You could feel it when the Pauley Pavilion crowd roared as time wound down in the Bruins’ 74-62 victory over Washington State on Saturday.
There is still some life in this UCLA basketball team.
Yes, this team is 9-10 overall and 4-3 in the Pac-10, and if you choose to compare it to recent teams in the past, this group falls far shorter.
But no one was thinking about those things this weekend, not while UCLA swept the Washington schools and showed some real signs of improvement.
The Bruins delivered their first dominating performance of the Pac-10 season Saturday against Washington State. They controlled the game entirely. At the offensive end, they effectively and consistently distributed quality shots.
The offensive efficiency showed up in the stat sheet. The Bruins played patiently, making 14 of their 19 field goal attempts in the second half. Reeves Nelson scored 19 points, Nikola Dragovic had 18, and Michael Roll finished with 11. Two others, Malcolm Lee and Mustafa Abdul-Hamid, finished with nine.
The UCLA defense was even more impressive. In the second game in which the Bruins featured a zone defense, they held the Cougars to 36 percent (21-59) from the field. Klay Thompson, who entered the game as the fourth leading scorer in college basketball with 22.8 ppg, was held to only 13 points on 5-17 shooting.
Howland said it was “poor coaching” to not recognize that this team needed to play a zone sooner. Now that they’ve made the switch, it’s paying big dividends. Washington State looked helpless, Thompson couldn’t find anything.
This all comes after a season-changing moment Thursday, when Abdul-Hamid sank a buzzer-beater to beat Washington, 62-61.
Clearly, the Bruins are riding momentum from that win over the Huskies, who were picked to win the Pac-10 this preseason.
Abdul-Hamid had another solid day, again providing a spark of energy for UCLA. The team’s freshmen also played confidently. Reeves Nelson tallied seven rebounds in addition to his 19 points and made seven of his 12 free throw tries. Freshman Tyler Honeycutt had eight points and eight rebounds.
And you could see the buzz on Howland’s face and in his demeanor.
The coach was flying around the court; when his players took charges, Howland leaped out toward halfcourt, clapping in his trademark, shoulder-hunched style.
“I would have jumped through the roof if I could,” Howland said. “I just love to see those guys take charges.”
Howland truly hates losing. I think people lose sight of that amid all the criticism Howland has received this year. They start to forget that Howland is one of the most intense college basketball coaches imaginable.
Abdul-Hamid tells me that Howland is more intense than anyone he’s ever met in basketball ““ player or coach.
We saw a bit of that Saturday, in what was probably Howland’s best coaching job of the season. Howland was fired up, and his team responded.
The question now is, can the Bruins sustain it?
They now have a golden opportunity, a rare gift from the Pac-10 schedule makers: a trip to Oregon to face the two worst teams in the conference, Oregon and Oregon State.
These won’t be automatic victories, but the Bruins have a definite chance to sweep the road trip, push their win streak to four games, and move to 6-3 in the Pac-10.
It’s hard to see any further into the distance in this crazy conference season, but there’s still a conceivable route for the Bruins to get into the NCAA tournament ““ if they peak in February and March and streak to a Pac-10 tournament title.
So I guess it’s fair to say one thing for sure ““ don’t give up on the Bruins just yet.
E-mail Allen at sallen@media.ucla.edu.