At the end of its Monday practice, the UCLA women’s basketball team shot free throws.
When the Bruins missed, they ran sprints. Then they repeated the process. Over and over.
The team knows that it may be in for another nail-biter in which the difference may very well be a single made or missed free throw. In last Saturday’s game against Oregon State, officials called 50 fouls.
On Friday, the Bruins (18-11, 9-9 Pac-10) will square off against the Beavers (19-10, 9-9 Pac-10) for the third time this season across town at the Galen Center in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament. And the Bruins are doing their best to prepare, because if they lose this one, their season is over.
“They are well aware of the task at hand,” coach Nikki Caldwell said. “They are well aware of what we have to do.”
Junior guard Erica Tukiainen said, “Our mentality is one game at a time, survive and advance.”
UCLA must survive and advance Friday and probably Saturday as well if it hopes to have even the slightest chance of getting an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. More likely, the team will need to win the Pac-10 Tournament and receive the conference’s automatic bid if it wants its season to continue.
“For UCLA to get in, quite honestly, they will have to win the tournament,” ESPN women’s basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme said. “I don’t see any situations right now where they would be an at-large. Their power ratings are not great. Now, if they made a run to the final, I think they get into the conversation, but anything beyond that, I just don’t see it happening.”
Caldwell, while largely in agreement with Creme, has instructed her team to focus on one game at a time in order to earn a trip to March Madness.
It starts Friday with the Beavers, a team that beat UCLA less than a week ago in Corvallis, 61-58.
In that game UCLA freshman guard Rebekah Gardner had a good look at a 3-pointer to tie, but it clanged off the rim as time expired.
“We have to be more in control on offense,” Tukiainen said. “We got a lot of offensive (foul) calls. Our guards have to be in control of our shots and make good decisions. On defense, we have to know personnel. No. 20 (OSU’s Brittney Davis) had 13 points in the first half and there is no way that should have happened. We really have to deny the ball hard.”
The entire Bruin backcourt, which consists of the team’s top three scorers, all got into foul trouble early against the Beavers last week, helping Oregon State build a nine-point lead by halftime. Caldwell said she needs her team to play through such adversity better if it hopes to advance, but did take some positives from last Saturday’s loss.
“Our kids did not quit,” she said. “We fought our way back.”
A loss at any point throughout the weekend will likely also end the UCLA career of one Bruin. The team’s lone senior center, Chinyere Ibekwe, said she is trying not to get too emotional because it affects her play, but admitted any loss at this point is crucial and would be disappointing.
“I know I want to go out with a bang,” Ibekwe said. “We all want to go out with a bang.”
MORE UCLA BRACKETOLOGY: Creme said that UCLA’s losses to Oregon and Washington hurt the team’s chances at gaining an at-large bid.
“Other than Cal, they haven’t really beaten anyone,” Creme said of UCLA. “They have had some bad stretches and a couple curious losses, and those are the kind of things that keep a team out.”
PAC-10 POSTSEASON OUTLOOK: Crème has only three teams going to the tournament from the Pac-10 in his latest projection, despite its status as a “power conference.”
“Honestly, it’s been kind of a down year (for the Pac-10),” Creme said. “It’s been a league that has really been dominated by those top three teams. Just looking at the standings you are talking about a six-game difference between the third-place team and the fourth-place team. And that’s huge. That just shows the dominance at the top, and mediocrity beyond that.”
CONFERENCE HONORS: Three Bruins nabbed second-team All-Pac-10 Conference honors on Wednesday. Sophomore guard Doreena Campbell was named to the second team. … Tukiainen was an honorable mention team member. … Freshman forward Atonye Nyingifa was awarded first-team All-Freshman honors.