’t played in a marquee matchup at Pauley Pavilion yet.
That will change tonight. Arizona (11-5, 2-2) brings a dangerous reputation ““ the Wildcats have already surprised talented Gonzaga and Kansas teams ““ and a real intention to stun the Bruins on their home court. Arizona point guard Nic Wise told a Tucson Daily Citizen reporter that his team focuses on Pauley Pavilion “every day in practice.”
All the external hype can distract players before a big game, Howland said, although he doesn’t expect that to happen tonight.
“Sometimes guys, especially young guys, can get too excited at being at home, about having a big crowd, and they’ll try to play to the crowd, instead of just being solid,” he said. “That’s the main thing ““ that we just come out and play, and not worry about playing to the crowd,”
Howland leads the team with a very simple philosophy of steady focus, meticulous preparation and a generally business-like attitude. Howland said he does not have any special approach for home games, but his style seems to work well. The Bruins won 16 of 18 home contests last season and finished the 2006-2007 year undefeated at home. They are currently on a 14-game home win streak, dating back to last season.
The team usually practices Tuesday and Wednesday each week before a Thursday night home game. Tuesday practices will include more conditioning, while Wednesday practices move at a lighter pace.
After a Thursday game, the team will shoot around Friday and Howland conducts a walk-through. Howland and his assistants use walk-throughs as opportunities to explain the game plan for upcoming matches. Most weekends, the team plays a second home game on Saturday.
“It’s always a goal to keep our home record undefeated,” said forward Nikola Dragovic, who recently entered the Bruins’ starting lineup. “We have to protect our home.”
Conference home games also mean much bigger crowds. UCLA has not sold out Pauley Pavilion so far this season. The largest home crowd came Dec. 28, when 9,680 fans attended the Louisiana Tech game.
And even though the Bruins have played in front of large crowds at the 2K Sports Classic in New York City, the Wooden Classic in Anaheim and at Texas, they haven’t yet experienced a raucous home crowd.
“(When the Pac-10 season starts) students start to come around a little more,” guard Michael Roll said. “There’s a little more electricity in the air.”
“It was kind of slow at the exhibition games and the games that weren’t in the Pac-10,” guard Josh Shipp said. “But we expect to have a great crowd. It’s going to be one of the best environments in Pac-10 basketball.”
In order to maintain focus, Howland’s team stays in a Los Angeles hotel every weekend when it plays at home, even though players have their own campus residences.
Howland’s team seems to have a keen understanding of the rigor of Pac-10 basketball and its grueling schedule.
That type of understanding can make a huge difference. Arizona coach Russ Pennell said Tuesday that he is still trying to teach his young team about the difficulty of this conference.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys who haven’t played in this league before, and they need to understand that they can’t take plays off,” Pennell said. “The league, top to bottom, is about as competitive as I’ve seen it in 10 years living out here.”
UCLA seniors Shipp and Darren Collison have learned that lesson. They both said they like staying in a hotel with their teammates Friday night before their second weekend game.
“There’s a lot of distractions in L.A., so for the guys to stay in the hotel, it just keeps us all together, one tight-knit family,” Shipp said.
“It just gives us extra time to gel with each other and have fun and cherish those moments. Like I said, the main thing is we stay focused and we know we have a job to do the next day.”
Collison, who has played as well as any guard in college basketball this season, also agrees with Howland’s hotel policy.
“He’s not trying to cage us in, but he doesn’t want us to get in any trouble, because he’s seen it happen plenty of times where kids go out and do wild things,” Collison said.
“Just being in the hotel, it just makes you more focused for the game on Saturday. It’s better preparation. You’re not always worrying about something else, other distractions. Somebody trying to see you, you trying to see somebody else. You’re just worrying about the game.”
And, for Howland and UCLA, all that worrying usually translates into lots of winning, especially at home during Pac-10 play.
With reports from Andrew Howard, Bruin Sports senior staff.