A quick glance at the calendar would show that it is only January, but for UCLA senior point guard Darren Collison, it might as well be late March.
The No. 17 Bruins (15-4, 5-2 Pac-10) have dropped two of their last three games, with both losses coming largely as a result of the team not being able to close out games down the stretch. Even the lone win in that span against Washington State was not an easy one; the Bruins led by 11 with eight minutes left in the game yet won by just two.
The recent string of losses has caused a drop in the rankings and forged a three-way tie for second in the conference. And with one of those three teams, Cal (16-4, 5-2), making a visit to Pauley Pavilion tonight, Collison understands the importance of this game for the Bruins.
“Right now we’re looking at Cal as the first round of an NCAA tournament game,” Collison said. “You have one game. You cannot lose in an NCAA tournament. From here on out, we cannot lose.”
Of all of his four years at UCLA, Collison said that this one so far might be the toughest. There were the two losses in a row his freshman year, and the two losses in the last three games of the season his sophomore season. But with the number of young players on this Bruin squad and the one-sided nature the offense has developed into, this season has been the most trying.
“This is actually the first year where it’s actually been difficult because we lost two of the last three games,” Collison said. “This is probably one year where we had a little bit more adversity because all we’re used to is success. But we’ll be all right, we’ll be fine.”
Center Alfred Aboya, another senior, has also noticed the relatively high degree of adversity the Bruins have encountered thus far.
“We’re always first, first, first, always have the driver’s seat,” Aboya said. “The focus this week is Cal first because they’re a good team and we have to win that game.”
At his press conference Tuesday, coach Ben Howland commented on how the Bruins’ teams from the past few years tended to start slow but finish strong, and how this year’s team is the exact opposite: fast starts and bad finishes.
While Howland said that he does not believe conditioning is the reason, Aboya admitted that there is a sense of fatigue with the players at the end of games.
“I think the starters play a lot of minutes,” Aboya said. “We just need a bench player or second unit to contribute so that we stay fresh throughout the course of the game.”
For Collison, fatigue should never be a factor in determining the outcome of games.
“You just got to fight through it mentally,” Collison said. “We’re going to get tired. I’m only going to have so many games at UCLA. I just don’t want to back down and just give it all away. I’m going to fight through it.”
Tonight the Bruins will take on a Cal program that has been seemingly rejuvenated by the arrival of former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery.
The Golden Bears rank second in the Pac-10 in scoring, averaging 76.4 points per game, while leading the conference in field goal percentage (49.7 percent).
Contrary to Montgomery’s past teams, which relied on scoring from dominant post players, the Golden Bears have received most of their offense from perimeter scoring, Howland said. The Bears rank first in the conference in three-point shooting (46.9 percent), led by junior forward Theo Robertson who is shooting 55.2 percent from behind in the arc, best in the Pac-10.
“They have some pieces to work with and they have a great coach who’s proven over the years in the Pac-10 what a good coach he is when he was at Stanford,” Howland said.
After last week’s loss at Washington, UCLA freshman forward Drew Gordon said, “We just don’t have enough heart.”
On Tuesday, Collison said he didn’t believe that was the case with this team.
“It’s inaccurate,” Collison said. “It’s coming from a freshman. He wanted to make the message about trying to get us to play harder, but that’s not how you go about things. If you want to say something, you’ve got to say something to the team. And he understands that, and I respect Drew because he’s actually taken these losses a lot more seriously. But this team always has heart.”
True or not, the Bruins expressed the immense magnitude of tonight’s game and the need for the team to turn things around quickly.
Freshman guard Jrue Holiday was blunt with his take.
“Something needs to change.”
Tonight’s game, featuring one of the conference’s most potent offenses, will be a good test of whether it already has.
With reports from Jason Feder and Sam Allen, Bruin Sports senior staff.