Dragovic plays through illness

BERKELEY “”mdash; UCLA forward Nikola Dragovic felt so sick on Friday, he ate only toast. Coach Ben Howland sent water and ginger ale for Dragovic that night, and he said that team trainer Carrie Rubertino Shearer put Dragovic on a special diet.

It worked.

The junior sharpshooter scored 12 points and mustered enough strength to play 34 minutes as the Bruins prevailed in a close battle with California, 72-68.

“He showed a lot of character and guts,” Howland said.

Dragovic said he felt much better when he woke up Saturday morning. He came down with the flu Friday after the Bruins beat Stanford.

“I think I had a flu. I was cold for like two or three hours, and then I felt like throwing up all night,” he said.

Senior guard Darren Collison said that Dragovic did not seem like himself on the bus ride from Palo Alto to Berkeley, and Dragovic stayed in his room all day Friday.

But Collison told Dragovic how badly the Bruins needed him to play.

Cal typically makes a concerted effort to double-team Collison whenever the Bruins try to screen for him. In those situations, Collison usually looks for Dragovic on the perimeter.

“I told (Nikola), if you’re not playing this game it’s going to be tough to win,” Collison said. “I need someone to release that pressure.”

Dragovic said he felt a little tired in the first half and that he noticed most of his jumpers were short. He adjusted in the second half and made two significant three-pointers to help the Bruins build a commanding lead.

Dragovic also finished with seven rebounds, one short of his career-high. Overall, it was one of his best efforts of the season.

“We really needed this game,” he said.

PAC-10 UPDATE: The Bruins did lose one thing Saturday.

Washington beat Arizona to clinch at least a share of the Pac-10 regular season title, ending the Bruins three-year reign atop the conference.

The Huskies will win the conference outright if they win their last game of the conference season, at home against Washington State. If they lose that game, UCLA could still tie for the title if it wins both of its home games, Thursday against Oregon State and Saturday against Oregon.

“We still believe that we are in the race,” senior center Alfred Aboya said. “As long as we have a chance, we still believe in that chance.”

The Bruins sit alone in second place today, after Arizona State suffered a surprising loss at Washington State Saturday.

The Sun Devils are tied for third-place with Cal.

If the Bruins finish second in the league, they will play their first Pac-10 tournament game Thursday, March 12 at Staples Center at 8:30 p.m. against one of the four worst teams in the league “”mdash; Oregon State, USC, Stanford or Oregon.

RPI WORRIES?: UCLA senior forward Josh Shipp mentioned the Ratings Percentage Index ““ the formula the NCAA uses to seed teams for the tournament ““ after his team beat Cal.

It’s somewhat odd for a UCLA player to mention the RPI because the team usually likes to preach a one-game-at-a-time philosophy.

“It’s a huge win for us, Cal is a good team, and they have a higher RPI than us and it’s a road win,” Shipp said.

Shipp was right. In the last RPI, the Bruins were rated No. 36 while Cal was No. 30. Those positions are likely to change today, though, when the NCAA publishes a new index.

A weak non-conference schedule and poor performances against other good teams have hurt UCLA’s RPI rating this season.

Shipp said he only knew about the specific rankings this week because coach Howland mentioned it in a film session.

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